Category: Boomers Marketing

“I just don’t like the look of our website,” says the sales & marketing director.

“Our printed material feels dated and isn’t representing us,” remarks the CFO.

“Life in our communities is bright and vibrant. I don’t get that feeling from our communications,” laments a board member.

These are all paraphrased responses that we’ve heard from organizations with which we’ve partnered. They aren’t uncommon sentiments, and it’s these types of opportunities that we work with every day. Having encountered these statements many times, we’ve learned that there is usually one common thread:

The design isn’t dated, but the photography is.

Having a repository of high-quality photos that can be used for your marketing efforts is one of the most overlooked resources in the aging services space. Everything that marketing does is affected by not having a file of up-to-date imagery from which to draw. Additionally, in our field, these images routinely become stale because of resident transitions and health concerns. A great photo can become unusable overnight, leaving you with a gap in the marketing imagery that is crucial for your success.

As a creative director, one of my biggest challenges is working to keep an organization’s marketing efforts fresh and interesting. While graphic design is a key part of each piece of collateral, having a strong library of photography is so very important. I liken it to having to work with a limited palette of colors — it can be an enjoyable challenge, but eventually, everything starts to look the same. Refreshing photographic assets can help shift a brand from stagnant to vibrant once again.

When a situation like this arises, we sometimes look to stock photography to fill in the gaps. Stock photography can provide the high-quality pictures needed to produce marketing products, but it also has the effect of feeling inauthentic, especially if someone sees the same piece of stock photography that is used for your community in another ad. Obviously, we want potential residents to feel engaged with your unique brand platform, making a library of photos that depict your organization appropriately much more valuable. For additional thoughts on how we’ve used stock photography at Varsity, check out our Engage: Boomers article, titled “The Real Way to Reach Baby Boomers.”

At a minimum, you should refresh your photography once every two years. If you can afford to do it every year, that’s even better! If you’re thinking about developing new marketing materials, whether they be print or digital, we at Varsity fully recommend that you engage a professional photographer sooner rather than later.

At Varsity, we’ve worked with some outstanding professionals who specialize in working with communities and residents like yours. If you need help finding the right photographer, let us know, and we’d be glad to help!

The senior living field is unique for many reasons. The product being marketed is not only very costly, but also one that brings about dramatic life changes. Retirement communities are not selling “widgets”; they’re selling a way of life, safety, security and more. Thus, the sales funnel for a retirement community is one of the deepest around. One estimate places the number of “touches” a potential resident needs at 20-25 before a sale is completed. That’s certainly more than your average electronic device or impulse buy at the grocery store!
However, there’s one additional catch to that sales funnel: You’re not only working the potential resident through the sales process, but in many cases his/her/their family members. This is especially true if the potential resident needs higher levels of care or is battling a specific or chronic illness. Now not only do you have to help this person see the benefits of moving to your community, but their family as well — and, let’s face it, the family can often be the tougher critic.

It all has to start at one place: a conversation.

Whether that first conversation happens between spouses looking at a community or between a prospect and his or her family, it is one fraught with concern, fear and the best interests of the potential resident in mind. Often, several family members are gathered together to have this conversation, offering advice and input from different angles. That conversation is absolutely critical for the loved ones involved and is usually the starting place for the hunt for a retirement community. The discussion is most likely to happen three times throughout the year — Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

Why are those three holidays so important? Simply, they are most likely to gather families together. Also, in many cases, major holidays happen at the house of the patriarch/matriarch of the family. This usually gives children and loved ones insight into how a person is living. Are they taking care of the home as they always have? Is something amiss with his or her daily routine? Are they just ignoring problems rather than fixing them? These are the first telltale signs that a loved one might need more services or assistance than he or she is currently receiving.

As a marketer for such communities, it’s our job to find a way to make your community and services a part of those talks. Optimally, we want the potential resident and family to think of you as their community of choice and to reach out to one of your sales professionals. However, we recognize that you may also have a broader mission. Sure, at the end of the day, you want to make a sale, but it’s also important that you provide quality, honest resources about what senior living services are available to them. You should be happy to assist potential residents with identifying challenges and offering solutions, from addressing financial concerns to whether or not a favorite credenza will fit into the new apartment.

Leading a potential resident and his or her family through the sales funnel is hard work, but it’s also rewarding. In a way, it’s a process many marketing professionals wish they had, because the “customer” can be tracked through each step — from initial contact all the way to move-in day (and beyond). Yes, it’s a challenge, and it’s one that keeps us working to be part of those crucial conversations around the family dinner table.

In the aging services space, especially as it pertains to retirement community and rehabilitation services, 90 percent occupancy is an important benchmark. If you look at occupancy rates from key sources, such as NIC and Zeigler, you’ll find 91 percent to be about average as of late. At this level, most organizations have their costs covered and are probably in the black financially.

