A Look at Calendars

I work for a wonderful company. They are the largest non-profit company in the US, I believe. They have 23 CCRCs (continuing care retirement community) in 8 states and serves over 9,000 seniors.

Check out the link below to see the calendars. My community is called St. Andrews Estates South.

http://www.actsretirement.org/club-members/august-2012-calendars/

Not-So-Newlywed Game

One of the fun evenings in our community is when I host the Not-so-Newlywed Game. I’ve done this a few times and the residents really enjoy getting to know some of our couples better. It is not a program that I do every year. I like to mix it in to the calendar so that it stays fresh. I also have it based on when there are enough fun and interesting couples to participate. It is very important that those who are participating are quick witted, up-beat people, who the community knows and likes. The residents remember the real Newlywed Game with Bob Eubanks, so I make sure to speak to the couples independently and assure them that the questions will not be anything inappropriate. I explain to them that I do realize that unlike a cruise ship, that I know that they have to see the people in the audience for the rest of their lives and that I would not embarrass them.

I find that having four or five couples is perfect in order to make the program move along and stay within the one hour ti…

Brain Games

Recently we hosted our senior Olympics program. This year we added a new event called Brain Games. I found a really good link for brain games that you should look at to understand the definition.
After looking at that link and reading through some other online material, I realized that there is a difference between training your brain and brain games. Be mindful (pun intended) that you are not qualified to train resident's brains unless you have gone to training for it. We, as activities professionals however, are very capable of playing brain games with those who are interested in our communities.
Recently, I introduced Scattergories, Apples to Apples,Wii Jeopardy,Wii Wheel of Fortune and a Name that Tune type of game. They are fun games that required your brain, so I thought that they were Brain Games. This last game, Name that Tune, I created on my own since I could not find anything that would have been appropriate for this generation to identify with. I downloaded music from t…

Volunteer Appreciation Party Ideas

Each year we have a volunteer appreciation program to thank the residents who have served the community within the past year. I try to change it each time so that it is interesting to those who have attend year after year. I have created a slide show of all the volunteers doing their job, had the residents stand up at their table and say their name and their volunteer duty, and had many different themes for the event. I think that sharing the different volunteer areas is a good idea because some people in the room are looking around at the fellow guests and thinking to themselves, "What is she doing here? She doesn't volunteer!" Funny, and most likely true in your community also.

Since I am working on the details of this year's appreciation lunch, I thought that I'd share it with you and also share what other fun ideas we've done in the past. Hopefully the ideas will help you and that you will share your thoughts with us on this blog so that we can all learn …

Recharging Retirees in Retirement Communities

Search This Blog