Center Celebrates Milestone

10TH ANNIVERSARY PROGRAM CONTINUES DESPITE SCHMIEDING’S DEATH

By Christie Swanson

Posted: November 19, 2009 at 4:17 a.m.

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SPRINGDALE — The 10th anniversary celebration at the Schmieding Center proceeded as planned Wednesday despite the benefactor’s death.

Lawrence Schmieding, 89, died Monday following a two-year battle with cancer.

“This is a bittersweet moment for us, but it is also quite a tribute to him,” said Hope Hartz Fredrich, the center’s director of education.

That was the feeling of many of the 90 attendees at the open house and lunch and learn program.

“This is especially poignant and bittersweet with the loss of our friend, our founder, our benefactor,” Dr. Larry Wright, the center’s director, said before the noon program. “He certainly would want to keep things going. We all know that about him.”

Wright said the event was not just to celebrate the Schmieding Center’s first 10 years, but to honor Lawrence Schmieding’s dedication to the program.

Schmieding, who was in the produce business, became interested in elder care after tending to his brother, who suffered from dementia.

About two years after his brother died, Schmieding approached the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences about establishing a center to help with elder issues, Wright said. The Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education was born.

The facility was in a building along Emma Street and in 2002 moved to 2422 N. Thompson St..

The Schmieding Center is a partnership of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, the Area Health Education Center-Northwest and Northwest Health System.

Schmieding’s $15 million, 20-year gift from The Schmieding Foundation established an endowment, with $5 million for the new building and $10 million for

the budget.

Wright said during the second decade of the endowment, the center will streamline services. This could include, for example, offering caregiver classes online or on weekends to serve more people.

The Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education provides older adults and their families with education, healthcare, information resources and other services. Education services include in-home caregiver training programs, public programs on positive aging and professional programs to improve geriatric expertise of healthcare professionals and students.

Part of that streamlining will involve learning to do things in a more cost effective manner.

“If Mr. Schmieding hadn’t underwritten this, it would be too expensive,” Wright said.

Marjorie Hart sees the facility as a one-stop shop firsthand. She works in the Schmieding Centers Resource Center, where a portrait of the benefactor hangs.

“It reminds us how indebted we are to him for all he has done,” she said. “He left us such a legacy, of work ethic, of doing what you can.”

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