Poker Walk

Fitness is a big part of any activities calendar in a retirement community. Fitness programs can, and should, appear with many different titles and be held in many different locations, but the main element is that residents get moving!

One of the activities that we have done on an annual basis for the past eight years is called a Poker Walk. It was derived from an annual motorcycle fund raiser event that takes place in our area's greater community. It is a program that is simple to put together and fun for the residents.

First, plan your route for your walkers. Ours is just about a mile long and circles our campus. Then plan where your five stations will be and place a table and chair or two at each location, along with a deck of playing cards and a cooler with small individual bottles of water in in. Large print cards work better if you have them, but it is not necessary.

You will need to create a grid that has a five rows (one for each station) and four columns, one for each type of suite in the deck of cards. (hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds) Make sure there is a place for the resident's name at the top. You will get two grids on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper.

The day of your event, you would have a reception table with the grid available for each participant. They "register" by taking the paper and writing their name on the top of it, and then taking it along with them on the walk. We decorate the tables with balloons and/or a card theme. (If you need to have them sign up ahead of time to know how many will attend, do so, but their will be extras joining you when they see what is happening.)

Residents walking are reminded before they leave that this is not a race and are encouraged to enjoy the walk, the sights along the way and the fellowship of their friends and neighbors. When a resident gets to a table, they draw a card and the number (2-10) or letter (J, Q, K or A) is written under the appropriate column. They will repeat this at each table. I will say that it is easier to spread the cards out on the table (if there is not breeze) and let more than one person pick a card at the same time. This helps keep the residents moving and not standing in line for their turn at the table. This is where a second person helps so they can write the results down as the first person manages the card draws. When then get finished with the route, they bring their paper back to the registration table to get reviewed. The best poker hand wins. 

We have a nurse going around on a golf cart to make sure that everyone is alright. If someone is not able to walk the whole thing, she picks them up and takes them to the rest of the tables on the route. Some residents have even gone from the first table to the last table and just drawn all their cards at the last table. We really encourage this to be a walking event, but we do not turn away someone in a scooter or other kind of aid.

Refreshments should be available once the group finishes. Also, in order to allow time to tally the results, you might consider a health fair or some other casual interactive program where the residents can visit at different times (since not everyone will be there at the same time).

p.s. Check out my other articles regarding fitness for seniors by going to the link at the top left labeled Fitness.

Keep 'Em Going!

Holiday Decorations

Have you eaten your Wheaties? Are you ready for the holiday season? I've been out shopping and getting ready to decorate our community for Christmas and Hanukkah. I will have the day off after Thanksgiving, so I will start on Monday.

I was wondering if you, as the activities director of your community, are the responsible person for the decorations. Do you have volunteers, staff members, residents, or an outside company help you?  In my retirement community, the maintenance department does all of our outside lights and they help me get the artificial trees up. This year we will be buying a live tree for our lobby, since it is newly renovated and we thought that it would be a nice change.

I do have managers that like to help also, so they help me decorate the trees. We have a tree in the lobby, as I mentioned, plus one in our casual dining area, one in the auditorium, and one in the main dining room. We also have a card tree where residents tie on their greeting card for the community to see. It makes a pretty tree. I simply put the tree out with lights on it, and then place a hole puncher and sleigh full of pre-cut red ribbons for them to use next to the tree.

Then, of course there are the decorations that jazz up the lobby and auditorium. Those are the special items that I think really make the community feel special and ties the trees into the room. The special Santa that they see each year, the nutcrackers, etc. etc. that set the scene for the room. I enjoy decorating the community more than I do my home these days. Or maybe it is that by the time I've finished at work, I don't have much energy left for home. I'm not sure, but I do know that this is the busiest and greats time of the year.

I hope that you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday and that you will enjoy the crazy-ness of the next few weeks as activities director! Take a deep breath and GO GET IT DONE!

Simple Social Suggestion

Ralph Waldo Emerson said "It is not length of life,
but depth of life."

As activities directors for independent living senior adults, this is a quote that I feel could be painted on our office walls! It reminds us of the importance of having a meaningful program for our residents. It would also serve the residents well to see this quote to remind them to live each day to its fullest and with meaning!

I have shared some ideas with you on this blog that are fun, but this time, I want to speak about something that may or may not be considered an "activity" that you can list on your calendar. It may even fall under the culinary department in your community, instead of the activities department, but I'm still going to share it with you because I've seen the success of it at my community. It is simply a time and a place in your community where coffee is available to residents and their guests to have for free. And yes, you as the activities director can and should suggest it!

I can hear some of you already saying this has nothing to do with me, but please take a minute to finish reading this. I promise it won't be long. Part of our job involves the resident's social happiness... and this does meet that need. I can also hear you say that with the budget cuts, that this is out of the question. There is no harm in asking though, is there? And then there are a few of you who think that residents will abuse this free service or that your culinary department will not be able to manage it well. And yes, there will be days when those will be correct thoughts. But overall, it does work. Oh, and the marketing department loves this idea! Now there are people in the lobby when prospective residents come to see our community..... and they can offer them a cup of coffee too.

