How to Successfully Move into a Retirement Community

Are you or your loved ones planning to move into a retirement community? If so, it is important to be as organized as possible to make the move go smoothly!

Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community created this list to help you make sure the move to your new home goes off without a hitch.

Before Your Move

When you decide to move to a retirement community, you are faced with an important decision: what to keep and what to give away. It is important to note that usually your move will be to a smaller home or apartment, so not all of your possessions will fit.

Many retirement communities have furnished homes and apartments for residents, so if you are moving, you may not need to worry about a lot of your bigger furniture. Try to measure your furniture to see what will fit within the floor plan.

How to Harvest Rainwater

Thom Morgan

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

Although the North Carolina Piedmont is not currently in a drought, many of us remember 2007, when large portions of Falls Lake, our primary water source, dried up and the City of Raleigh issued mandatory watering restrictions.

Things to Consider

Cost will be a big consideration when building a rainwater storage system. Summer is mainly when we need to water our vegetables and ornamental plants. Gardens in the Raleigh area should receive about 60 gallons of water a week per 100 square feet.

Health Success Stories

Kari Richie

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

What does it mean to have a health success story? The health and fitness industry often relates success to weight loss. One of my objectives as the Health & Fitness Director is to help the residents and staff members at Springmoor understand they can have health successes no matter their age or what physical obstacle may be in their way. One definition of success is “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” Nowhere in the definition of success does it mention perfection or accomplishing everything at once. Someone can be living with a chronic disease such as diabetes or heart disease and celebrate health success stories when they accomplish a goal like managing blood sugar or cholesterol.

Springmoor Is Taking a Sweet Bite out of the Summer Heat

S'mores are not the only reason to visit Springmoor.

Starting this past Tuesday and running for the following two, Springmoor is hosting an event purely for your favorite summer treat….S’mores!

           

During these events, prospective residents get a feel for all that Springmoor has to offer at our event by seeing our new Pathways Wellness Center. This includes our salt-water lap pool, movie theater, exercise room, bistro, sauna, hospitality bar, and more. They will also see our Valley Dining Room, where the delicious treats will be served.

Visiting an Arboretum or Botanical Garden

Thom Morgan

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

If you are planning to travel this summer and have an interest in horticulture, you might want to go online and get a list of botanical gardens and arboretums along your route.

In Raleigh, we are fortunate to have the J.C. Raulston Arboretum, which is located on Beryl Road, just west of the NC State campus. It is managed by the Horticultural Sciences Department at NC State, and serves as a model for what an arboretum or botanical garden should do:  provide access and information about the widest possible variety of plants to the public.

H2O is the Way to Go!

Kari Richie

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

This summer the Springmoor Health and Fitness department is teaming up with the dietitians from Sodexo, Springmoor’s food service provider, to encourage exercise and hydration! We will kick off our first Springmoor Triathlon Challenge and encourage healthy hydration at the Pathways Pool Party on Friday, July 11. Residents can enjoy a dip in the pool, a friendly game of water volleyball, and refreshments, delivered poolside!

Pathways Wellness focuses on prevention, which is why we are focusing on preventing dehydration this summer. Dehydration can be a serious problem for older adults and leads to confusion and illness. 

Springmoor Welcomes Stop Hunger Now Back to Campus to Package an Additional 40,000 Meals

Springmoor residents, staff, and Stop Hunger Now
representatives package meals.

Springmoor residents and staff have come together to reach their goal of providing more than 40,000 additional meals to children around the world in under developed counties. Volunteers came out Friday, June 6 to help bag, measure, weigh, and box meals for Stop Hunger Now.  

Stop Hunger Now is an international hunger relief agency that strives to provide meals to children in orphanages, schools, and crisis-burdened areas around the world. Founded in 1998, it has mobilized more than 450,000 volunteers to send more than 145,000,000 meals to 65 countries. Working with these programs helps enhance lives by giving beneficiaries the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty through education, skills, development, and health care while also receiving much needed nutrition. Stop Hunger Now started their meal-packaging events in 2005.

