Do's For Your Dance

During December my community hosts its annual holiday gala dance. It is a semi-formal event with high-end appetizers and a first-class dinner. Every year we try to raise the bar on this special night. After working with my company for the past 18 years, it is a challenge to keep it fresh and exciting, but the evening always seems to be very well received.

With those years of experience come a few lessons that I have learned. You may not host a gala dance, but I think you will still find these points helpful in your job as activities director.

• Promote the date of your event well in advance so that residents have time to plan their evening (outfit, guests, table seating arrangements)
• Book a special musical talent for this night. This should not be someone your community uses on a regular basis. 
• At the same time, you should develop a good working relationship with the performers so that in case they must cancel on you at the last minute, they will work hard to find a replacement for themselves that is as good, as or better than they are for you.
• Make sure the musicians understand the group's ability to stay on the dance floor is not as long as those of people half their age.
• Remind the musician that most of the audience will not be dancing because they do not have a partner. Ask them to include line dances or a song or two that audience members can do from their chairs.
• Hire dance hosts for the single ladies who want to dance. 
• Decorations do not have to be elaborate, unless you want them to be. Sometimes simple and understated can be viewed as classy. 
• If your dance is after dinner, you will not need much more food - but you must have something. A little salty and a little sweet. 
• You will never please all the people at a dance with the temperature of the room. Dancers will want it colder and those listening to the music will want it warmer.
• Create a special feeling with the lighting in the room. Dim the lights like at a dance club
• Just like at the parties that you go to, there needs to be a fun person that gets things started. Be that person or find someone else who will be!
• Make a personal connection by going from table to table and sit down. "How are you enjoying the party?" is a good opener or "I haven't had a minute to talk with you lately, how are you?" Residents love to have the personal contact that only you can offer.
  

Key Ingredients for Successful Holidays

Take time before the full craziness of the holiday schedule begins to get yourself prepared

Have a plan for the next few months, but be flexible enough to change them

Adjust your attitude from overwhelmed to “I can do this,” and see the opportunities for enhancing 

your resident’s lives

Note your community’s traditions for the upcoming holidays, but find new and exciting ways to 

freshen them up.

Keep your volunteers happy and get help from them and from co-workers when you are overwhelmed… and there will be days, no matter how prepared you are

Fill your life outside of work with people who you enjoy being with. Do fun stuff for yourself! Don’t stop planning when it comes to your leisure needs.

Understand that you will never please all the people all of the time. Do your best every day and have no regrets when you walk out of your community at the end of the day

Live, love, laugh, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

 

Scared to Say Yes?

October can be scary! Not because of the ghosts and goblins that might be coming to your community to trick or treat, but because of requests from your residents who live there, when they ask you to try something out of your comfort zone. (And yes, this can happen any time of the year!)

A resident recently came to me to ask if I'd organize an outing to a local Oktoberfest. I shared my concerns for the group's safety on this trip because of the footing at the fairgrounds, the rowdiness of the crowd, and the ability to track down missing residents if they do not return to the bus at the scheduled time. My "final" decision was, no, I would not be organizing the trip for her.

After a few days, the resident came back to me and said that she would do all the research about the trip for me and bring it to me for another look. In addition to all her research, I also knew well enough that she was talking the trip up to her friends in the community so that the trip would be successful if I said yes and offered it to the community. 

As much as I know that my concerns are legitimate, it is my job to figure out a way to be able to say yes to the resident's request. After seeing the information that the resident brought to me, talking it over with her while I had a more open mind, and knowing that she and her husband had attended this festival in the past, I have agreed to organize the outing. I will be sure to promote it with a note that says "good walkers welcome" or something to that affect so that residents who may have mobility issues will be fair warned.

If there is something that you are being asked to do and you want to say no to it, dig deep into yourself, get the facts and look at as an opportunity to grow. I'm looking forward to taking the group to the Oktoberfest and I know that they will have a great time there.

3 Styles of Scavenger Hunts

Boy is it hot outside! If you are like me you may still be looking for indoor activities that are fun for your residents to do. This activity that I will share with you can be done for different levels of care in your retirement community. I encourage you to share it with the other activity professionals that work in those other areas within your own community.

