Jim Harbaugh awarded 2022 Kenneth Hood Award
The village of Arlington Heights Senior Citizens Commission proudly announces the 2022 Kenneth Hood Award has been given to Jim Harbaugh.
The award is a once-in-a-lifetime honor for the Arlington Heights Senior Commission members to recognize, acknowledge and memorialize Dr. Kenneth Hood.
Dr. Hood diligently and passionately served as a committed advocate and volunteer for a better life for his fellow senior citizens in Arlington Heights for many decades. On his 100th birthday celebration, July 31, 2006, Dr. Hood advised that it was time to "pass the torch" of volunteering. In honor of his contributions to Arlington Heights, The Dr. Kenneth Hood Award is announced.
Jim Harbaugh received five nominations that detailed the significance of volunteering for Arlington Heights and the impact he has made upon caregivers.
Harbaugh and Henry Blum started the Alzheimer's Disease Caregiver Support Group at the Arlington Heights Senior Center after Henry's wife died in 2015.
Jim has been a dedicated leader since the beginning. He had been a high school counselor for District 214 before volunteering. Harbaugh has researched, taken courses, and used his counseling skills to help the group negotiate the challenge of caregiving to Alzheimer's patients.
He has kept group members abreast of the difficulties that fellow group members are experiencing. Harbaugh is an inclusive facilitator and helps caregivers help one another.
He has strictly kept the group focused on assets available to caregivers and ways to negotiate this most devastating disease for both patient and caregiver. He has stressed that "no man is an island" and caregivers must take care of themselves.
When COVID restrictions required isolation, Harbaugh instituted Zoom meetings for the group. Then, when personal circumstances required his move to Carbondale, he continued his monthly trips to Arlington Heights so he could continue leading the group. This kind of dedication is rare today.
"Jim's expertise in counseling, his research into the field of caregiving, his genuine care for the group, and his nonjudgmental approach have been a blessing for all of us."
To award Harbaugh the Kenneth Hood Award is especially fitting, as Hood was a dedicated caregiver to his wife, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
A special award presentation will take place at noon on Monday, Sept. 12, at the Arlington Heights Senior Center after the Alzheimer's and Dementia Caregivers Support Group.
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