My community set up a coffee area outside our administration office that serves coffee from 10:00 a.m until 2:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. (Sunday we serve breakfast and then dinner at noon so they have plenty of opportunities for coffee in the same time frame as the other days.) We've made sure there are plenty of seats for those interested in staying for a chat, and the area is usually very busy. Residents are encouraged to bring their own mugs if they want to, but it is not necessary.  Refills are requested when coffee runs low and the culinary department brings it ASAP. Sometimes this is quickly and sometimes there is a wait, but like I said, there are usually people to talk to, so the wait is not that bad.

We have residents who started bring cookies, donughts, etc. to add to the coffee area. We make sure to make a sign that gives credit to the resident for their donation. It makes them feel good for the recognition and others are able to thank them. It also lets the residents know that this is not from our kitchen, in case it is not good, etc.  We haven't had that as an issue before, but just in case. It has even got some residents started on a baking routine that is just amazing! 

I've made this longer than I thought it would be - I'm sorry, but I got excited. Take a look at your community. Where would be a good place for you to initiate this? It might be in your library, like a Barnes and Nobles. Maybe it's in your foyer like the hotels do, or in your dining room that is only used in the evenings? Remember, this is the resident's home and you will be able to find the place that will work for them to sit with their friends, the ones they know and the ones they've yet to meet and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. It truly is simple and yet adds another level to the depth of the days the resident will spend in their community.

Activity Sign-up Sheets

So you have created a terrific program idea for your independent living retirement community residents. You have advertised it well, and people are interested. How do you assure that those who want to attend go on the program and, if there is a charge for it, charge them?

At my retirement community, I have a space in the main lobby (also know as the club house by our marketing people), where I have a bulletin board and a place for sign up sheets. On the bulletin board are the posters for the on-going events and special programs that are taking place. On-going activities are to shopping trips, doctors offices, and religious services. I have them broken down into different binders: one for shopping (groceries and malls), one for doctors, sectioned in its own book by the direction the bus will travel (north, south, east or west). Each direction goes on specific days of the week and they are noted on the main calendar. And the last book for on-going activities is for religious services. This book is broken down by the day the bus  goes, Sundays or Fridays. For the most part, these on-going activities run smoothly as far as those who sign up, go, and those who don't sign up can usually add onto the bus without much concern. There are no fees for these kinds of buses in my community, so that is not an issue for me either.

The programs that I really wanted to address are those special outings that have a fee associated with them. I keep these sign-up sheets in a book that I call "In-House Programs and Activities Book." If you are like me, I have a few problems that have been issues forever. The first is that if I purchase tickets for a program, I make a sign- up sheet with that many spots on it. After those spaces are made, I stop numbering the lines and put the words WAIT LIST BEGINS BELOW. This didn't seem to work because the residents did not see those words and just assumed that if they added their name onto the page for the activity, that they were "good to go."  So, I started highlight the words in a different color on the sign up sheet. Still not much better.  Now, I started highlighting the entire section of the wait list. I've been saying now that if your name is in the colored section that you are on the wait list.

The wait list. What exactly does that mean to you and to your residents? That is problem number two. To me, being on a wait list means that the resident on that list is waiting to get a call from me to say that there is now space or ticket to go on the outing. I think that is pretty straight forward, but some folks don't understand that. That information is in their "Resident Guide to Services" book that they get when they first move in and is repeated on occasion in evening announcements that go out to the community on a bi-weekly basis.

The other problem that I have with sign-up sheets is that if a person on the list crosses their name off, that another person may come to the sign-up sheet and add their name to the list without consideration for the people's name on the wait list. Seems like they would be considerate, but people are people. I've been trying to pull the lists into my office when they are full and a wait list has started, but that does not always work. Then if a resident does not see the sign-up sheet, they have to either stop in or call me to have me add them to or cancel them from the list.

Another problem, though minor, that takes place in my retirement community is that sometimes people are mean and cross someones name off the list. It hasn't happened that often, but it has really happened. Sad. Not sure how to get around that, except to try and get that resident back on the list as quickly as possible.

And lastly, once the activity is going to go, I try to be in the lobby as the bus is loading to check off the people's names. This is not always possible, so what I've been doing lately is asking a resident volunteer to do it for me. Usually this would be a person on the list, but not always. If there are tickets involved, the volunteer will hand those out for me also. The problem occurs when a person who signed up, doesn't show up - especially if there is a wait list! It is so frustrating. Our policy is that if the resident doesn't show, and there is a cost that has been paid (not our own bus fee), that the resident will be charged for it. That makes it a little easier financially for the activities department budget, but that does not help the resident on the wait list who wanted to go. This is a problem that continues to annoy me.

Having a good procedure for signing up and charging the correct attendees for an outing is very important to the success of your department and to mine. I would love to see your thoughts on this subject. As you can see this is one area that I've been working on and still would like to get better!

