OHCA Spring/Summer 2019

The Oregon Caregiver SPRING/SUMMER 2019 www.ohca.com 10 coordinates all of our transportation, making sure that residents get to medical appointments and all kinds of activities and outings,” Donovan said. These outings could be anything from shopping trips to their once a month Oregon-themed ‘ExplOregon’ trips. “This month they’re going to the Oregon Historical Society for the exhibit on brewing culture in Oregon,” she said. FEATURE Themed events are also common. This year, for Valentine’s day and Oregon’s birthday, Donovan said they brought in a historian to speak about the Oregon Trail during a luncheon. For Mardi-Gras this year, there was a huge parade. “I want to live here, and they won’t let me move in,” she said. One of the best parts about group activities is the friendships that are formed among the residents. Donovan said that the activities are only as great as the people who show up. “That includes us as staff and the energy we bring. It also includes the energy the residents bring to the table. They tell their friends, ‘Hey, I’m going to Active for Life Day, you should come with me; that’s how we get people involved,” she said. As an example, Donovan brought up their chair tap-dancing class. “For the first three weeks, it was two ladies. Then a new person showed up and they got to know each other and now they’re friends and they go to other activities together. They learned that they share something and now it’s a group of around eight ladies who come every Monday for chair tap-dancing,” she said. One of those ladies is Ethel Henry, an experienced dancer who started the chair tap-dancing class at Touchmark. “I’m sure everyone knows what regular tap dancing is,” Henry said. “Chair tap-dancing is where we sit in the chair and do all the hand motions and facial expressions, and we do the steps while we sit in the chair the best we can. Our teacher sits inconspicu- ously in front of us, as part of the audience, and we mirror her. That’s how we know what we’re doing” she said. “We’ve already performed one show here.” Henry said that some of the women in the group had never taken tap before. “It was a dream of theirs. It’s fun. We come to that class and just laugh all the time,” she said. Henry said that she also tries to take part in the Tai Chi classes and other activities at the facility. “They’re so new, they’re still working very hard at getting other activities that other people are interested in doing,” she said. “They try to touch everything that everybody wants, there’s something for everybody. I’ve been asking other people to join the dance class and they tell me that they’re already spoken for at that time. You have to pick and choose what you want to do,” Henry said. Executive Director of Cherrywood Village Ole Lindbo had a very busy start to 2019. This year, the community “Our health and wellness program isn’t just open to residents and employees. It’s a private-public gym. We have 200 public members, so the cool thing is, we get this cross-multi-generational exposure for all three parts. We’ve got community members from the Portland area that we live in that come, we have our residents and their grandkids and kids, and then we have the employees and their kids.” – Ole Lindbo, Executive Director, Cherrywood Village » QUALITY WELLNESS AND ACTIVITY PROGRAMMING, CONT. The residents are Cherrywood Village enjoyed the community’s first ever prom event on February 14 with residents and staff.