November 19, 2016

photography by Ella J. Reese Photography

Invitations: Design from Etsy, printed by S&L Office Supplies

Bay-Waveland accommodations for wedding party: private house close to the beach, rented through VRBO

Rehearsal Dinner: Sho' Nuff BBQ of Picayune, catered at the groom's restaurant, Starfish Café

Hair by: Keith Alexander Salon

Makeup by: The bride, with help from her bridesmaids and friends 
 
Florals by: The French Potager

Wedding ceremony music: Eve Eisemann, cello, and Dalton Roan, guitar, playing their own arrangement of "Simple Gifts" 
 
Wedding Officiated by: Rev. Carey Hammit, of Lagniappe Presbyterian Church

Groomsmen: Samuel Maggio

Bridesmaids: Melissa Bell, Laura Dillingham
 
Bride wore: beaded one shoulder ruched chiffon dress, with royal blue petticoat

Groom wore: grey suit with blue silk suspenders and blue paisley bow tie
 
Time of day: 4 pm

Weather: Cool and clear
 
Most Romantic Moment: Before the wedding, the groom had a surprise gift delivered to the hair salon for the bride - a special necklace with silver setting around a blue topaz, handcrafted by Sandy Maggio, silversmith at Smith and Lens.

Wedding reception music: Heather and the Monkey King

Catering: The Sycamore House and Fatsumo Sushi
 
The Reception Menu: Sushi from Fatsumo's, BBQ shrimp and grits, pepper-crusted filet, Saigon chicken tacos, salmon with mango hearts of palm salsa, duck liver pate, hors d'ourves
 
The Most Talked About Food Item: Filet and sushi! 

Cakes by: There wasn't a wedding cake, but wedding ice cream sundae bar - brown butter, strawberry basil, vanilla bean, and apples & cinnamon, all handmade by The Sycamore House. 

Favorite toast: The Captain's toast (bride's father) 

Best Dancer at the Reception: Jace Ponder
​

The "wow factor" of your wedding/reception that everyone talked about: The food!

The most unique detail of your wedding/reception: For the reception, having a sundae bar instead of cake. For the wedding, walking out to "Star Wars" music! 

Lighting: Stella, of The Sycamore House, rigged up a beautiful chandelier and strings of lights for the back patio for us!

Rentals: Chairs from ABC Rental

Honeymoon location: Eleuthera, Bahamas

Bride's favorite part of the entire event: Actually saying my vows out loud to him, looking into his eyes, holding his hands. I got unexpectedly choked up, with how much I love him. And dancing with him at the reception! 

Groom's favorite part of the entire event: Seeing her for the first time all day coming down the aisle, wearing the necklace I gave her as a surprise earlier. 

Gifts for Wedding Party: 
Groomsman:  blue paisley tie 
Bridesmaids: Swarovrski earrings, candle

Guest Favors: Handmade marshmallows, made by Cloud 9 Marshmallows, of Gulfport

Funniest moment of the event: During the ceremony, when the pastor accidentally said "do you take your husband..." to the groom! Thankfully, the groom corrected him with "wife"! ​

Waveland Alderman Jeremy Burke reports on Waveland's participation in the Mississippi Municipal League conference in Jackson, changes at the Waveland Ground Zero Museum and the Hope Haven Oyster Throwdown. 

We also networked with legislators and business leaders at the Gulf Coast Legislative Reception at the capitol to provide them important feedback on issues that are critical to Waveland.
 
Attending the MML's Mid-Winter Conference and visiting the capitol during the legislative session are valuable components of Waveland’s progress forward. ​

During the first regular Board meeting in January Waveland hired Linda Aiavolasiti to be the Director of the Waveland Ground Zero Museum. 
 
Linda will oversee the staffing, exhibits, programming and booking for the Waveland Ground Museum.  Linda is the perfect fit for this position.  Not only is the Waveland resident one of the original museum volunteers, she also is a volunteer staff member at the Hancock Chamber of Commerce.  She will do a great job welcoming visitors to Waveland and telling guests the story of where Waveland was, where Waveland is and where Waveland is going.
 
The Ground Zero Museum is located at 335 Coleman Avenue.  The museum is open on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10:00am - 3:00pm and is available for group tours by appointment.  Waveland is anticipating adding a commercial kitchen to the museum in 2017 using restricted funds which will enable even more uses for the building.
 
The Ground Zero Hurricane Museum is a fund of the Hancock Community Development Foundation, founded by the Hancock Chamber in 2006 as a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) non-profit public charity to serve as an umbrella for organizations working to enhance economic development and quality of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
 
To find out more about the museum to go: www.wavelandgroundzero.com or call 228-467-9012 or contact  Linda Aiavolasiti at linda@wavelandgroundzero.com or 228.216.0561.

The 5th annual Hope Haven Oyster Throwdown fundraiser is Saturday, March 4th from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Knock Knock Lounge, 720 Highway 90 in Waveland.  Team entry fee is $150 and includes a sack of oysters.

​This event has limited space, so get your team entered early!  The winning team will get a trophy and bragging rights as Hope Haven Oyster Throwdown Champs.
 