Yoga at Springmoor

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

Kari Richie

Yoga has been part of the Pathways fitness schedule for years. The residents that participate are very faithful because of the benefits they experience. The word “yoga” can be intimidating for new participants because it’s often believed that it’s a religion. The goal of our yoga instructors and the Pathways fitness program is to help people understand that yoga is not a religion, but a practical aid to assist our residents in their wellness journey.

Village Bistro

Springmoor residents enjoy the Village Bistro.

With the new Pathways Wellness Center up and running, Springmoor residents have a new dining option to enjoy, the Village Bistro. Much like the Garden Café, which opened almost four years ago, the Village Bistro offers fast casual food and extended dining hours. It may be easy to just call the Village Bistro South Village’s equivalent of North Village’s Garden Café, and while they both offer a lot of the same menu items, it’s worth the stop in to the Bistro to check out firsthand what sets it apart.  

Springmoor Floral Focal Points: You Know You're a Gardener If ...

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

You Know You’re a Gardener If:

Thom Morgan

• You have stored enough garden hoses in your garage that they could wrap ten times around the Earth’s equator (and they don’t all connect, or they all leak).
• You leave so many plants in your yard unplanted that people knock on your door, asking if the plants are for sale.
• Your children claim abandonment issues because you’ve spent more time in the garden than with them.
• You have every tool and gardening gizmo known to mankind, and some are still in their packaging.
• To you, there is no “Rain Day” or “Day Off” from gardening.
• Your car has sheets of plastic, or cardboard, all over the seats to place recently purchased plants upon.
• Your kids can’t ride with you to the nursery because there will be no room in the car for them—and the plants.
• You’re always the first one on your street to mow the lawn each spring.
• Your neighbors always knock on your door to borrow gardening tools.
• You have lights on your lawn tractor so you can mow your lawn at night (because you were too busy planting and pulling weeds when the sun was out).
• You are still mowing your lawn when there is a tornado warning, and you’ve been told to take cover.
• You’ve given your lawn tractor a name like “Old Sal” or “Betsy”.
• You don’t step on worms; you throw them into the compost pile.
• Strangers show up on your beautiful front lawn with golf clubs
  
  If any of the above applies to you, don’t worry: you are not alone. Americans spend $40 billion each year on gardening, and the average home owner spends 150 hours in their garden each year. 

Charity Sisters: Springmoor Siblings Bond Over Food, Community Service

Sisters Elsie Eads (left) and Elizabeth Crawford
work together to share food and love with neighbors,
local charities.

Always very close, sisters Elizabeth Crawford and Elsie Eads love that Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in Raleigh, N.C., allows them to live down the hall from one another and to combine their love of baking and volunteering.

Crawford enjoys baking and often bakes desserts for her friends at Springmoor; Eads likes helping others and giving back to the community, and spends her day working with several different, local programs geared at helping those in need.

The two decided to combine efforts: Crawford bakes desserts and meals and Eads travels to deliver the goods to different groups both on the Springmoor campus and in the local community.

Springmoor Floral Focal Points: Plant a Row of Veggies for Charity

By Thom Morgan, Springmoor Landscape Manager

Thom Morgan

Springmoor Donates Spare Veggies to Food Bank

It was January 2009, and I was thinking about what Springmoor residents and staff could do in the way of a community outreach project when I heard of the Plant a Row program in which a lot of local organizations were participating. It seemed like a great fit for our community: Springmoor had a half-acre of land that we set aside in March 2000, and we had 24 resident gardeners who were very adept at growing fresh vegetables.

Plant a Row, by the way, encourages gardeners to plot one extra row of their vegetable garden and donate the resulting produce to their local food bank. I asked Springmoor Executive Director Fred Conner to see if we could participate and he thought it was a good idea; at the same time, another staff member approached him to see if Springmoor could participate in Stop Hunger Now, which is another community outreach program that helps malnourished residents of impoverished countries. Springmoor ended up taking part in both programs, and just finished packing more than 40,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now.

Springmoor's Pathways Wellness Center Grand Opening Draws Crowd

The new salt-water lap pool

After months of preparation and anticipation, Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in Raleigh, N.C., held the grand opening of the state-of-the-art Pathways Wellness Center on March 25 with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception.