The activity is the Scavenge Hunt. This can be done in three different ways and I will describe them below:

1)      The Stay Seated Scavenger Hunt

v  Ask audience to bring in items they think will be asked for. Encourage them to fill their purses, pockets, bags, etc. and bring it to the event

v  Make a list of items that they could bring with them

v  Include items that would be funny, that might have a story to go with them, or that people would be surprised someone would actually have. (Green Stamps anyone?)

v  See the list I used

v  Cut the list into pieces and place them into a basket

v  Ask people to draw the item out of the basket. (This gets more people involved, even if they never have an item on your list, they are participating…..)

v  Use the resident’s names as often as possible.

v  Teams can be seated at a table or divide your auditorium or meeting room into sections

v  After reading the item out loud, give people time to find the item – but not much time. Keep it moving!

v  Count all the items and record them. I had an assistant help with this buy using a dry erase board.

v  Prizes or no prizes…. It’s up to you.

2)      The Semi-Seated Scavenger Hunt

v  Same as above, but have each team bring the item back to the team’s table, which is at the front of the room

v  You can do this with a captain who gets it from his team, or do not have a captain and each person brings their own item up to the table

v  Make sure that all the items are returned after the program is over

3)      A Serious Scavenger Hunt

v  Look around your community and make a list of items that are unique to your community

v  Include items on the list that are specific so that there is no confusion

v  Gather the participants and give them the list of items that you want them to find

v  Give participants a deadline to return the items to you

v  This event can be done over a few days, or in a few hours

v  Bringing back the items can mean taking a picture of them on your smart phone or tablet (with or without the resident in the photo with it), a note on the list of where they located the item, or asking them to return a sticker that is next to the item on the list. 

v  Make the prize something special so that people are more serious about playing the game independently.

v  This game can be played individually or as a team

v  Items can be inside or outside.

Here are a few websites that have Scavenger Hunt ideas that take you beyond what I’ve used with seniors before:

http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txhunt.htm

http://www.diva-girl-parties-and-stuff.com/scavenger-hunts.html

http://icebreakerideas.com/mall-scavenger-hunt-lists-ideas/

And here are some books from Amazon:

200 Ideas for Scavenger Hunts

40 Incredible Scavenger Hunts that Really Work

52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas

Scam Education Made Easy

From time to time the issue of resident's being scammed rears its ugly head in our community. The issue is brought to our administration usually by a brave resident or two. What usually happens after we see a pattern or increase in frequency is that the administration office sends out a memo reminding people not to fall into the current trap that was reported.

As Activities Director at the community, I think this is an opportunity for an activity. It is not necessarily a fun activity, but one that would educate the community about the current trends in scamming, and more importantly, how to avoid becoming a victim. 

First you should understand why residents living in alone, in continuing care communities, assisted livings and nursing homes are prime targets for scammers. Take a look at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) website. It addresses telemarketing fraud along with other types of scams that our resident's fall victim to. If you prefer to watch a documentary from Dan Rather about the scale of fraud against seniors, this is worthwhile. Many victims of fraud will not speak up because of the fear of embarrassment, or possibly losing the ability to get the "big prize."  After reading about the many ways fraud takes advantage of seniors and watching this video, you will see that it is very important to provide the programming necessary to help our residents avoid these evils.

In my area we were able to find a group of local seniors who presented skits on frauds affecting seniors. It was great because the audience could see the interaction between the scammer and the victim and put themselves in the victim’s position. It was done with humor, so it was fun, in a way. Here is an article about another group that does this kind of show about seniors and scams.  

If you don't have a group around your community that can perform an educational skit for your audience, you have some other options. The first is that you, the staff of the community or the residents might want to put on a skit. It would be a learning experience for those producing it as well as for those watching the final production.  The other option or educating your community might be found on the Stop Fraud website that the government sponsors. There you will find lots of resources with contact information for national and state-specific sites that might provide you with speakers who will come to your community.

Based upon my experience in working with senior adults, this is a subject that you can present to your community a few times a year. I suggest that you put a new spin on it each time, with a new speaker or with a skit, to assure the residents continue to come to the program. I believe that residents can't hear about this enough. Also, encourage those who attend to bring someone else with them. A victim may be reluctant to attend for fear that she might be recognized as a victim.

Play Music More Often

"Music is the soundtrack of your life," said Dick Clark. When you hear a song, if you are like me, it takes you back to that time in your life when you heard the song for the first time or to the occasion where you heard it. That is powerful. Can you imagine the music that our residents have heard in their lifetime? Just like the world in general, they have experienced so much and it is nice when we, as activities professionals, can take them back to the happier days, with the soundtracks from their lives.