Award categories for the Hope Haven Oyster Throwdown are as follows:
 
1st, 2nd, & 3rd place awards for:
Best Grilled Oysters
Best Soup / Stews
Not Your MaMa's Oysters
1st Place:
People's Choice
Best Decorated Booth
Best Oyster Sauce
 
Admission is $15 for adults, $6 for children ages 8-12, and is free for children under 8. For more information or to enter a team, contact Hope Haven Director, Jay Trapani at 228-466-6395. All proceeds from this event go to benefit Hope Haven Children's Advocacy Center.

Pass Christian filmmaker Patrick O'Connor's award-winning documentary takes a hard look at marginalized patients struggling with the juggernaut of the American health care system.
- by LB Kovac

Two local screenings of "The Invisible Patients" in March:

• The Pass Christian Library (324 E 2nd St, Pass Christian, MS · (228) 452-4596), Wednesday, March 15, 6:30pm.
• The Bay St. Louis Library  (312 Hwy 90, Bay St. Louis, (228) 467-6836) Thursday, March 30th at 6pm.  

Last year, Americans visited the doctor more than 70 million times, per statistics from Azuria, Inc. Of those visits, a mere 0.6% were house calls, or visits where a medical professional went to a patient residence. Compare that to the 1960s and earlier– not even 70 years ago – when 40% or more of doctor’s visits were house calls.

The shift from home-based medical care to doctor’s office visits, clinic diagnoses, and emergency room treatment, came about in part because of medical specialization, the practice where doctors become knowledgeable in a very narrow field of medicine. Medical specialization has led to better surgery practices, advancements in medical technology, and treatments for numerous once-fatal diseases, but it offers few options for people like Roger.

Roger is a part of a group called “homebound patients,” patients Medicaid defines as having “a condition [with which] leaving the home is medically contraindicated;” symptoms like pain or confusion worsen for these patients when they leave home, even if it is for doctor visits or medical emergencies.

These are the people that director Patrick O’Connor seeks to uplift in “The Invisible Patients,” people with little time, few options, and for which practiced medical attention and compassion are absolutely vital. These people are not well-served by a medical system that emphasizes medical specialization for day-to-day care.

And this is also where people like Jessica come in. Jessica is a licensed nurse practitioner (NP) in Indiana and works as part of MD2U, an “in-home primary care network” that provides regular medical attention to homebound or home-limited patients.

Jessica makes house calls for patients like Roger. She visits them in their homes several times a month, providing them with the medical care that best suits their conditions. She gives physical examinations, checks vitals, prescribes medications, and speaks with the patients about their ongoing illnesses, all in the comfort of the patient’s bedroom, living room, or kitchen.

Roger is lucky in at least one way – his house calls are covered by Medicaid. But the same cannot be said for Patty, one of the other patients the documentary focuses on. Patty is in her early 70s and “multimorbid,” or suffering from multiple chronic conditions, including arthritis.

That’s because there is another factor in this equation: money.

Patty often struggles with getting house calls, medications, and doctor’s visits covered by Medicare.  Early in the film, she is dropped by her insurance for making too much money. Then, one of her more expensive medications is not covered by her insurance. Then, a doctor refuses her insurance coverage and sends her away. Although Medicare does provide some financial help, it does not cover all of Patty’s medical costs, and, due to mounting expenses, she is left without medical care.

Without Jessica, many of her patients would either be in nursing homes or completely without medical care. Patty and her husband, Wink, go eight months without medical attention, according to the film.

O’Connor, who has writing credits like “Sacred Hearts” and “Ricochet River,” says that there were even challenges to filming, largely owing to Jessica’s rather intense schedule. She sees 8-10 patients a day and drives around 60 miles, in order to be able to see them all.

If it weren’t for Jessica’s manic schedule, many of these patients would have to live in nursing homes, or, worse, not get regular medical care at all. Jessica and her “team of three nurse practitioners” are responsible for more than 500 patients across two states. 

Not all states offer in-home health as part of Medicare and Medicaid plans. The Independence at Home project, an initiative to test the viability of in-home health services for Medicare and Medicaid patients, is in the middle of a three-year study of fourteen healthcare providers. In the first year of testing of the study, one clinic saved Medicare more than $13,000 a patient; savings like that might eventually translate to an expansion of in-home health services in other states.

“The Invisible Patients” doesn’t attempt to tie this situation up in a big red bow. There’s not a happy ending to Roger’s story; the documentary’s denouement centers on his passing from complications related to Duchenne. Jessica plainly addresses the camera and says that “he was gone” when his mother woke up that morning.

There is some hope. Because of Jessica’s services – because of the existence of in-home medical attention and his access to it - Roger spends his last few days surrounded by his family. He even gets to meet his nephew.

But more work needs to be done so that other patients – patients like Patty – also have access to this kind of care. O’Connor says that “expanding the roles [of] Nurse Practitioners – allowing them to take more direct control of patient care,” some of the burden of homebound patients’ medical care  can be alleviated. This will require changes to Medicaid and Medicare regulations, such as in this bill.

Simple awareness is also helpful. O’Connor and his team are doing a free screenings of “The Invisible Patients” at the Pass Christian Library at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 and at the Bay St. Louis Library  (312 Hwy 90, Bay St. Louis, (228) 467-6836) Thursday, March 30th at 6pm.  ​By simply seeing these patients and listening to their stories, they become less invisible.