Opera Appreciation

Opera appreciation is an activity in my retirement community that has been handled on a few different levels. The independent living residents in my continuing care retirement community love music and I'd bet yours do too. For this post, I am going to speak about the love of opera, but the same thoughts could be applied to any variety of music that your residents enjoy.

• First, is the most obvious way to reach your audience of opera buffs, bring in an opera singer to perform on your stage. I have been fortunate enough to have talented men and women contact me to perform. I've also gone to our local university to find very talented music students. Look at your community's university and see what they have to offer.
• Next, you may have a speaker come to the community and share facts about opera. This person may be a hired professional that comes from the university, as mentioned above, or someone from your local library, or a resident living in your community that is well rehearsed in the subject.
• Have a regularly scheduled opera video showing. We have this once a month after dinner. A resident runs it. By this I mean, she selects the video, provides a written summary of it for the audience and then introduces it to the audience the night of the show. Click her to see some of the videos that she likes to show.
• Make friends with your local library. Most have their selections available to see on-line
• Buy a video series from a highly reputable source such as the Great Courses program and show it once a week. They have How to Listen to and Understand Opera, Life and Operas of Verdi, Operas of Mozart, and more. They are a bit pricey, but very worthwhile having in your collection. Also, ask your residents, I have been lucky enough to have some residents loan me theirs from their collection.

Opera appreciation in your retirement community should be on your calendar is some shape and frequency. Look into it if you don't have it on yet. It really is not that hard to do and most likely there is a resident in your community who would be glad to assist you with it. Who knows, maybe you too will have an appreciation for Opera afterwards - if you don't already!                  
   

Resident Professional Performers

You have a resident in your retirement community who has been a professional singer in the past. You've heard her and she still is talented. The residents in your community know she is good also. What do you do when they ask you to hire her? I just had this happen to me......

In the past, I've stayed true to my policy of not hiring a resident to perform for the community. The reason I've had this policy is that if I hire the resident, I believe that even if they are not good, that her friends will feel obligated to attend the show and to say that she was good. But, since I've heard this particular singer, I knew that logically, I did not have a real reason to say no. 

After explaining that I was not able to pay a resident, my resident-singer said that it would be alright to make the check payable to her band that she would need to hire. OK, another hurdle easily jumped. Yeah. We set the first available date I had, which was Valentine's Day and she left my office happy.  What I did not imagine was that she would then start promoting her show, months in advance, throughout the community. As a "professional" I thought that she would have know that this was inappropriate, since I typically promote our shows in the order that they appear so that there is no confusion and that each are promoted equally and as the hired person, that it was not her place to promote her show for me. At the beginning of the month, the community received our calendar of events. When my resident-singer saw that there was an option for residents to go to a sister-community for a Valentine's dance at the same time as her show, she stormed into my office. I explained that there was room for 15 people to go and that I expected about 8-10 to sign up for it. She was still upset and was verbally abusive to me. I was stunned by her lack of professionalism. She did return and apologized for her reaction. I offered to move her show to another date if it continued to bother her because I did not want her to be upset and because she was upsetting the rest of the community with her feelings that I was not treating her with respect. After that conversation, we did not have any more contact until a few days before the show date.

I will shorten this up, because by no means am I trying to be mean or nasty. I will say that I did go out of my way to make sure the sound and lights were just right for her show. (She did not take my advise about the sound, because she knew her voice better and that I needed to put a microphone on the piano, even though it never needs that for anyone else.) I did over look the fact that she (or one of her friends) wrote on the sign up sheet for the Valentine's Dance bus stating that she would be in the community performing, and I believe spoke to each of the 8 residents who signed up (and ended up "changing their mind" or sick), and that she put a reminder notice in every in-house mailbox. I believe that if a resident came to me for an event that they were doing for the community - without getting paid, then I would  do all of that without thinking twice. But, I would not do that for any hired professional! It is a line, at least in my mind, that was not clear at all.

Her show did go on, the auditorium was full, and the residents did enjoy the show, even though it was to loud. I'm glad that this show is over and I have learned a lesson for the future about what is acceptable and what is not between the time the show is booked and the date of the show.

