Rainbow Theme Party

In our retirement community we have 5 different buildings and people get to know those who live in their building pretty well. I'm always trying to find an idea that gives the residents in one building a reason to talk with a resident from another building. In the past I have held pizza socials and invited different buildings to come together and they were successful, and I have created special events for the same purpose. The Rainbow Theme Party is a new special event that I introduced to the community this summer. Here are the details, so that you can plan it for yourself.

 

First, let me tell you that my inspiration came from Pinterest. Please take a minute to see my board for Rainbows.  You will find food and decoration ideas that are very cool. (I did not get my inspiration from searching adult rainbow party on the Internet and I suggest you save the time and the embarrassment and skip that step. And no, this is not a gay theme party - but could be if you wanted it to be, I guess.)

 

We held a reception at 4:30 p.m. in our Club House Lobby. We find this is the best place and time as residents are coming a distance to go to the nearby dining room which opens soon after the party ends. Each building was assigned a color of the rainbow and residents were asked to wear their specific color. Yes, there are more colors than I have buildings, so I selected what I thought they would have in their closet and would make a statement when mixed together. Those who wore their building's color received a raffle ticket for a prize drawing later that night. (I actually gave everyone a raffle ticket, hoping that it would draw them to the Auditorium after dinner to see the show. I suggest not saying that is what you will do ahead of time in order to get the most people dressing in their color.) Most of the people dressed in their colors and some got crazy with it. It was easy and fun for them to get into!

 

The Lobby was decorated with a rainbow balloon arch and it was the centerpiece of the evening! (I hired a professional for this.) This party was full of color. I made balloon bouquets that had one of each of the building’s colors in the bunch and placed them around the Lobby. The tables were covered with rainbow table covers, and the food was as close to picture perfect as the ones I have on Pinterest. (Suggestion: show your culinary department the ideas well in advance to determine what is do-able for them.) Make sure to look at the Activities Director's Store  to get a lot more supplies for your party (candy, clothing, decorations, etc.) I did buy rainbow bowties for the waiters/waitress to wear that evening.

 

For the entertainment, I found a performer who I've worked with in the past and told her the idea for the night. She sang songs with colors in their titles or lyrics as well as the most famous, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." She loved the concept of the party and shared that feeling during her show, which really helped to sell it. It was a hit.

 

This sounds very basic, but I honestly feel that sometimes you do not have to go all out, spend a ton of money, and bust your buns to make elaborate events to have the residents enjoy the special events that you create!

Source: Uploaded by user via Recharging Retirees on Pinterest

 

Summer Fitness for Seniors

Summer is almost here and that means it is time to bring back a summer class that our residents really enjoy. In my retirement community, I have a fitness instructor who creates the fitness elements of our monthly calendar. I am lucky in that respect, as the demands of the residents for fitness programs continues to increase all the time. It is a full time job to come up with programs that keep residents inspired and active.

The class that we revive each summer is water aerobics. The instructor teaches it from the pool deck, but it can also be taught from within the pool. Movements for students in this class are similar to those done on land, but provides a stress free environment, thanks to the water. If you don't have an instructor on staff, and are not budgeted to hire someone, you may consider teaching the class yourself. If you are like me, I love having a reason to get out of the office and interact with the residents.... and to think I would be working out also is an extra plus. Here is a video that I found on the web that explains how to teach water aerobics. I also found a DVD that is specific to senior adults.

Part of the pool class that is taught in my community includes the use of water weights. There are many benefits to strength training in the water. There is a cost involved in purchasing the weights and a consideration on where they will be stored when they are not in use, but it is well worth the investment.

Of course, when you think about the pool you probably think about swimming. Do you think that it is good for seniors, over the age of 60 or not? Well, studies show that it is! This is a hard "class" to lead, so I suggest that you and/or your fitness professional, remind the residents in your community of the benefits. You might add it to your calendar as a specific time to swim laps if your pool is designed to handle multiple swimmers. Our pool is not, and most of our lap swimmers have organized themselves to permit each other space to swim in the early morning hours.

Something new that we are considering is relaxation in the water. I know that it does not sound like anything, but as you would read in the previous link, relaxing is key in healing a person's body as well as their mind. Read all about and let me know if it sounds worthwhile to you or maybe your retirement community is already incorporating this into your existing fitness program.