Veterans Day Service

In our retirement community, Veterans Day is a very special event. This holiday honors the living veterans who served and are serving our great country. In our independent living community, we have Veterans from WWII, the Koren War and Vietnam War. Veterans Day is always celebrated on November 11 at 11:00 a.m.  (I think really it is suppose to be 11:11 am, but that might look funny on your calendar.)

Our program usually involves a few key elements. The first is that we ask the men in the community to make sure that we have the service stats so that we can announce their branch and length of service. This information may be printed on the day's program, used as part of a slide show or shared by the speaker leading the program.  We like to give our veterans a chance to stand out on this day. We ask them to gather together and proceed into the auditorium to sit in a reserved section for them. Sometimes I order a boutonniere or corsage for them to wear into the service, or give them a flag pin, bumper sticker, or other small special gift.

The program begins with the pledge of allegiance and is followed by prayers, songs and speakers. My community's chaplain is the principal participant in this holiday event. I have assisted him with decorations, creating the program, hiring a guest speaker, get a color guard from the area's high school, and making a special slide show that shows the resident in an active duty photo, followed by a current day photo. I was lucky with this and had a resident help getting the old pictures scanned and taking the new ones. Maybe you have that type of volunteer in your community. We also include the playing of each of the branches specific song and ask each person in the audience to stand when they hear a song that is special to them. This is very touching and moves me to tears each time as I look around and see the pride in the audience.  Remember in order to get a speaker or color guard, you will need to plan ahead. This date and time are the same for everyone, and they may be booked already if you wait to long.

In an effort to keep the Veterans Day service fresh every year, we rotate the use of a segment of our program. It is really designed for Memorial Day, but we include it every other year in our Veterans service. It is the White Table Service. Basically:

The table is round — to show our everlasting concern for our missing men.
The tablecloth is white — symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to duty.
The single red rose, displayed in a vase, reminds us of the life of each of the missing, and the loved ones and friends of these Americans who keep the faith, awaiting answers.
The vase is tied with a ribbon, symbol of our continued determination to account for our missing.
A slice of lemon on the bread plate is to remind us of the bitter fate of those captured and missing in a foreign land.
A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears endured by those missing and their families who seek answers.
The Bible represents the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God.
The glass is inverted — to symbolize their inability to share this evening’s [morning''s/day''s] toast.
The chairs are empty — they are missing.
A Candle– Lit to remember that the light of America will always be the light in a world of darkness.



I found a great place for getting a free information, including a Veterans Day poster each year on the internet. There is also a place where you can learn about films that honor the fallen. You may want to use this in the evening following your service, or save it for Memorial Day. And lastly, I found a place that shows videos that celebrates Veterans:http://www.military.com/video/specialties-and-personnel/veterans/militarycom-celebrate-our-veterans/666271426001/  You might be able to save it onto your computer and use it in your service.

This is one of those days that I truly believe is a "must do, and must do right" program that you should have in your retirement community every year. It means so much to so many in your community.

Halloween

It's almost that time of year when you can get dressed up in a costume at work. Oh, wait, you are an activities director in a retirement community..... you do that on a regular basis. If you are like me, you have a "costume closet" somewhere at work or in your house so that you are ready for any theme party that comes your way. It is one of the fun parts about being an activities director.

If you are like me, what you want to wear and what is okay to wear to work are usually different. Halloween is no exception! In my community, residents pay close attention to my wardrobe and the last thing I want to do is offend anyone. Because of that, I do tend to dress a bit conservatively. For Halloween, I don't wear, or display, anything that is related to death or anything that is evil.

I've taken time, so that you don't have to, and found costumes that I feel I could wear (some with modifications -  like adding tights, etc) to work. I've eliminated anything that was to scary, gross, skimpy, childish, or that we, as activities professionals, get to wear from time to time in our jobs. There are some here for men, women and those that would work for either sex. Put your mouse over the pictures for details and click to go to the item's page. If you don't see anything below, click here to see them all. Most have free shipping and returns.

Now is the time to order so that you can assure that you have your costume for Monday, October 31st! Happy Halloween!

Fancy China Party

Break out the good china! At my retirement community there are homes that are beautifully decorated by residents who have a great deal of class and style. As a home owner, I know the pride a person feels about their home and the items in it, and as the activities director, I try to find ways for residents to share their interests with the community.

I've had a few different programs that offer this experience. One of my favorites to host is a Fancy China Party. You can call it by another name, but here is what it is all about. I put out an invitation to the community inviting the residents to attend a tea party style lunch in our private dining room. I asked the residents to bring a set of their fancy china to set on the table in advance. Each person is given time in advance to set their place at the table. The culinary department completes the tables with the standard items that each table will need.

At the lunch, each person takes time to explain the history of their place setting. The stories were very interesting to all of us.

You will need to work out the details about the clean-up of the dishes prior to your event. We felt like we could clean the dishes and then send them home with the residents and luckily nothing was broken in the process. Make sure you speak with each resident about what they'd like you to do with their items and also with the staff in the kitchen.

This would be a great event for Mother's Day, so make a note on your calendars now and consider yourself one step ahead for May 2012!

Check out the items that will help enhance your tea party luncheon.