Crafts Group Evolves

As the resident population changes in my retirement community, I have noticed as the activities director that certain programs seem to die a natural death. Of course as the activities director, I think that if it is a program that has been successful in my community in the past, that I should do everything in my power to keep it going. Over the course of time, I have learned that this is flawed thinking. Sadly, I find that bridge, bingo and crafts seem to be headed in that direction. Don't get me wrong, there are still people participating in these activities, but the group members are doing exactly what is happening in the entire community - aging in place and the activities need to change along with those who are participating in them.

I have a very small group of ladies who participate in the crafts program. No one wants to be in charge of it, no one wants to say they like or dislike a suggestion from the woman who has stepped into the leader's role, and they each have their own area of expertise that they want to stick to. It is hard to run a group program like that. I've offered to find an outside instructor to lead them in weekly projects, but they are not interested in buying any supplies and my budget is not set for an instructor and the supplies. 

There are a few things that this group does well and they have chosen to stick with a simple version of a crafts group. One is that the group hosts a craft sale when we have our community open to the outside community at election time. For their sale, the sell items that they have made during the year, items that are donated to them (white elephant items and jewelry) and baked goods that the residents donate the morning of the sale. The proceeds from the sale pays for their operating costs and they also make a donation to a fund that helps residents throughout our organization who have outlive their resources (due to no fault of their own). This event is what they work towards all year long.

The other thing that the crafts group does during the year is make small gifts and cards for the residents who do not get out of their apartments. They send the gifts and cards for almost every holiday to let the resident know that the community is thinking about them. Cards are made from used cards that residents donate during the year. Click on the link to see a video on how to reuse greeting cards  and also another neat website is at Skidoo.  Blank greeting cards are also made available for residents to use. They pick them up from our front lobby desk for free and are encouraged to send them to our residents who have been sent to our nursing home. This is another way that our community's residents remain in touch with residents who they don't see every day to say they care.

So, no, it is not a typical crafts group as you or I would see it, but it works for the ladies in the group, and for my community over-all. Who knows what the future holds. Maybe a wonderfully talented, energetic, willing and able resident will move in and change the way the activities are in our retirement community, but until then, "if it is not broken, don't fix it!"  Let the residents in bingo, bridge and crafts lead you to success.... their way. 

Dinner Theater Fun

A dinner theater in your retirement community? Yes! With a little bit of work, your independent living residents can have a unique dining experience right in their own community. You can make this a stand alone event or include it as a part of a theme night or week of themed events. There are many different sources  that can present the show for you. Take a look on the Internet, with local talent agents, or in your local college's theater departments for possible performers. You may even have a troupe of residents who can put on one terrific show for the rest of your retirement community.

I selected a professional company to bring our first dinner theater to our community. They were a fun group and the residents enjoyed their performance. I opted for a western themed show, it was called "Yer Cheatin' Heart... Just Stopped Beatin." I decorated the auditorium using the western theme and asked the servers to wear their jeans and bandannas. The residents also could dress in western wear if they wanted.

The meal was provided by our kitchen staff. They set up a serving line from the back of the room and the waiters took the residents meal selections. We had prime rib or a chicken dish. Each entree included the same side dishes. We had pitchers of ice tea and lemonade on the tables for them to help themselves to. Dessert was a rocky road cheesecake.  I heard comments from the residents that the event would be just as good if we had served hot dogs and hamburgers for this western theme. (Glad that resident doesn't work in the kitchen.)  The best part about the evening was that I was able to charge the residents for the show (and prizes), and they used their meal cards as if they were going to one of our regular dining venues. That helped keep the cost of the night down and they did not loose a meal off of their meal plan.

We had 100 people at the dinner theater. We did not please them all of course. Some did not like the show, some did. Some had meat that was not cooked to the temperature they had requested, others thought it was all fine. As fellow activities directors, you know that is how it will always be. Overall, I think it was a fun night, gave the residents something new to talk about, and when it was all done, did not cost me a thing! Can't beat that Cowgirl!