Faith and family lead couple into new adventure

Stacy Lindauer loves hearing the laughter of caregivers and residents at BeeHive Home in Huntingburg. In those moments, she knows they are accomplishing the vision she and her husband, Shane, had for the new assisted living facility they opened in February.

While neither expected ever to operate a home that caters to the elderly, in their faith, they found a way to say yes when at times, they didn’t understand why.

For Stacy, the step toward this moment likely began when she came home from grad school at IUPUI and decided to leave that path to become the area’s first staff person for Young Life. “Thankfully, I’m dumb enough to do what God tells me,” she laughed.

She wouldn’t change that decision for the world.

And you can see the impact of those years with Young Life present in BeeHive. Like over the past five Wednesdays, Alie White, one of Stacy’s Young Life students who is now a speech therapist for Memorial Hospital, led volunteers through the steps to various country line dances while the residents clapped and sang along for the fun shows.

Or when other former Young Life students come by to help with other activities. Or when a local youth pastor brings over ministry students to give their faith testimonies to the residents.

In a way, and for many people who know Stacy, BeeHive has provided a playground for her most significant attributes as she finds ways to have fun and build community with this new extended household members.

Despite Stacy’s earlier comment, the decision to take on this new endeavor didn’t necessarily come easy for the couple, but the path here has been compelling.

Shane stepped onto the path toward the new business when he took a type of profile test designed to help determine what industries would fit his personality. “And the second one on my list was assisted living,” he said.

He doesn’t remember the first recommendation.

He remembers that assisted living was the second option because he was surprised.. “I’d never worked with this population.,” he said. “I don’t have a background in this.”

But the prodding continued soon after he took the test.

Shane is a member of a bible study group with several other Christian men. One of the members is former Huntingburg Mayor Denny Spinner.

“Denny came to me after Bible study and said, ‘Hey, we (Huntingburg) need some assisted living,'” Shane explained. “I was like, ‘What?! You’re kidding me?!'”

Mayor Spinner had a model in mind and sent Shane information on BeeHive Homes, a franchise based out of Idaho.

He and Stacy started praying about it and more serendipitous moments continued compelling them.

They toured several BeeHive facilities in Louisville. There, they met the owner of the franchises in Kentucky, Mark Hegele, and found that he was also a Christ-follower. Hegele portrayed the need for the type of assisted living they were offering in a way that showed the Lindauers how they could bring fun and faith into their business.

Stacy saw it as a two-fold ministry. Besides the impact she could have on the lives of those she would care for, the family could work together.

“Prior to this, he had his career path, and I had mine,” Stacy said. “This is a family-faith journey together. That is what appealed the most to me.”

With that family and faith connection driving them, they began exploring options for a place to build the new facility. They reached out to Ruger Kerstiens to inquire about land. “We knew that they had land for sale,” Stacy said.

The answer from Kerstiens was surprising.

“They were like, ‘You wanna do what?! We’ve been looking for someone to do assisted living for years!'” Stacy mimed.

Shane and Stacy learned that Bart Kerstiens had looked into the BeeHive Homes model several years ago. “And they were looking for an operator,” Stacy added.

Kerstiens wanted to build a neighborhood of independent living duplexes in Huntingburg and have the assisted living facility nearby.

Everything was in place, and the Lindauers said yes.

BeeHive Homes are designed to be small facilities — the largest floor plan has 24 residential rooms. The Lindauer’s operation has 20 rooms centered around a large common area, recreation room and open kitchen. An adjacent dining area provides a private space for special events and visitors to enjoy with the residents.

Rooms come furnished comfortably with all the necessities of a dorm — WiFi, 40-inch TV, bed, dresser, chairs, dorm refrigerator — but with individual private bathrooms and showers. But, of course, residents are welcome to make their rooms as much their own as possible.

The kitchen provides three meals a day. Shane describes them simply as homecooked, but there aren’t any complaints. Carrie Beier is the caregiver who handles the menu planning and prep work. She works from 3 to 11 p.m. and loves walking through the doors each day and hollering, “I’m home!” Beier said she wasn’t looking for a new career after being a stay-at-home mom most of her life, but she loves it at BeeHive.

And according to Shane, her recipes are delicious.

The kitchen is also open to the residents to use on their own. Nita regularly whips up her banana pudding. “Frankly, it’s fantastic,” Shane said.

The residents are welcome to come and go as they please; there are no locked doors. And while they could remain in the privacy of their rooms, the home is designed to bring them out to take part in building new relationships and new community. Optional bible studies are held daily in the sunroom with a book club on Saturdays.

BeeHive model concentrate on daily living activities including personal care, medication reminders, housekeeping, physical ad mental fitness activities, and fun experiences together in a family atmosphere.

Residents need to be ambulatory mostly on their own or enough that only a single caregiver is necessary to help them with their movements. They can have onsite physical and occupational therapy from their care providers. The pharmacy delivers medications, and caregivers maintain dosing schedules.

Faith isn’t a requirement to be a resident, but in light of their faith and mission to build relationships, how Shane and Stacy treat each resident is apparent. Touring the home, you can see the personal touches.

When Nita moved in, she wanted her grandfather clock to come along. Now it sits in the living room. Shane is trying to find someone to repair the turntable on her wooden console entertainment center that takes up a prominent position in the recreation room. “The eight-track works,” he laughed, adding that she has piles of records.

Stacy is the fun and faith coordinator, while Shane handles a lot of the administrative and maintenance needs in the business. However, those roles are shared as the new business struggles in the current employment market.

Regardless, they’ve found a way to make a home for their residents and added an extension to their own family.

“This past weekend, our whole family was over. We did a Memorial Day cookout here,” Stacy said.

Shane mentioned a competitive feistiness one resident has for cards.

“It’s stuff like that,” she affirmed. “We’ll come over, and our whole family will play UNO with the whole house.”

Even the couple’s children, Tyler and Colton, love to come to the BeeHive. “They have five grandmas right now,” she said.

It’s a new business. A new direction. And it takes a lot of prayers. Mary Gogel, the operations manager, AKA Queen Bee, and Stacy regularly meet in her office and pray.

“We are doing what God tells us to do,” Stacy said. “That’s all I got.”

BeeHive Homes of Huntingburg is located at 1720 N. Chestnut Street in Huntingburg. You can call them at 812-639-7546 or follow them on Facebook here.

Everyone is welcome to attend the upcoming “Now That The Dust Has Settled Open House” on Saturday, June 25, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.