Residents will recall filling out an annual satisfaction survey in years past. This annual questionnaire is typically developed by Holleran, an organization that surveys Life Plan Communities like ours throughout the nation. This year, Beatitudes Campus has developed its own Independent Living resident survey tailored to the unique experiences of our community during the pandemic.
Do we need diversion during the dog days of August? Do we want to see some of our favorite stars minus aliens, rock music, guns and mayhem?
If your answer is YES, come to a film festival this Thursday and Friday. The theme is “A Hollywood Tribute to Aging With Spirit.” LifeLong Learners committee members chose four movies and established a lunch plan too. Here’s how it will work.
The movies are free. On Thursday and on Friday, at the Life Center, there’s a movie at 9:30AM and a movie at 1:00PM. Each day, Dining Services will provide an optional buffet lunch so you won’t have to go out into the heat between movies. Purchase tickets for lunch at the Bistro with your B-card for $6.50 each. Movie trivia quizzes will decorate the tables. At the end of each movie, we’ll have a drawing for a $25 Harkins gift card. You won’t want to miss that! Check out the schedule here…
Our Thursday special guest is Arlyn Brewster, active in Valley music circles for many years and well-known for directing church music and taking groups on tour. She has conducted at Carnegie Hall and knows the New York setting of our first movie. She will introduce it, and afterwards wrap it up with a few comments.
On Friday, our own Jessica Meyer, Director of Success Matters, who knows a lot about the challenges and successes of aging, will follow up the movies so far with comments and feedback from you. Is Hollywood doing it right? Then—the final movie is just for fun!
This week’s guest writer is Carole Vendrick,
Beatitudes Campus Resident and LifeLong Learners Committee Member
Staff Liaison is Jon Schilling
Have you heard? The Recreation Department is looking to bring our community recreation programming to its highest level yet! But first, with all new visions coming with the new people and preparation for new opportunities, we have been doing a little remodeling so, when complete, we will be ready to start climbing. During this transition time, however, some misperceptions have arisen that we would like to address and, hopefully, create some clarity. One example is a revamping of our staffing and trying to create the most efficient structure to maximize our potential. Where we previously had one part-time driver and one one part-time Recreation Coordinator positions that we were looking to fill, after only receiving a couple of applications, the Transporation and Recreation Departments got together and came to a conclusion of offering a full-time, dual responsibility, position. This position will have dedicated hours for both being a driver and being a Recreation Coordinator. These hours may vary, but Jeff Mathison, Transportation Director, and Didi Cruz will be working together to ensure this new position is successful for the employee and our community.
This does not mean we will have our drivers be fully responsible for off campus events. It is quite the opposite. 90% of our off campus events will have both a driver and a staff/volunteer to make sure that tickets, meals, attendance and your experience is a great one! We do make some decisions where there may be only a driver. These will primarily be trips that only include a drop-off and pick-up at a location (such as a casino). The reason for this is we feel our trip participants to certain off campus venues are fully capable of being independent while enjoying their time off campus. This also allows our Recreation Staff still on campus to provide engaging programming to the other 450 plus residents who do not attend these trips.
Speaking of on campus programming, let’s talk about Theme Dinners. We hear you, and are thankful for our residents who take the time to express the good, bad, ugly and everything in between about community sponsored programming. As you read this, the Recreation Committee members are brainstorming different ways for you to share ideas on what the themes will be moving forward. The on campus and off campus programs that Didi has put on have come directly from residents’ suggestions, and we are so happy that community members share those ideas with her. In the meantime, Didi is working on a suggestion box outside her office and always please bring suggestions/concerns directly to Didi. Thank You!