So, the question I pose to you today is how do you find and present music to your residents? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is by way of hired professional performers. That is a given in our jobs, so in this post, I'd like to focus on a few other ways that you can bring music to your residents that they will recognize and enjoy, along with theme music for your special events.

Pandora, Amazon, (search MP3 Download then search free songs) and YouTube are places that I have personally used already. In doing research for this post, I found a few helpful articles that deserve a good look if you just starting to download music. Since I am not an expert in this field, and because I want to give credit where credit is due, I will simple direct you to the articles that I found relative to our use and hope that you will click the links to read more: 

• The Top 14 Places to Get Free Music Downloads.  
• Best free apps for downloading music with an android device.  
• If you prefer to watch a video, here is one on how to load music or listen to it offline on an android.
• How to use ITunes
• How to Sync our Entire ITunes Library to Spotify

And there are online music players available for free:

• Spotify
• mp3skull.com
• Jango
• and more

So that is how to FIND the music. Now that you have it what can you do with it? Just recently, I spoke with the man who set up our sound system in the Auditorium, and asked about connecting my IPhone to the system. He said "sure, it can be done." Shortly after that, I received a new cord that has been one of the best items that I've gotten for my job! It is an adapter cable that allows me to plug in my phone to the system. I had a 50's theme party and I found music of the 50's on Pandora. I used it for background music the night of the party. And then, we had a Cinco de Mayo party and music from YouTube was played that was just right for the evening.  

As I sit here and write this, I can visualize the 100's of CDs that I have in my office that I've collected over the years of being an Activities Director.  Just think how much space I can save and how organized they can be if I can turn them into mp3s, I can't wait to go back to work and find the right volunteer for this job! 

See, inspiration can come at any time. LOL!  I hope this article helps you add more music into your community's programs. It shouldn't cost you much financially but may take some time to get a nice library of music together. I truly believe that music will add an extra touch to your programs in the future and will enhance your resident’s journey on the "sound" track of their lives.

Mentoring Lessons

Being a Mentor is an important role.  As I write this article, it is not yet Mother’s Day and I am writing for the month of June, which is when we celebrate Father’s Day. For many of us, our parents were our first mentors.  In this article, I am sharing a mentoring encounter with you because it was a learning experience….for both of us!

The company that I work for has communities throughout the United States. At one location a young lady was recently hired to fill the position of Activities Director, but had little experience with the profession, and none with the company’s procedures. Her Executive Director had meet me and my counterpart at a neighboring sister-community, and sent her to train with us.  At first my co-worker and I were considered about the time it would take away from our regular jobs, but we changed our mindset after talking it over. We felt that it was an honor to be asked, because the Executive Director could have sent the new hired Activities Director to any other community instead of to ours. We then split the time that the new hire would be in town into what worked best for us. After that, we made our lists of items that we would cover with her, and allocated it to the person who felt it was an area that they could explain the best.

In my time with this smart young lady, I found myself recalling my first few months in the profession. (That was 28 years ago already!)I found myself recalling that I was not even sure what to ask about when I wanted to set up a dinner outing or other “field trip,” as I heard a 10 year old guest in our community call the advertised trips he saw in the Lobby.   As we went through our time together, I found myself saying “I’m going to tell you how I use to do it….. or intended to do it…. or when I have time to do it…..” Despite those comments, I feel confident that I showed her some important tools she could use to get off to the right start in her career as an Activities Director in the areas of organization, time management, resident satisfaction, and more.

What was surprise to me was how much I learned from the time that we spent together. realized that a system is only good when you use it. For example, if you keep a list of entertainers on your computer and have their evaluation score next to it, and it is not up to date, then it is not as valuable to you as it could be.

• I realized that when files are put away and you have not referred to them in a few years, that you probably don’t need them anymore.  For example, I like to keep my desk calendars from the past filed away, in case I need to see something I jotted down or what happened that day in 2002. But when I opened the cabinet to show my mentee this idea, I realized I had calendars from 18 years ago! I was so embarrassed. Who cares what happened 18 years ago? Phone numbers might not be the same anymore, and if a program worked then, it does not mean it will now.

• Another big lesson for me was that sometimes going back to basics could be a smart move. For example, I use to use a worksheet to make sure that I had all the details I needed for a successful program and to refer to it the next time that I wanted to recreate the program. But, I've gotten away from that, partly because of the easy access to information on the internet. The reminder I received while mentoring this new hire was, that I can’t determine the success or failure from the information on the internet – but I could from my worksheet, if I used the system I had in place for each program (including an evaluation afterwards).

