This Week At The Rivers

The Rivers is a Senior Living community located at Highway 13 and River Hills Drive.

Well, another week has come and gone in a hurry at The Rivers. After the busy week before of "I Love The Rivers Week" and all the excitement that happened, it was nice to have a quiet week of calm. The week was well received by everyone and the residents here are already looking forward to doing it again next year. But you know me, I will have to top myself next year.

The big news of the week was getting the new television for the Ida Marie Atrium.  It's a 60-inch LG plasma television and the maintenance team had it on the wall in no time.  Ever since the old video projector died a few weeks back, we have been looking forward to a better television system. The best part was that the Lang-Nelson corporate office decided to cover the cost of the TV even though the residents had raised nearly half the cost. Best part is we get to keep the money in the resident council fund for other charitable purposes.

We tried out the TV on Wednesday with Youtube.com video fun where I show fun and entertaining videos off the internet. We watched videos from residents suggestions of their favorite entertainers. We watched clips of Al Jolson, Doris Day, Nelson Eddy and Frank Sinatra. Even though they were old videos, on the big new television they looked pretty sharp.

I'll be trying out the new TV again with my Art Masterworks program on Mexican artists Frida Kalho and Diego Rivera. The power point presentation of these great pieces of art will show up great on the new television.

Tomorrow we will celebrate Father's Day at The Rivers with a special Father's Day lunch and then Bob Showers will do a talk on the history of the Minnesota Twins.  He is the author of "The Twins at The Met" and has lots of great baseball stories and will sell copies of the book at a reduced price. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by about 1:00 and hear Bob speak and then stay for some Dad's Root Beer floats.

Next week looks pretty fun here. On Monday, June 18, at 3 p.m. the Showtime Senior Chorus will perform for us.  they should bring a smile to everyone's faces. Wednesday night at 6:30 we will have a presentation on Senior Scams.  Today there are a lot of people tried to scam seniors with fake phone calls and e-mails.  If you want to know more, give Beth, our receptionist, a call at 952-890-8553 to register.

The Lakeville Red Hat Ladies will be back on Thursday at 1:30 and they are always a hoot to watch. I must say they have a lot of fun when they visit with us. Their infectious energy always shines through and the residents just love it. The monthy Resident Council meeting will follow.

This week's education program is Biography Live. We will be looking at the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. He is thought to be the father of the modern mystery novel and his life was full of mystery too.  The last two weeks of his life he went missing and no one knows what happened to him before he died. We will also read from some of his works like "The Raven", "The Tell-Tale Heart" and others.       

Being an Activity Director for a senior community is so rewarding. It gives me great joy to provide and organize leisure activities for the residents. I can't begin to tell you what a great community we have here at The Rivers. All we need to make this a better place is YOU.  Stop on by and take a tour of the place and I am sure you would agree.Until next Friday, have a great weekend and week ahead.

Joe Johnson, activity director, The Rivers