However, many organizations struggle to get above the 90 percent mark for a number reasons, including resident turnover, the time needed to remodel apartments and cottages, and the lead time it takes for a new resident to sell his or her house and move in. Thus, 90 percent has taken on the air of acceptability.

At Varsity, we strive for 100 percent occupied and reserved — not just because it sounds nice, but because that remaining 10 percent can be the difference between new community development, community improvements, higher wage increases and increased resident and staff satisfaction.

Let’s look at it from the financial standpoint first. For this example, we’ll start with a community that has 100 residences: 60 apartments and 40 cottages.

The apartments generate $1,000 a month in profit over and above costs for service, while cottages generate a similar $1,500 per month. (For simplicity, we’re going to disregard entrance fees, contract types and other mitigating factors that could cause confusion.)

This means that, during a single year, the apartments generate $720,000 of pure income, with the cottages creating an additional $720,000 — for a total of $1.44 million per year in profit.

Now, let’s look at the impact of an occupancy rate of only 90 percent each month — meaning that 10 of the 100 residences are unoccupied.

Seven empty apartments = $7,000 in lost income

Three empty cottages = $4,500 in lost income

That’s $11,500 in lost revenue each month, or $138,000 each year! While this a simplistic example, we think it’s important to realize just how much financial impact that 10 percent can have each month.

We do realize that true 100 percent occupancy isn’t sustainable. So, let’s imagine if your team can reach 95 percent occupancy consistently each month — an increase of only five percentage points. Now, you’re only leaving 5 percent of that revenue on the table. That’s an additional $69,000 in yearly income, which can still have quite an impact on the bottom line. It is that additional revenue that will help spur new community growth, provide increased wages and enable staff to address resident satisfaction concerns in a proactive way.

So, how do you tackle the challenge of selling that remaining 10 percent? In our next post, Jackie Stone, our VP of sales consulting, will share some of her insights for overcoming the 90 percent plateau that will help drive your community to be 100 percent occupied and reserved.

In the fall of 2017, a new phrase entered the American lexicon — “Swedish Death Cleaning.”

Suddenly, articles about this trend were everywhere, and some senior living communities were talking about the benefits of this extreme decluttering practice. However, the term certainly doesn’t provide a warm and fuzzy feeling, especially in relation to making a move to an aging services community. We wanted to dig into the hype and give a fresh perspective on this new fad.

The idea originates from the Swedish word, “döstädning.” Translated to English, it conveys the idea of slowly and steadily decluttering your life as you age. For the Swedes, this process may begin in a person’s 50s and continue right up until death. Margareta Magnusson, Swedish author and octogenarian, is credited with establishing the English phrase with her book, “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family From a Lifetime of Clutter.”

Magnusson certainly knows something about clutter and moving. She’s reportedly relocated 17 times during her life. Now she wants to share the tips and tricks she has learned over the years to help others who are facing similar challenges. These ideas are especially pertinent to aging services organizations.

For example, I once met a couple that was in the process of downsizing so that they could make the move to a community. The wife was working hard to clear her home of unnecessary items. She began listing furniture, appliances and other major items on internet sales websites. To her dismay, she would get low-ball offers (or no offers at all). She was stunned! In her mind, all of these items had value, but the world was harsh, and she was forced to come to grips with the idea that the family silver that she loved so much wasn’t worth much more than the scrap value of the metal. This left her feeling not only the pinch in her pocketbook, but also in her heart, as she took it very personally. If the items that she loved didn’t have value, what did that say about her?

Deciding which items to retain, which to sell, and which to give to family and friends (or even to throw out) can be difficult. Magnusson understands this and advises that the first items to go be the ones without any sentimental value, such as unworn clothes, never-used gifts and the seemingly endless pile of kitchen utensils and gadgets we all accumulate as we age. In contrast, she recommends keeping personally cherished objects that stir memories, such as photographs, letters and other ephemera.

Confronting one’s own personal decline is hard, but taking the time to sort through your personal belongings can help to refocus your attention on what is important — not just to you, but to your family. For instance, another of Magnusson’s suggestions is the “throwaway box.” In this container, you’d place items that have meaning to you, but not to your friends and family. Included in the box should be a note explaining what the box contains and why it’s okay for it to be discarded after your death.

Obviously, there are some major benefits to engaging in Swedish Death Cleaning, especially for families that have to deal with an estate after the death of a loved one; however, there are important health benefits for the person doing the cleaning as well. Studies have shown, on multiple occasions, that clutter around the home increases stress, decreases productivity and impacts how restful we feel in our downtime. Thus, the process of freeing ourselves from these items can lead to a sense of liberation.

