Twice a year for the past 14 years, the Community Relations Committee of the Board of Trustees at Oak Crest DeKalb Area Retirement Center has awarded a $300 grant to a deserving employee to pursue educational or enrichment programming. This grant is in addition to the annual Employee Scholarship. The grant allows additional opportunities for employees to pursue educational goals or enrichment programming.

This year’s grant was awarded to Kelsey Chelberg. Chelberg is a member of the dietary staff and has worked at Oak Crest since November 2010. She is pursuing her passion for music and will continue her studies at Northern Illinois University. She is looking forward to taking her love of music and her talents on the viola and applying them to a career in music education.

“Oak Crest continues to support our employees as they develop in the areas of education and self-improvement,” executive director Stephen Cichy said in a news release. “This grant provides employees with financial support to pursue their interests, whether they are in the areas of academics or life enrichment. Oak Crest employees have applied the grant from everything to music lessons to language courses. Our organizational vision is to be recognized as the innovative leader in long-term care and services. This vision applies not only to the people who make their homes here, but to the people who make Oak Crest home.”