And lastly, the newest craze, is performing yoga in the pool! Residents have been doing chair aerobics for awhile now, and the class is very well attended. I wonder if they would be willing to put their swim suits on and come to the pool to try yoga in the pool?  I did find an instructional video on water yoga that I found interesting on YouTube. If you want to own your own DVD, here is one that is available on Water Yoga. 

We also have a Tai Chi class that is held inside and done using chairs. Movements are done from a seated position as well as standing. This class can also be taken into the pool. Check this video out as another option for your calendar.

Remember that a good fitness and activities program includes something for everyone! What new summer exercise class will you try this summer?

Staff and Resident Social

As CCRCs work towards a more social model instead of the medical model, we see the need for changing the mindset of employees and residents. The concept of a universal worker or a what ever your community might call the position, leaves those just entering this new world wondering how it will work out.

The community where I work is taking big steps towards creating neighborhoods and staff being crossed trained, especially in the medical/health center and assisted living section of our community. I work in the independent living section of the CCRC and these concepts are slowly coming to my part of town. 

One of the best things that I have done so far towards this initiative is to have a Getting to Know You Reception for staff and residents. The hardest part of the event was to encourage the staff to stay for the party. Once the executive director told the department heads that they should schedule their staff to be there and to keep them on the clock for it, it seemed to help a lot. 

I set the event for Friday at 4:30 p.m. because I thought that during the week, staff might have family obligations to attend to with their children and because 4:30 p.m. is like our "happy hour" before the residents go into the dining room. Next time, I will ask the managers what their staff would prefer instead of making that assumption.

I promoted it strongly as a chance to get to know the staff when they were not rushing off to work. Even during the event, I found myself encouraging the residents to go to the staff members because I knew that due to language barriers and the nature of our particular set of staff members, they were not going to take the lead to mix.

The hour event went like this: I had 2 tables with 2 staff members at each. They provided name tags for those who came to the event and provided each person with their own question for the party. They were told to ask their question to as many people as they could by saying, "Hello, Jim, my name is Martha, and my question is...." We explained that after they asked their question and heard the answer that they should ask the person for their question if it is not offered right away. There were about 30 different questions, copied multiple times, available to be used as conversation starters.

I found the questions in a book called Getting to Know You. It did take time to read through them and select questions that would 1) inspire conversation 2) be something that both staff and residents could relate to and 3) feel comfortable answering. There are other books for mixers that would be helpful for this kind of event also that can be found in my Resources for Activities Directors section of my blog.

If you rather not take the time to read and select appropriate questions, feel free to take a look at the ones that I typed up. They can be found on-line.

This was so fun and interesting. It did require a lot of repetition as the directions were retold over and over, but that was alright. It also did require our staff to come out of their comfort zones a little bit, but that too was alright. Giving them permission to be the guests at the party was hard for some and at times they were reminded to mingle with the residents, not just stand with each other. 

This event, I believe, lays a good foundation for the success of our home-like, community, neighborhood community that we are striving to be. In order for this social model to work, we must know the residents who we serve, and they must know us, the employee - as people! Not as workers or as residents, but as humans, with strengths, weaknesses, talents, interests, etc.  It was not a hard event to do, but I believe it

will have big rewards in the future. Get your management on board, and then go for it.

Burn-out or New Beginning?

After 25 years working with seniors in CCRCs in activities, there are days when I think, "what else can I do for a job?" and then there are days where I know I am in the right place. I think, no matter what the job is, after while everyone feels a bit burned out, but it is what you do next that matters the most.

To be perfectly honest, for me there are a few things that I do when I am feeling burned out as the activities director in my independent living retirement community. Some of these ideas may work for you, and some may not. Here is what I do, in no particular order, and not necessarily each time that I feel I want to quit.

