Ruth Ann Kessler, RN
Founder and director
Thirty-one years as a nurse at the county hospital, the last ten on the medical floor. She grew up a mile north of the barn.
Adult day program · Council Grove, Kansas
A limestone barn, a long table and the whole day ahead.
Stone Barn is an adult day program for Morris County grown-ups who are safer, and happier, with company. A nurse on site, a hot dinner at noon, and a van home at four-thirty.
The barn
Built in 1871 for horses. Rebuilt in 2015 for neighbors.
The Kessler family's stone barn sat empty on Belfry Street for forty years. When Ruth Ann retired from nursing at the county hospital, she and her brothers put in a floor, a kitchen, wide doors and a shower room, and kept the walls exactly as the stonemasons left them.
Members come from the farms and the town: a retired rural mail carrier, a woman who taught third grade for thirty-eight years, two brothers who still argue about cattle prices. Nobody is rushed here. The day moves at the pace of the people in it.
— Ruth Ann Kessler, RN, founder
Photo tour
Around the barn
Sample family reviews
From Morris County families
Dad ran cattle until he was eighty-three. He would never have gone to a 'center.' He goes to the barn. That difference mattered to him.
My wife has Alzheimer's. At Stone Barn she quilts with women she taught in third grade. Some days she remembers them, and some days they remember for her.
The van comes eleven miles out to our place on a gravel road and has never once complained about it.
Corinne noticed Mom's blood sugar running low every afternoon and called her doctor. They changed a dose and it fixed it.
I could not have kept my job at the school without them. I know exactly where Mother is all day, and she is happy there.
Grandpa built me a birdhouse in the woodshop. It has his initials burned into the bottom. I'll keep it forever.
For families
For the family at home
The practical side of a day at the barn, for the people who do the driving, the worrying and the rest.
- 01
Drop-off and pickup
Bring your member any time after 7:30, or let the van do it. Pickup is by 5, and we call if the van is running late on the gravel.
- 02
What to send
A list of medicines, a change of clothes and reading glasses. Label anything you want back, especially sweaters.
- 03
The note home
Every member goes home with a short note: what they ate, how they felt and anything our nurse noticed.
- 04
When plans change
Call by 7 a.m. if your member is staying home. Hospital stays and vacations never cost you a spot.
Our team
Who you'll meet
Corinne Weber, LPN
Nurse
Corinne runs the noon medication pass and keeps a sharp eye on blood pressures and blood sugars.
Maria Esparza
Lead aide and cook
Maria has been at Stone Barn since the first week. Her bierocks are the reason Wednesday attendance is so high.
Dale Hoffman
Driver and woodshop
A retired ag teacher who drives the van mornings and runs the woodshop bench in the afternoons.
What sets us apart
Where we shine
01
Nursing oversight and noon medications
Blood pressure, blood sugar and a written note home at the end of each day.
Included
02
Hot noon dinner at the long table
Cooked in the barn kitchen. Bierocks on Wednesdays, pie most days.
Included
03
Woodshop and the fix-it bench
Birdhouses, picture frames and the occasional broken lamp from town.
WeeklyNow hiring
Good people make Stone Barn Adult Day. We are hiring for every shift.
Visit
Find the barn
- 118 Belfry Street
Council Grove, KS
Park on the gravel lot by the hitching rail. The barn's ramp door faces the river. - (620) 555-0153
- Text us
- hello@stonebarnday.example
- StoneBarnAdultDay
Tour & office hours
- Program, Mon – Fri7:30a – 5p
- Tours, Mon – Fri10a – 2p
- Families drop inAny time we are open
Stay for noon dinner. There's always room.
Call or text Ruth Ann to set up a visit day, on us. The van can pick up anywhere in the county.