Ann Arbor Kiwanis club member Jeanie Mack-Powers and Dementia Friendly Services founder Jim Mangi enjoy a Memory Cafe. These twice-monthly events for those with dementia and their caregivers offer games, snacks, music, and more. | Mark Bialek
“Dementia is not only emotionally upsetting, it’s literally life-changing—and not just for the people diagnosed,” says Jim Mangi. “Most people who are thrust into a job as a caregiver have no idea how best to handle the situation.”
In 2011, when his wife, Kathleen Schmidt, was diagnosed with “young dementia” at age fifty-seven, Mangi sold his business and retired years earlier than he intended, entering a second career in caregiving out of necessity. Schmidt passed away in 2024 at age seventy.
Just before the pandemic hit, Mangi partnered with Holy Faith Church of Saline to offer a ten-week education awareness program about dementia, which attracted listeners from all over the county. The packed lectures and follow-up questions convinced Mangi to launch a nonprofit, Dementia Friendly Saline, under the auspices of Dementia Friendly America. Its mission was to support Saline-area caregivers and their care receivers, and to educate the community about the special needs of this population. Michigan has about 202,800 residents with dementia.
Early in 2025, the organization extended its scope, and changed its name to Dementia Friendly Services, with a focus on the Washtenaw County community—including Ann Arbor.
After Ann Arbor Kiwanis Club member Jeannie Mack-Powers met Mangi at a special University of Michigan Museum of Art program for visitors with dementia, Kiwanis became a primary sponsor of the organization. Mack-Powers serves as the Kiwanis liaison to DFS. Mangi has offered Kiwanis members training about the needs of people living with dementia and their caregivers, and programming for this population.
The two organizations have also partnered on events. Just before Halloween, Kiwanis hosted “Fall Frolic,” welcoming adults with memory loss and their caregivers to holiday fun, donning festive hats or robes and being treated to finger foods, sweet treats, a photo booth, musical performance, and prizes. The day ended with private Kiwanis Thrift Store shopping.
“This way, they can shop at their leisure with a Kiwanis member to guide them,” Mack-Powers says. “They can buy something that catches their eye for a very few dollars, have fun, and feel they’ve accomplished something.”
The next Kiwanis-hosted special daytime event is planned for this spring, with details and date to be announced.
Two afternoons a month, people with dementia and their caregivers gather at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Pittsfield Township for Memory Cafes, where they enjoy games, snacks, musical performances, crafts, drumming sessions, exercises, even occasional magic shows. “We’ve formed a solid, caring community, where caregivers and care receivers can have fun together,” Mangi says. “We share concerns and celebrate even small successes.”
“Kiwanis is working on ways to develop more interactions with the people at the Memory Cafes,” Mack-Powers says. The two groups are planning to match Kiwanis volunteers with café volunteers for simple tasks, starting with sorting the piles of cards and envelopes donated to the Thrift Store. “We aim for a win-win situation, where people with dementia can get a feeling of accomplishment over a job well done, and the thrift store can definitely benefit from their help.”
DFS’s newest program is the DementiAwareness Theater, a series of one-act plays about dementia and caregiving. Each free performance is followed by group discussions with trained facilitators. On October 23, the organization presented Steering Into the Skid at the Unitarian Universalist Church. The next play, Joy Ride in Memory Care by local playwright Rick Sperling, has four performances scheduled at Forge Theater over the weekend of February 21.
“Our goal,” says facilitator and actor Danette McCarthy, “is to assist community members and leaders to reconsider how they think about, and deal with memory loss and its increasing presence in their community. We help them become aware of local resources that assist persons living with dementia and their families.”
Mangi is also launching the Dementia Friendly Community Chorus in Ann Arbor. “Music is very important, very emotive to those with memory loss,” he explains.
On the second Wednesday of every month, the Emagine Saline movie theater opens its doors and sponsors a movie (“usually an upbeat musical—Fred Astaire and Mamma Mia! are among the favorites”), providing popcorn, drinks, and sandwiches in an auditorium that keeps its lights on and its sound down.
One of Mangi’s favorite stories involves one caregiver whose husband had been diagnosed a decade earlier. Mangi recalls, “I saw her sobbing when the movie ended, and I rushed up to ask her why.”
“This is the first time in nine years that we have had a date together,” she said through her tears. “We held hands and ate popcorn and laughed together just like we used to. It felt so good!”
“That’s why we’re here,” Mangi told her.
For more information about DFS, email [email protected] or call (703) 395–3824.