• Admit that I am have a feeling of burn-out. It's the way I feel. I own it and move on. I don't push it under the carpet or to the back of my mind. I try to address it and grow from it.
• Should I stay or should I go? If I am not sure, I start looking for another job. Somehow I feel that if the next job opportunity was out there for me, then I would have to get serious about taking the next step. Also, I believe that if I don't find my next job that it was a sign that I should stay where I am. There is a good feeling knowing that I have taken a step, by looking for another job, to determine if quiting is the right decision for me or not.  I always have a choice.
• I talk with other professionals in my field. I am lucky enough to have two co-workers in "sister-communities" who go through similar issues in their community. We remind each other of the positives of the job, offer each other solutions to problems, and encourage each other to step up our game, so we don't get bored. Find someone who you can relate with on a professional level. Look at on-line community groups such as Yahoo's AD Community, Activity Chat, or on FaceBook the Recharging Retirees Page. Of course there are actual groups who meet on a regular basis in your area too.
• A new challenge, a new twist on an old activity or theme event, a totally new addition to the calendar, etc. means that you are learning and growing. Don't let yourself get bored or stuck in your comfort zone. You are the leader, and though the residents may not think they want to try something different, if you are confident in presenting something new, and they have developed a good foundation of trust with you, they will give it a try too. How cool is that! When you grow, they benefit. How can you feel burn-out when you are growing and providing new experiences to those you serve? You can't!
• I think to myself that if I am not happy in my work, that the residents that I served probably are, or will become, unhappy with me and my work too. If I can not give the community something to get excited about at least once a month, then it is not fair to them. Holding onto my job as activities director just to have a paycheck affects the residents negatively and that is shameful. When I think like that, I press myself to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.
• Don't be afraid to try something new. I've arranged outings and programs in the community that I feel will be popular with the residents, and they are not. I say to myself, and to the residents, "you don't know until you try," and with that attitude, the residents appreciate the effort, creativity, and the bravery that it takes to present it to them. It is a learning opportunity and from some residents and/or staff, I get "props" for trying. Not a failure really.

"To fight fear, act. To increase fear - wait, put off postpone." Motivational Writer and Coach, David Joseph Schwartz

• Take a day off. Make a long weekend by taking Friday, Monday or both off if you can. Take a real vacation and find inspiration, or just get away from the office to recharge yourself.
• Get new ideas by opening yourself up to what is around you. What is your city doing? What is the local school doing? Is there a special event at the mall or the casino in your area? Did you hear about a unique entertainer while reading the newspaper? What have you seen on the Internet or TV? When you go through all of these (and many more) ask your self these questions: Would this be of interest my community's residents? And, how can I make this work in my community? Where there is a will, there is a way. It may not fit in right away, but somewhere down the line, it might. (For me, I love the ideas of having food trucks come to us, but so far, it has not been of interest to the food trucks because we don't have a large enough population to make it worth their while financially.... and at this point, we have not opened our property up to the outside community...... but sooner or later, I'll come up with something good and it will be worth the wait for everyone involved.)
• I have learned to say NO when I need to to protect myself from taking on to much. I usually feel it necessary to  provide a good explanation with my no..... (IE doing things right, well, timely, successfully, etc)
• I have started to ask for help from residents and staff. As a one person department, (which is a positive for me), this is difficult for me, but an area that I am working on..... personal growth. It helps reduce burn out for me and gives others join in providing something fun and positive to the community (which, I think is the main positive of the job of activities director!)
• I evaluate my home-life. Are there stressors that I'm bringing into work with me? Am I getting enough sleep?
• I recall all the positive reasons why I selected my job, my profession, in the first place.
• I spend time with a resident who I really enjoy. It is personal and valuable to me.

I hope these thoughts help you when you need them. It takes a special person to work in this field. Some say it is a calling. All I know is today, in this minute, I can not think of another job, at another place, that I'd rather be. I am thankful...... not burned-out.

"Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally." Journalist, David Frost

Volunteer Appreciation MINT Theme

I found an idea for my volunteer appreciation luncheon on Pinterest. When I saw this bag of mints, I knew that I could build an entire program around this theme and that the residents in my retirement community would love it. As you probably already know, Volunteer Appreciation week is April 21 - 27 this year (2013). Here are my thoughts for the celebration:.

The easiest part of the day will be the menu. There are so many different ways that you can incorporate mint into your menu without going overboard. I have a meeting next week with my culinary department to finalize our menu, but I'm sure that whatever you and your department come up will be just as good. I will post what we settle on afterwards and hope that if you use this theme that you too will return to the site and share what you did for the menu and the rest of the afternoon.

For the tables, my plan is to create a over sized mint for the center of each of the tables that will be used for this annual appreciation lunch.  I am thinking about an Andes mint or a red and white hard candy mint utilizing this process that I saw on Pinterest. My husband also thought that these floral arrangements would be good, but I think that I will save them for another occasion.  I will also place an assortment of the mints in a gift bag at each person place setting. 