There were other lessons, or reminders, I received in the days I was training my new friend. And yes, I was there to teach her about being the best Activities Director she could be in our company, and for the residents she will serve, and I do believe that I succeeded in that.  I am glad to say that I too learned from the mentoring experience.   I think Phil Collins said it best when he said,

  “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” 

Puzzle Theme for Volunteer Appreciation

Volunteers are an essential piece of retirement communities! They can be found volunteering at the reception desk when you first walk in, running an activity for the entire community to attend, folding napkins for the dining room and even taking potential residents on tours of the community for the sales and marketing department. Resident volunteers may also be board or committee members of your community's resident board. It is hard to imagine a successful community without resident volunteers.

As the activities director in my CCRC community, it is my responsibility to make sure there is a wonderful appreciation luncheon every year to thank our residents. This year we used a puzzle theme for the lunch. The idea came to us (me and my co-workers from our neighboring sister community) from the Positive Promotions catalog.

Here are the highlights of the event that connected the pieces together for a successful and meaningful afternoon:

In Advance
1) Took a photo of the entrance of our community (or it could be an focal point that is recognizable to your community) and had a puzzle made from it.

2) Put the puzzle together and then

• numbered all of the pieces in the order that made the puzzle whole
• created a guide with the shape of the pieces and the number of it

3) Made centerpieces for the tables.

• Bought a child's floor puzzle with very large pieces and bright colors
• Used puzzles that were unwanted (you could do this also and try to get all the pieces back into the right box, but I was not worried about that as I have a puzzle population problem already.) and fill in a glass vase. I used a small craft stick and hot glue gun to put it all together. 
• Created a personalized label on card stock from Printshop.You will need to make 2 for each centerpiece. Add a graphic so the "back" will look pretty in a different way from the front (shown here).

4) Created and printed a program for the afternoon

The Day of the Event

1) Decorate with bright colors and put centerpieces on the tables

2) Randomly placed the number puzzle pieces at every place setting with the number side up.

3) Put the guide created with the puzzle shapes and numbers out on a table. It is important that residents can reach the puzzle from all sides of the table.

4) At the point in the program that you determine is the best, call residents to the puzzle table in numeric order...... not by tables.

5) Make sure to have a patient staff person (or people) there to assist. But remember

• Turn the piece right-side up (don't laugh - it was an issue for some)
• Allow the resident to put in the piece when they are capable

6) Encourage residents to return to see the completed puzzle at the end of the program

Those are the highlights of this year's program. Of course there was a great meal, a few key speakers and a gift for everyone. I hope you will take time to see the 10 other posts that I have written about resident volunteers. 

Mother's Day Tea

Happy Mother's Day! When planning your events for the month, you might want to consider hosting a Mother's Day Tea, but add a special twist to it with a program about High Tea. Sometimes you don't have to think too far outside the (tea) box to have a special lunch for Moms. The guests are coming to a Tea Party and enjoy drinking tea. So share the story of tea!

I will tell you that when I hosted this party, it was not my idea to start with exactly. Having the party and focusing on the tea aspect came about because I had a resident who came into my office with a problem. She wanted to host a party for a few of her friends but was concerned that she might offend someone that she would forgot to invite, and if the party got to big, she would not be able to afford to do it properly. She shared with me that she had talked about teas in the past and was going to present a "little talk" as a part of her party. After a few discussions with her, we came to the conclusion that I would run it through my department as an activity and bring her in as my "guest speaker." She agreed and left happy. (Read more about successful Resident Run Programs.) 

As the Mother's Day Tea came closer, I learned that my tea-expect resident had taken the ball and ran with it! She had gotten the community very excited. She encouraged the ladies to sign up and to wear a hat when they came to the tea. She helped me select the proper teas and food that she wanted for the day so that they would tie into her talk, and she and her husband created special tea-pot shaped name tags.

The event went well overall. The room was set up with round tables, with 7 chairs per table. We had a table for name tags at the door. My resident "guest" speaker had asked a few ladies to help her at the table because the tea-pot shaped name tags were the pin-on style. They were in baskets in alphabetical order. The distribution of the name tags was the biggest hurdle because the residents came in to fast and the line became too long at the table. Next time, I would encourage the volunteers to use a longer table and lay out the name tags. They didn't want to do that when I suggested it to them.  I would also make it so that they could be helped from both sides of the table. I would also relocate the ladies helping to pin on the tags away from the table. In other words, hand them the tag at the table and ask them to go to the volunteer located in another area to get assistance if they needed it. In this case, in order to expedite the long line, I invited guests to be seated and then brought the name tags to each person that didn't get one. 

