How to Choose the Right Springmoor Residence

The thought of moving from a home you’ve lived in for decades and settling in a new residence can be an overwhelming thought. With more than a dozen floor plans to choose from at Springmoor, there truly is something for everyone, but it may be hard to figure out where to start. Here are a few tips to get you thinking about how to choose a residence that suits you best:

Inheriting Independence: Springmoor Mothers Share Wisdom Behind Their—and Their Mothers’—Choice to Move to the Community

A sense of independence and adaptability: It’s a trait Dora Beal believes she inherited from her mother, and one she believes her daughters have inherited from her. It’s also the trait that led Dora’s mother to decide to move into Springmoor Life Care Retirement Community in the 1980s while she was still active, and what led Dora to move into Springmoor just one year ago.

“The wonderful thing about mother is that she was always adaptable. She saved me a lot of grief and worry, and made the decision herself to move here,” Dora said.

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. 

Springmoor Offers New Fitness Schedule, Emphasizing Strength and Balance

Kari Richie

By Kari Richie, Springmoor Health and Fitness Director

The Pathways Wellness Center is open and the staff is running full steam ahead to provide new programming for the Springmoor community. The current fitness schedule offers 25 classes a week with a variety of options: aquatics, yoga, Tai Chi, balance, strength and cardio! With the beautiful, new state-of-the art facility, we can now expand our schedule to 35 classes a week!

Easter Sunday Dining Options Abound in Raleigh!

By Kathleen Loescher

Springmoor Public Relations, Media and Relocation Coordinator

If you’re looking for somewhere to get together with friends and family on Easter Sunday, brunch is your best bet! Several area restaurants will be serving special menus for the holiday, giving you plenty of ways to indulge.

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.