The most creative part of the day will be the speech that I will give to the residents. Each year I try to do something different so that they know I care and really do appreciate them as volunteers enough to put some work into their appreciation luncheon program. I've written about some of the other ideas on this blog and encourage you to read those articles too.

This year, I wrote a speech that changed the words ending in "ment" to MINT. Words like commitment, fulfillment, acknowledgement and lots more. To see if there were any words that I didn't have on my list that might work into my speech, I went on-line and found this website.. .... morewords.com  Next, I will be creating a pictionary type presentation to show as I speak to the volunteers. An example would be, the word "judgement." It would have a picture of a judge and then a picture of a mint. I have selected 3 different kinds of mints so that they do not see the same ending over and over again. And, I am only doing the pictionary part of this for a handful of the words.... otherwise, I think it would be a bit overwhelming to follow what is being said.

I have shared my volunteer appreciation speech on-line. When you read it you will be able to see all the words that I've changed. You will also note that I put a few key words in the speech that are important in my community. They might not make sense to you and should be edited. The idea here is that I wanted to share is the use of the words and the ideas of thanking retired seniors who choose to volunteer in their community. Take those ideas and build on them with feelings that come from your heart and the value you know they provide to your community. You will have an awesome speech and leave the residents in amazeMINT of what you've put together for them.

Remember, please come back and share your ideas with everyone..... it takes a minute and it feels good to share knowing that you will help another professional and in turn make more seniors happy.

p.s. If you scroll down, under the mints is a slide show of some of the items I will order and put into the gift bag. Click on a picture for more information from Amazon. 

Your Theme Nights

I've written about a few unique theme parties that I have hosted in my retirement community in the past on this website. I was wondering what your most unique event was. Please post it in the comments below and give a brief description of what you did that was special! Also, make sure that you type in themes in the  search box to see all the different articles.

Lifelong Learning Lessons

At the beginning of the year, I posted the question, "what contribution to your community's calendar are you the most proud of in 2012?" One of the options was "add a new educational program" and it was not selected once. I was very surprised and it made me think to share some of the ways that I have added more educational opportunities to my retirement community's activity calendar. 

First, when I think about education and what would appeal to the independent living residents in my community, the subjects are varied and endless. Some of the topics off the top of my head are Art Appreciation, Crafts, Dance, Drawing, Picture Matting and Framing, Music Appreciation, Painting, Photography, Sculpture, Theater, Environmental, Self-Improvement, Cooking, Sports, History, Current Events, Literature, Foreign Language, Digital Photo, Social Networking, Computers, Nature, Scrapbooking, Jewelry Making, Health and Wellness and more.

The benefits of participating in educational programs are great for the resident. Learning in their own community relieves the resident of  the pressure associated with attending a real class and they find like-minded residents who share a common interest with them. They can explore unfamiliar subjects, broaden their horizons, and feel more alive as they learn new concepts.

As the activities director, it is my job to provide these educational opportunities to the residents. There are two different was that I do this. The first is that when there are programs of interest happening in the city where we live, I get the details, promote the event and provide a bus for the interested residents to attend.  The other way to provide this type of program is to host an educational program in your own community. 

Some of the places that you will find educational opportunities, also know as life long learning, continuing education, or adult education are to take your residents to or to contact about coming to your community are:

• Libraries
• Places of Worship (Churches/ Temples)
• College and Universities
• Individual Professionals
• Parks and Recreation Department

You should be on the mailing lists for these places so that you can see what is offered. Then you are able to do the research necessary to find the professor, speaker, or presenter yourself.

With the colleges and universities, you can send the resident to attend a paid course, find out if there are free classes that they can sit in on (usually available after the paying students have sign up), or do your homework and hire the same professor to come to your community. Bringing the professor to your community usually means looking for their contact information from the catalogue the school provides for their lifelong learning course or seeking them on-line.

You might also find subject of interest to your residents on-line. Be careful that you are not bringing a business into your community whose intention is to sell your residents a product or service. One of the sites that I found helpful is USA.Gov  It takes a bit of your time to read through and find what might be of interest for you, but it would be worth it.  Another good source of programs that you could bring to your community are from Road Scholar (which use to be Elderhostel). These are DVD programs that you would buy and have in your community forever.