The meal was wonderful. The culinary department made a beautiful looking plate featuring ham salad, egg salad, chicken salad and cucumber tea sandwiches. Cucumber was a must-have as a part of the tea presentation talk. The plate was nicely garnished with strawberries, blackberries, kiwi and edible orchids. In order to reduce the need for culinary staff help, the plates were pre-set, along with clotted cream, strawberry preserves, scones and petit fours.

Besides the preset lunch plate, the tables also had a lovely center piece that I made using fresh flowers and tea pots. Our community owns a wide variety of unique tea pots. They have been given to us by residents in the past. If that is not the case in your community, determine how many you will need and ask your residents for them. You may want to gather a few extras in case so you options as to the ones you put out, and because some pots might work better for the flowers that you buy than others. 

As for the program, I turned the microphone over to my resident guest speaker. She talked about the history of tea, about the cucumber sandwiches and more. If you don't have a resident who has this special interest, you may find a staff member, a person from the outside community, or even an owner of a local tea house in your area who may want to share their passion with your guests.

p.s If you'd rather host a fashion show instead, I have a good timeline for organizing one at my article about fashion shows.

Click here to find Tea Party Supplies

Love Thy Neighbor Theme Party

In the retirement community where I am the activities director, we started a new program this year where residents are encouraged to nominate an employee for an employee of the month program. The concept of an employee showing the resident loving-kindness and going above and beyond their job duty is a concept that residents and employees are having a hard time understanding. It was a concept that I wanted to build on for the sake of the employee of the month program, so I created a "Love Thy Neighbor" theme party.

The idea would be that residents would have an opportunity to share what they love or appreciate about their neighbor.  Here are the bullet points about how I put this party together:

• Assigned each of our 5 buildings a color to wear
• Decorated the Lobby (party room) with balloons for each building's color
• Used Sweetheart candies to create a center piece for each buffet table and on the tables for extra color
• Printed paper hearts - to coordinate with each building's colors- and that matched Sweetheart colors that had a space for the resident's name, the resident's name being honored and the reason why they are being honored.
• Got painter's tape to stick the hearts onto the wall without damaging the paint
• Put a table up with the paper hearts and extra pens

Overall, this theme night was easy to create. I had a resident tell me that she normally doesn't attend the theme parties becuase they are to difficult for her to participate in properly (dress up). She said that because this them  was simple enough for her to participate in that she would be attending. That was good to hear.

I will say that some residents did not want to complete a heart because they feared hurting another resident's feelings. And then they were other residents who filled out multiple hearts. 

I did leave the hearts on the Lobby wall for a few days after the event so that those who came to the party early would be able to read all of the comments. It is important to have a few ideas in your back pocket to share with residents who want to participate, but can't think of something on their own. Examples of this are:

• Picks up grocery items for me
• Watches my pet while I'm away
• Collects my mail while I'm away
• Visited me in the hospital
• Respects m privacy
• Good listener
• Bakes for me
• Drove me to the hospital
• Etc. etc etc.

"A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble."        Charles Spurgeon

Cane Fu Self Defense

As an activities professional, I am always looking for a new program to add to my calendar. If it is free, that is great. If it is done by a professional, that is better. If it is something the residents can benefit from socially, emotionally, physically, professionally, or spiritually, that is what I want! And, if it can be added to the calendar as a repeating event, then it is a must. My gift to you this month is such a program. It was brought to my attention recently and has just been added to my activities calendar. 

The program is called Cane-Fu. It is a program that teaches seniors how to use their cane for self-defense purposes. It includes elements of balance, stretching and defensive moves. Our local police department has a few police officers who are trained instructors in the program, and they contacted us about starting the program in our community. I know that when the residents see a uniformed officer leading the class, that it gives the class some serious clout. 

The students have benefited with more self-confidence to go out into the community after taking this class. As an activities professional, the idea of reducing the resident's fear to go out of the community is a win-win situation for the resident, and for the success of the outings I plan for them.

I encourage you to look in to this program. Here are a few links to look at for more information: the first is from The Today Show and the other is from ABC's 2020 show. If it is something you think your residents would benefit from, contact your police department and see if they can assist you. If they cannot, there are items on Amazon that might be helpful to starting it yourself! Check out my Activities Director's Store to see the Cane-Fu items I found on Amazon for you.