More than 100 people who attended the event were treated to the sight of a variety of new services offered for residents and their guests, including a 25-meter salt water lap pool, new Keiser fitness equipment in an expanded fitness room, hot tub, sauna, movie theater, beauty salon, bistro, massage therapy rooms, movement room for fitness and wellness classes, and gaming tables.

Springmoor is Excited to Kick Off Increased Wellness Offerings Next Week!

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

Kari Richie

Who’s ready to expand their wellness horizons? Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community has certainly expanded its wellness offerings—and, as the community’s health and fitness director, I couldn’t be more excited!

At the Wellness Center grand opening on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., I’ll be helping with exercise machine demos and guests will be able to tour the new wellness rooms; get blood pressure, blood glucose and bone density screenings; enjoy a mini-massage and mini manicure, and much more!

Springmoor Springs into Wellness, Shares Simple Salsa Recipe to Start the Season Right

By Kathleen Loescher, Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community move-in coordinator

New exercise equipment is being arranged, the pool is being filled, and in a little less than two weeks, Springmoor’s Pathways Wellness Center will be open to residents and their guests! And it couldn't be happening at a better time. With summer (hopefully) around the corner, many of us are not only thinking about exercise, we are watching our diets, too.

What to Look for When Buying Trees and Shrubs

Thom Morgan

By Thom Morgan
Springmoor Landscape Manager

If you have ever bought a used car, you know that there are a few things you need to check before you purchase it. When buying landscape plants, you should approach it like you would when shopping for a used car. Landscape plants have been previously handled: someone planted it before selling it to the nursery, and the nursery is in business to sell the plant to you. 

Here are some tips to kick the tires, so to speak, when buying a tree or shrub:

Springmoor Gears Up for Pathways Wellness Center Grand Opening on March 25!

By Kathleen Loescher

The exterior of the new Pathways Wellness Center

“Wellness used to be treadmills,” said Springmoor Chief Executive Officer David Ammons, and when Springmoor opened its doors in 1984, the community reflected that: the exercise rooms were small and were filled with stationary bikes and treadmills; the aquatics pool was simply for those who enjoyed water aerobics.

Today, Springmoor views wellness as “whole-person” wellness through the Pathways program that grew from the roots planted in the community’s development. Physical wellness is still a component, but emphasis is also placed on a person’s emotional, vocational, nutritional, social, environmental, spiritual, and even intellectual well-being—aspects that were all taken into consideration in Springmoor’s nearly complete Pathways Wellness Center. 

The community will celebrate the grand opening of the Pathways Wellness Center on March 25 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Cleaning House: Sisters and Springmoor Housekeepers Give 30 Years to Community

Sandra Harris and Barbara Venson

When sisters Sandra Harris and Barbara Venson began working as housekeepers at Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community 30 years ago there was little for them to clean.

The community, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year, was made up of only a few buildings at the time. The sisters’ first duties were pulling stickers off of brand-new refrigerators, and sweeping construction debris off sidewalks. A few people lived in apartments, but not many.

Now, there are 391 residences, and 24 housekeepers. The residents—the sisters agreed—are the reason they keep coming back to work at Springmoor year after year.

Springmoor Floral Focal Points: Sustainable Landscapes

By Thom Morgan

Springmoor Landscape Manager

Thom Morgan

Everyone loves fresh fruit and vegetables; I always look forward to eating the first beefsteak tomato of the summer, sliced over a piece of toast, with mayonnaise and bacon. That goes the same for that freshly-picked ear of sweet corn (boiled just long enough until it is tender, with melted butter, and a sprinkle of salt on it). Yes--I am longing for the summer.

Not everyone has enough land, full sun, access to water, or the time to spend on growing fruit trees, and vegetables, though. 

Here are some ways to get around these problems, and incorporate fresh fruits, and vegetables into any landscape:

Rightsizing Tips for Making the Move into Retirement Living

By Kathleen Loescher, Springmoor marketing and relocation coordinator

Your home holds a lifetime of memories and Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community knows that just the thought of sorting through piles of possessions to move to a retirement community can be overwhelming. Luckily, there are plenty of resources available to help make moving less of a daunting task and to help you “rightsize” to move into your new home. 

Julie Kopetsky, president of Your Next Move, has five helpful tips when it comes to clearing out a house for a move: