[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 27, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1223]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CONNIE BREMNER, RECIPIENT OF ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON COMMUNITY HEALTH 
                            LEADERSHIP AWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DENNIS R. REHBERG

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 27, 2001

  Mr. REHBERG. Mr. Speaker, Connie Bremner, lifelong resident of 
Browning, Montana, is of the age when retirement is an option, but it's 
the last thing on her mind. Connie doesn't have the time nor 
inclination for anything but selfless service to the elderly and 
disabled in her community.
  Connie, director of the Eagle Shield Senior Citizens Center, on the 
Blackfeet Indian Reservation, is the recipient of the prestigious 
Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leadership award of $100,000. The 
award gives $95,000 to the center and $5,000 to Connie. This award is 
one of only ten given nationwide. Most of the award money will go to 
fund short-term care for terminally ill people who are unable to get 
help elsewhere. Some of it will be used as startup money for a proposed 
Blackfeet home health care program.
  Browning is in a lonely community on the windswept plains down the 
eastern slopes of the Montana Rockies. It's the heart of the Blackfeet 
Indian Reservation, a place where things have never been easy. When 
Connie became director of the Eagle Shield Senior Citizens Center in 
Glacier County, the nation's 95th poorest, she found the center and the 
seniors in distressed conditions. Connie made it her objective to 
transform the facility into a model health and wellness center. She 
took the barest of bare-bones facilities and breathed life into it--and 
not just life, but spirit. Eagle Shield now serves over 600 elders with 
a wide range of programs, from nutrition education and meal delivery to 
home personal assistance and social activities. Connie's efforts to 
expand, improve and modernize health care for the impoverished, the 
elderly and the disabled has not only met physical needs, but has 
lifted spirits and provided hope.
  Connie began with a loan of $70,000 from the tribal government, which 
has already been repaid. The Robert Wood Johnson Community Health 
Leadership Program's press release states that Connie's ``hard work has 
yielded great success for Eagle Shield, including the creation of an 
Alzheimer's screening and treatment program and a licensed, Medicaid 
reimbursed personal care attendant program for over 100 people with a 
disability unable to care for themselves.''
  Connie expanded the personal care attendant program until now is 
serves over 100 people, ranging from age 4--94. In addition, the center 
``has trained 300 younger tribal members to become certified personal 
care attendants. Of those, 95 are currently employed on the 
reservation, an important contribution to a community who whose 
unemployment rate is over 70 percent.'' Through Connie's leadership, 
the Eagle Shield Senior Citizens Center provides breakfasts and lunches 
to 200 seniors every day.
  People like Connie have far greater influence than government 
programs. Government can oversee public health and public safety, but 
only people can give love and compassion. Connie has shown us that the 
most vital thing we do in life is look after each other by reaching out 
in kindness to the oldest and youngest and weakest among us. It is 
known in Browning that nothing will keep her from taking care of her 
elders. The elders count on Connie. Montana counts on Connie.
  It is an honor to read Connie Bremner's accomplishments into the 
Congressional Record, although it should be recognized that this 
woman's deeds of love and kindness will leave a record much more 
enduring and significant in the community of Browning than this Record 
of ink and paper in the Halls of Congress. Connie Bremner has shown 
that the true treasures in Montana--The Treasure State--are people, the 
old and the young, the weak and the strong. Connie is a treasure to the 
Blackfeet Nation, to the state of Montana, and to the United States of 
America.

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