APRIL 25 • 2024 | 53

Chernoff-Epstein will be honored 
as the 2024 Sisterhood Woman 
of Distinction. To purchase 
tickets, or for information, 
contact the synagogue office 
at 248-851-5100 or visit 
adatshalom.org/womensday. 
Ticket deadline Thursday, May 
2.

ACTOR/COMEDIAN 
8 PM, JUNE 14 (FRI.) 
Jeremy Piven will headline 
“Bullying Is No Joke 8” at Sound 
Board at MotorCity Casino 
Hote, 2901 Grand River Ave, 
Detroit. Advance ticket now 
on sale: $57, $54, $48 and 
$45 via Ticketmaster at www.
ticketmaster.com. Program 
presented by Defeat the Label, 
a nonprofit organization that 
empowers students to take a 
stand against bullying.

Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial 

Assistant. Send items at least 14 days in 

advance to calendar@thejewishnews.com.

Irin 
Carmon

Jeremy 
Piven

An open house with free refreshments, tours 
and a presentation by a local estate planning 
lawyer called “Estate Planning Essentials for 
Caregivers” will be held on Sunday, May 5, 
at 11 a.m. at the Dorothy and Peter Brown 
Jewish Community Adult Day Program (at its 
West Bloomfield location (6720 W
. Maple). 
The event is being held to celebrate Older 
Americans Month in May, which this year 
has the theme Powered by Connection, 
highlighting the importance of relationships 
and social connections on physical and mental 
health for older adults.
The Brown Program is a joint initiative of 
Gesher Human Services and Jewish Senior 
Life and provides innovative and engaging 
activities, care and socialization for those 
living with dementia along with support 
for their families at its two centers in West 
Bloomfield and Southfield. 
The open house, which will include a tour 
of the Brown Program’s facility, is also offering 
the opportunity for caregivers to learn more 
about estate planning. 
Lawyer Howard Collens of Galloway and 
Collens PLLC in Huntington Woods will 
be presenting. He agrees that many people 
don’t have a written estate plan and, in some 
situations, that can be heartbreaking and 
necessitate the need for probate court. 
“To put an estate plan in place, people need 
the mental capacity to know who their family 
is, what their assets are and how they would 

like those assets distributed,
” he explained. 
“The problem is that in a situation where 
someone has advanced dementia, they may 
have lost the ability to recall all these topics 
which is then a barrier to written planning. 
“Those are some of the hardest meetings I 
experience, when I need to tell a spouse that 
regular estate planning won’t work, and we 
need to navigate a more complex process.
“My advice to anyone with a loved one who 
has recently been diagnosed with dementia 
is to get the legal documents in place while 
your partner or parent can still understand 
the process and be involved. Then they are 
making the decision for themselves on how 
they want their healthcare, personal life and 
assets managed,
” added Collens. “Don’t leave it 
until it’s too late.
” 
Registration for the open house is 
preferred by April 26. Contact Debi 
Banooni at dbanooni@geshermi.org or call 
(248) 233-4390. 

Brown Program 
Open House 
Plus Free Estate 
Planning Program

Art therapy 
at the Brown 
Program

Brown Program participants enjoy 
a visit from some pups.

