SEQUIM — This place, Suzie Bliven said, is “a safe and loving environment.”
Bliven’s mother Carmen Jarvis has attended Tim’s Place — a group of volunteers and caregivers who each week support people who are living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia — before the collective was shut down during COVID-19 restrictions and recently, when the group restarted.
“They are all about nurturing the loved one and the caretaker,” Bliven said.
“I love it here,” Jarvis said.
Rhonda Heyn is executive director of the community respite program that meets from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Thursday at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave. — a group that offers hours of activities and lunch.
Although welcome to stay, caregivers know they have a nuturing place to drop off their loved ones while they relax or focus on whatever they need or like to do, organizers say.
“Our original focus was caregiver respite,” Heyn said, “but it quickly became a two-fold goal of both respite and keeping those with memory loss an active part of the community.
“We built the program to provide them with purpose, joy, and community.”
Bliven spends her time, “balancing things that need to be done and self-nurturing.”
About 40 people volunteer with the program; Heyn says some come twice a year while others come almost each week.
Both volunteers and those living with memory loss wear the same name tags, which identify them by their first names only.
“We don’t differentiate between volunteers and participants during the program,” said Heyn, who noted many of the volunteers are retired professionals.
“I think [activities are] just as much fun for us as them,” volunteer Elaine Bradford said.
Activities include conversations about early life experiences, art, music, word games and exercises.
A favorite with almost everyone is a form of volleyball in which participants hit balloons with pool noodles.
Individually-boxed lunch, with a vegetarian option, is prepared by Leo’s Cafe, but people are welcome to bring their own lunches; beverages and snacks are offered.
Tim’s Place asks for a $30 donation a session, but “we don’t turn anybody away based on ability to pay,” Heyn said.
“While we had been given funds to launch, we depend on donations to keep our doors open and to provide scholarships for those in need,” she said.
Heyn hopes the program will expand to offer Tuesdays by the end of the year. About 30 people is the capacity for one day, and some 20 to 25 volunteers and participants have been attending in recent weeks.
People interested in volunteering can contact Heyn at timsplacesequim@gmail.com to be put onto the waiting list.
“I’d like to have a one-to-one or at worst case one-to-two volunteer-to-participant ratio to give everyone the care and attention they deserve,” she said.
Also needed, Heyn said, are people in the community who want to share what they know.
“Musical instruments, singers, clowns, pet therapy animals, artists, etc. — we invite people to share their talents with us,” she said.
Tim’s Place origins
Tim’s Place was named after Carolee Dunn’s husband.
“Carolee wanted to start a day care like the one her husband attended in California. She moved up here after his passing,” Heyn said.
“She asked the church to create a respite program and donated the seed money to get it started. The church then put together an exploratory committee to figure out how a program could be created and function.”
Tim’s Place operates financially independently from the church, Heyn noted. She said she joined the committee at the request of Dunn and previous church pastor Bill Green because of her history as a caregiver.
“After the plan was put together, the committee then formed the board and asked me to be the executive director,” she said.
Heyn does the administrative work, training and coordinating volunteers and preparing and running the sessions.
Twelve years ago, she left her career to become caregiver to her in-laws.
“My mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, and as she herself had been caregiver to both her aged mother and her husband (who has dementia),” said Heyn who became the caregiver for all three relatives.
“I realized how difficult it was, and how few resources were available for caregiver support,” she said. “When the opportunity arose to be part of creating this program, I knew I had to make it a reality.”
Respite for All
In doing research for opening Tim’s Place, Heyn came across an innovative program called Respite for All, begun in a church in Montgomery, Ala., by Daphne Johnston.
“I called her to get more information about the program and was so intrigued by it that I asked if I could go to Alabama and observe it,” Heyn said.
“The name ‘Respite For All’ reflects the belief that people living with dementia as well as their care partners need a respite from daily lives frequently marked by social isolation, anxiety and stress since the time of the diagnosis,” Johnston said.
“The program is dedicated to helping family care partners in a variety of ways while simultaneously providing, for people living with dementia, the possibility of new friendships and a sense of belonging in the local community outside the home.”
In training, Johnston said, Heyn learned that “people with dementia still have purpose and a strong desire to be part of their community. Her leadership is effortless and she has an authentic way of bringing people into the circle, volunteers and participants alike.”
Tim’s Place opened in August 2019 and closed in February 2020 because of COVID-19 health measures.
After a brief second start, it re-opened again in June of this year.
“We want to grow the program,” longtime volunteer Barbara Parse said.
“There’s a huge need, and we can’t help everyone.”
Said Heyn: “We would love to share in Daphne’s dream of growing this model of community care. We hope to grow to be too large a group for our building and get more churches in the community involved.
“As of now, we are still in our early stages and we aren’t there yet, although I would be happy to meet with anyone from another church to discuss it.”
In the 27 volunteer communities inspired by the Montgomery program, “the running theme is those living with Alzheimer’s and dementia can reclaim their joy with help from their neighbors,” Johnson said.
“A famous theologian, John Swinton, once said, ‘It is not the person with dementia that forgets their community, it is oftentimes the community that forgets them.’
“Tim’s Place is a prime example that love never forgets.”
To learn more about Respite for All, visit respiteforall.org.
To volunteer or learn more about Tim’s Place, email to timsplacesequim@gmail.com.
Donations can be made at or sent to the Trinity United Methodist Church office and specified for “Tim’s Place”: TUMC, P.O. Box 3697, Sequim, WA 98382.
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Emily Matthiessen is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at emily.matthiessen@sequimgazette.com.
