"Life Story Books"

Project Lead(s): Dennis Zhang (CC'24)

When Dennis worked in the Huntington's disease unit in the summer of 2022, he observed that speech therapists (who had since disappeared during/after the pandemic) left personalized speech therapy binders in residents' rooms. These binders often housed residents’ life stories, important people and memories, and miscellaneous other items that helped residents prolong their ability to communicate in the face of a disease that threatened to strip away that capability.

As a volunteer, reading these books helped him inspire new ways of trying to relate and/or reach residents that were in the late-stages of their disease and completely non-communicative. Did he have a son working in construction out in North Carolina? Was she a lover of cats? 

Realizing that these books were invaluable not only to past volunteers, but also to residents themselves and loved ones visiting them, Dennis is leading an effort to build "life story books" (kept confidential and safe in resident rooms) for all Huntington's disease unit residents that never received similar books from speech therapists. Fellow "At Your Service" volunteers are encouraged to join this effort.