Your Treasure is Within: March Events

Our Alive in All Seasons program is alive and well at Juniper Village. This quarter’s seasonal theme is on Creative Expression: “Explore Your Creativity” and serves to promote our philosophy of encouraging an active body, an engaged mind and a fulfilled spirit. For March, we will turn our focus to Performance: “Your Treasure is Within”.

This month on March 2, 2014 we look forward to the 86^th celebration of the Academy Awards. As we watch popular comedian and talk show host, Ellen DeGeneres host the festivities while the beautiful stars dressed in their finery walk the red carpet we can’t help to stop, to pause and reminisce of all of the great performances of past years. Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Tom Hanks, Jack Nicholson, Vivien Leigh, Meryl Streep, Peter Ustinov and Dustin Hoffman; the list goes on! In addition to guessing who might win the Oscars for 2014, this month we will be learning about and experiencing all different types of great performance art, enjoying cultural events and trying our hand at acting in drama club.

It’s going to be a theatrical month at Juniper Village at the Mount Joy filled with creativity, great experiences and memorable performances! You are cordially invited to attend our Mad Crafters Mardi Gras Masks activity on March 3^rd at 10:30 am, our performance by Character Juggler Chris Ivey on March 11^th at 6:00 pm, our Irish Happy Hour and bagpipe performance by Michael D. Luckenbill on March 17^th at 3:00 pm, our Floral Arranging activity on March 30^th at 3:00 pm, or any of our other activities (see our Newsletter for a complete listing).

So come in, and join in on the act to find that “Your Treasure is Within”.

Stained Glass and Crooning

Valentine's love was in the air the other day as our residents were treated to a performance by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Dean Martin Tribute Singer, Lou Dottoli. Songs of love and romance charmed the ladies and had our gentlemen swaying along.

Earlier, we had an activity featuring Texture Painting, where we looked at the different textures brushstrokes can create with wet paint.

The featured artist another day was James Pollock, and while our stained glass project wasn't quite as abstract, we did embrace the use of saturated colors and geometric patterns. Splatters were avoided at all costs, though.

Sculptures and Love Songs

Michelangelo said that "every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the job of the sculptor to discover it," and while none of us are quite Michelangelo, we did have a go at sculpting some clay the other day. There's something so appealing about the ability to take a lump of nothing and make it into something that only you can create.

With Valentine’s Day memories near and dear, our residents were treated to Love Songs with Jeanie and Renee. The beautiful performance warmed our hearts while snow flurried outside our windows.

Jewelry Making and Super Bowl Partying

Art is the theme for the month of February, and the first Saturday of the month we were designing jewelry. The activity table was awash with beads and baubles as the ladies strung necklaces or bracelets. There was a charming necklace with little red hearts, and another lady strung a lovely bracelet of purple beads for her grand-niece's birthday.

The groundhog saw his shadow on Super Bowl Sunday! After lunch we had some fun groundhog trivia, then at 3:30, the Pre-Game Party kicked off with snacks and games in the Brookside Lounge. We at Mount Joy wish we could repeat this day again!

Winter Wonderland Play

While Mount Joy has become a picturesque Winter Wonderland with at least half a foot of snow on the ground, our residents had some fun after breakfast making S’more Snowmen. The poor little fellows just could not stand up to our cozy warmth, though.

A highlight of many of the residents’ day came with the playing of Deal & Steal, which is a straightforward card game that anyone can enjoy as they try to win a prize-- or steal one from someone else! A little competitive game between friends never fails to draw a crowd, and the activity room was bustling with conversation and good fun right up until supper time.

Awaken Your Passion: February Events

This February our Alive in All Seasons’ theme is Art: “Awaken Your Passion”. In a moving quote from Honoré de Balzac we are reminded that art and passion are inextricably linked; he states, “passion is universal humanity; without it, religion, history, romance and art would be useless.” Art is truly a conduit that allows us to experience the richness and brilliance of all that life has to offer. Art can have a profound effect upon us by providing nourishment to our spirit and soul.

As you know there is always something special going on here at Juniper Village at Mount Joy and this February we will celebrate another wonderful month filled with memories, laughter and the opportunity to create! This month we will open ourselves to various forms of art. We will be taking field trips to local museums, learning about the Great Masters, and creating masterpieces of our own using various mediums.

Please join us for our Dementia Care in Action Workshop with dinner at 6:00 pm on February 5^th, our Juniper Village Candy Gram Service providing chocolates and personalized messages for residents on February 12^th, and our Amedysis Heart Health presentation at 3:30 pm on February 27^th. We encourage you to review our newsletter calendar for other offerings and attend any or all of the activities that are of interest to you.

Come get together with us for our Alive in All Seasons programs this February and Awaken Your Passion!

A Weekend View of Juniper Villiage at Mount Joy

Saturday, January 4^th
For our residents, there is almost no better way to ring in the New Year than with a game of Bingo. A much acclaimed favorite, residents were excited and ready to play a morning session of Musical Bingo called by Connections team member, Jim Leddy.

Sunday, January 5^th
Every Sunday begins with Catholic Communion and a non-denominational Worship Service in our chapel for our residents looking to celebrate and practice their religious beliefs.
Later in the afternoon, there was a rousing game of Target Toss-er-cise in our Garden Spot Lounge. One of our married couples made a competition of it, and while it looked like the husband would walk away with the win, it was the Missus who hit the center target.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Our residents went on a musical journey by painting to the tune of Vivaldi’s "Winter." The lively piece inspired paintings with numerous short strokes in various patterns, arching and dancing across the paper, mimicking the staccato quick-paced notes of the music. It was interesting to see how accurately a former music teacher recreated the popular piece in a visual medium.