Senior living communities get creative with activities

Peering from their windows earlier this year, residents of Manatawny Manor saw a strange visitor staring back at them.

The big eyes beneath the long lashes in the furry face outside belonged to Duchess, an alpaca.

The woolly camelid, owned by Wendy Tucci of Dream Maker Alpaca Ranch in Union Township, Berks County, brightened the day for residents confined to their rooms due to precautions taken to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“We have to be creative with all the things we offer,” Joenel Torrillo, executive director of the seniorliving community, said of the facility’s effort to provide engaging activities while keeping residents safe.

Manatawny in East Coventry Township, Chester County, is one of nine Diakon continuing-care retirement communities in Pennsylvania and Maryland.

The Lutheran social service also operates The Lutheran Home at Topton in Berks County.

With statewide COVID-19 mitigation measures restricting social activities in senior living communities, Diakon and other independent- and assisted-living facilities and nursing homes are finding new ways to keep residents active and entertained.

“They’ve been doing a fantastic job,” William Swanger, Diakon’s senior vice president for corporate communications and public relations, said of Manatawny.

Swanger noted that as of mid-May the facility near Pottstown had no recorded cases of the coronavirus among its residents and staff.

Torrillo said Manatawny’s staff has come up with numerous fun and entertaining activities since restrictions on communal dining and recreation were adopted in March.

Among the more imaginative was a recent Flores de Mayo, or Flowers of May, festival.

Flores de Mayo is celebrated throughout the month in the Philippines, where it originated to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Staff at Manatawny put their own spin on the tradition for Mother’s Day.

They dressed in bright floral prints and paraded down the facility’s hallways, holding umbrellas decorated with colorful flowers over the heads of residents, who stayed safely in their rooms.

Torrillo’s staff is one of many taxed with keeping the residents of senior living facilities from getting bored during the social-distancing phase of the pandemic.

The restrictions have not been easy for the usually active residents of The Heritage of Green Hills in Cumru Township, Berks.

“They feel like they are caged lions,” said Cheryl Anderson, Well By Design program director at The Heritage. “They are used to doing all kinds of stuff, and now they can’t.”

Residents are being asked not to leave the senior community’s 80-acre campus but are free roam the premises in small groups of four or five and while using recommended social-distancing techniques.

“I want them outside in the sun and fresh air,” she said

Anderson has come up with several ways to encourage fun outdoor activities, including a “bear hunt.”

Residents were encouraged to place stuffed bears in their windows where they could be spotted by those walking outdoors.

On a recent blustery day, residents gathered outside their apartments, and standing 6 feet apart, blew soap bubbles into the wind. They also waved bubbles as greetings to those watching from their windows and drew cheery messages to staff and neighbors using colorful sidewalk chalk.

Despite the warmer spring weather, residents managed to have a May “snowball fight,” hurling white yarn pompoms at one another in a friendly battle.

Residents also decorated the campus trees with 1,000 origami paper cranes, a Japanese tradition believed by some to bring good luck or good health.

There are plenty of indoor activities for the fun-loving crowd at The Heritage, too, Anderson said.

One of the most innovative is the upcoming “reptile exhibit,” which should not cause alarm even in those afraid of snakes, she said. The serpents to be displayed in the facility’s halls will be made of wood and painted by residents with bright patterns drawn from nature and their imaginations.

The seniors also have visited museums and gardens around the world using technology to take them on virtual tours of the Louvre, Longwood Gardens and Metropolitan Museum of Art, among many others.

Technology also is helping those at The Heritage and other senior communities stay in touch with friends and family off campus. Residents are using applications such as Skype, Zoom and FaceTime to video chat and see the faces of their loved ones.

“Each (of Diakon’s facilities) is focused on maintaining contacts to the extent possible since the visitor restrictions went into effect,” Swanger said, noting a supply of iPads was ordered to aid communications between residents and their families.

Regular use of technology is one of the positives to come out of the coronavirus crisis, Torrillo said. It has allowed residents to connect virtually face-to-face with family out of state who might not be able to visit in person even without the COVID-19 restrictions.

Meeting applications, such as Zoom, also go beyond the one-on-one voice interactions of a phone call and enable larger groups of people to see each other’s faces and hear each other’s voices.

“One resident recently celebrated his 94th birthday in a Zoom meeting with friends and family,” Torrillo said.

Residents also enjoy “window visits,” waving to loved ones while safely protected from physical contact, he said, and Duchess, the alpaca, has become a regular visitor at Manatawny’s windows.

COURTESY OF MANATAWNY MANOR Wendy Tucci and Duchess, the alpaca, share window visits with residents of Manatawny Manor, a Diakon senior living facility in East Coventry Township, Chester County. Tucci of Dream Maker Alpaca Ranch in Union Township, Berks County, is owner of the alpaca.

COURTESY OF THE HERITAGE OF GREEN HILLS Residents of the Heritage of Green Hills use sidewalk chalk to write encouraging messages to staff and neighbors. Cheryl Anderson, activities director at the senior living facility in Cumru Township, Berks County, is coming up with creative ways to engage residents during the COVID-19pandemic.

COURTESY OF MANATAWNY MANOR Joel Neiss, a resident of Manatawny Manor, plays bingo from the safety of his room as numbers are called over a microphone in the hallway. Staff at the senior living facility in East Coventry Township, Chester County, are coming up with creative ways to engage residents during the COVID-19pandemic.

COURTESY OF MANATAWNY MANOR Manatawny Manor activities assistants Anastasia Stoulis and Ginny Rathman and activities director Janet Swiecicki hold festively decorated umbrellas during a Flores de Mayo celebration on Mother’s Day. The activities department of the senior living facility in East Coventry Township, Chester County, is coming up with creative ways to engage residents during the COVID-19pandemic.

COURTESY OF MANATAWNY MANOR Mary Ann Gantert, a resident of Manatawny Manor, holds a festively decorated umbrella during a Flores de Mayo celebration on Mother’s Day. Staff at the senior living facility in East Coventry Township, Chester County, are coming up with creative ways to engage residents during the COVID-19pandemic.