Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Aster Prentice, Winona Lake, recently won the REAL Services Area 2 Agency on Aging Award for Older Worker of the Year (over age 60), which recognizes an older worker who has made a significant contribution to the community. The awards were presented Thursday at the sixth Age of Excellence Awards luncheon in the Great Hall at Century Center, South Bend. Entertainment at the luncheon was provided by Daniel Rodriguez, "The Singing Cop," singing songs from his new CD, with Vince Lombardi Jr. speaking on what made his father a great leader. A.L. Bias, chairman, REAL Services board of directors, presented the award to Prentice.
Other area individuals and groups nominated for various awards included: Colleen Eastis and her Silver Lake Elementary School class; North Webster EMS; Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice; Milford EMS; Miller's Merry Manor, Syracuse; and Purdue Extension Service, Kosciusko County.
Prentice, 83, a certified nursing assistant, works six days a week as a home health aid to provide respite care to families in Kosciusko County, and she takes the "tough cases." She is described by her employer, Jim Anderson, CEO of Health Force of Indiana, as "one of the most valuable workers we have. She gives 110 percent and is loved by all who know her. Her dedication to providing loving care is unequaled."
Prentice's respite care includes: evenings with a person with Huntington's Disease, mid-day visits to a young woman who experiences seizures and intermittent work with a young man who needs some physical assistance. Her average work day covers at least eight hours. Respite care is described as providing light assistance and "being there" so that family members may work or take a break from caregiving.
Prentice also works personally with people who have been in trouble with the law or have difficulty with addictions.
The daughter of a Free Methodist circuit minister, she was born in central Illinois and moved whenever her father's pastorate was moved. She completed her studies at Greenville (Ill.) College. She always wanted to become a missionary to Africa.
Prentice's first mission assignments were with Free Methodist Ministries for two terms in Burundi, East Africa. After those assignments, she came to Winona Lake. June 16, 1966, she married Paul E.M. Prentice and they returned as missionaries with West African Gospel Missions to Liberia, West Africa. Paul Prentice died in 1984, and as the situation worsened in Liberia, Aster Prentice returned to Winona Lake in 1990.
While in Liberia, Prentice became close to, and became guardian of, a young girl, Jartu Schulterbrandt, who was 10 years old when she accompanied Prentice to Winona Lake. Now a young woman, Schulterbrandt remains in the Warsaw area.
Prentice is employed by Health Force of Indiana through their Warsaw office. Health Force of Indiana has its headquarters in Fort Wayne and has approximately 200 caregivers statewide and 12 through the Warsaw office. Anderson said, "Aster typifies the dedication and caring we look for and represents the principles the company was founded on."
Prentice said, "I go into people's homes, take care of them, feed them and just 'be there' for them. All my life and in this life, my mission is to show Christ's love."
The Area 2 Agency on Aging provides services to the elderly in Kosciusko, Elkhart, LaPorte, Marshall and St. Joseph counties.
