Recharging Retirees in Retirement Communities

A small, but very interested, and talented group of residents went to the museum recently. This trip was different from any other outing to the museum because the residents went to "Contemplate and Create." That was the name of the program at our local museum, and that is exactly what they did.  The program was basically a tour of specific items in the museum, with narration by the docent highlighting the concepts that we would later put into practice in our own work. There were a few different topics to select from. I choose "assemblage" thinking that it would be the least intimidating.   After the tour, we went to a classroom area in the museum that I never even knew existed. The teachers for this portion of our outing had everything ready for us. They had a plain white box that would become our work area, along with magazines pre-clipped and organized by subjects, pipe cleaners, buttons, corks, straws, small plastic animals, beads, scissors glue, et...

Animal print is the rage right now! You can find it in stores in the clothing department, shoe department, housewares and just about anywhere else you look, and it is the perfect time to have a Safari theme party in your retirement community!  For my special event, I rented a large tent and had it put up outside. I decorated the tent with the cuttings from the plants that were around the area by placing them on the legs of the tent and up in the apexes of the tent. For the tent I had, there were three specific points to decorate from. I found pinata monkeys and hung them from those points and used the plant cuttings to cover the place where they were hanging. I also used a course rope to hang the monkeys so that it looked more genuine for the theme. (I did have to use multiple pieces for the rope in order for it to be thick enough to be seen.) Make sure if you hang something from the tent that you bring it down low enough to be seen, but keep it high enough for tall guys t...

In the retirement community where I work, promoting my activities is an important element of my job as activities director. I use a few different methods. I use written announcements that are available twice a week, my in-house television community's channel, a monthly newsletter, posters on a bulletin board next to my sign up sheets and a magnetic board in the main lobby. Today, I want to talk about the magnetic board in the lobby.   We bought a  large brass floor easel  and a  magnetic board  to advertise the foremost activities happening in the community. Due to space it is really important that you control the items on the board, so that your residents know that this is the place for them to find the "need to know at this moment kind of stuff." I like to keep mine in date order, so I am constantly moving the poster that are on the board around once I remove or add one. Usually there is a poster for the week's movie, the week's entertainment, a special...