The most important point to remember is that “Swedish Death Cleaning” isn’t a weekend-long project; it’s a way of life for people as they age. Start early, curtail shopping and use available funds for the creation of memories (such as trips and experiences) instead of objects. Before you know it, you’ll be living a clutter-free life, rich with memories. Plus, your family will thank you when the time comes to handle your estate.

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/what-swedish-death-cleaning-should-you-be-doing-it-ncna816511

http://people.com/home/swedish-death-cleaning-home-organization-trend-to-try/

https://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/swedish-death-cleaning-new-decluttering-trend.html

DRAGON: Divorced, Rich, Aged 65+, Overseas traveler, Networker

If you were to ask an aging services provider what his or her ideal potential resident looks like, you’d find many different definitions. In most cases, leads are qualified based upon income-producing assets, home value and, perhaps, some additional savings and/or investments. These people are ideal leads because they meet all of the financial criteria for moving into a community.

For this reason, they are prized candidates, often being competed over by several different aging services organizations. From the point of view of prospective residents, they are evaluating the amenities and floor plans that communities offer. But, at the end of the day, the biggest determining factor for choosing a community is culture. This is where understanding the DRAGON can help you convert those high-quality leads into residents.

The idea of the DRAGON coalesced around 2014, as marketers began to identify trends in the Baby Boomer demographic. For retirement communities, DRAGONS are ideals candidates because of their demographic profiles. They are wealthy, usually working with two retirement incomes. Being aged 65+, they meet the age requirements for community entry. As frequent travelers, they like the maintenance-free lifestyle that many campuses offer and, for the same reason, are less reliant year-round on on-campus amenities, such as restaurants, wellness centers and programming. Last, as natural networkers, they become excellent word-of-mouth marketers for your organization and can sing your praises to their friends and family, who may also fit the DRAGON demographic.

Identifying DRAGONs, and understanding why they are especially important leads for retirement communities, is just the start. How do you win them over and make them choose your community over all of the other options? The answer is simple — culture. As noted earlier, individuals make their retirement choices based heavily on the culture and feel of a community. Making your community physically appealing to DRAGONs is the first step. The harder step is getting the culture right. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes and look at what might be appealing to DRAGONs.

First, they may look to more open and accepting cultures, especially in light of being divorced. Obviously, the community needs to be well-appointed and include many options and amenities. These work best in a community atmosphere where DRAGONs can spend time with friends and neighbors, where their natural networking talent shines. As travelers, they desire easy access to transportation, whether that is a train station or airport (but probably both!). Obviously, issues like location and access to transportation aren’t easily addressed by providers. In those cases, organizations should be ready to demonstrate what kind of accommodations they can make to ensure DRAGON needs are met, or alternatives offered that may better suit their lifestyle.

Take a few moments to put yourself in the shoes of a DRAGON and look at your community through his or her eyes. By doing so, you might be able to adjust your sales & marketing strategies, even if only slightly, to make a big difference in your appeal.

Resident entertainment is an important part of life at retirement communities. Whether you label it “life enrichment,” “activities,” “resident programming” or something else, the desired result is often the same — engaged residents. However, what residents find enjoyable and engaging today is very different from 10 years ago. This led us to wonder: What will this field look like in the future? As the Boomer wave crests, and Generation X looks to retirement, how will that impact resident programming?

The youngest Baby Boomers are about 53 years old now. That means that, in fewer than 10 years, they are going to be the target market for retirement marketing professionals. In the same vein, however, this means that the oldest Gen-Xers are also aging into the target market rapidly. Providers are going to have to adapt to these changing tastes and demographics at all levels of the business.

Let’s start with our marketing events. Today, popular events include lunch & learns, perhaps with entertainment. Common choices include doo-wop groups, Motown covers and some big band favorites. However, 10 to 15 years from now, those tastes are going to drastically change; instead of Sinatra, your events may be headed by the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. Are you ready to employ acts that perform disco favorites? Or maybe you’ll have a Pink Floyd experience before showing off your latest model apartments. It’ll be a whole new world.

Once you get the residents in the door, your internal activities team will take over and begin planning events that appeal to this newer generation of residents. Sure, the old favorites will still be there — arboretums, shopping trips and museums — but we can anticipate some of the new trends just by looking at the changing interests of current residents. Home brewing, wine making, model aircraft and drones, motorcycle riding and more have already made their way onto campuses. To these, you might add Lego enthusiasts, skiers and snowboarders and avant-garde film connoisseurs. No longer will you be playing “Singing in the Rain” for the Friday night films; instead, you might be screening old favorites by Otto Preminger, Federico Fellini or Kenneth Anger.

Tastes in food will also begin to morph. Communities all over the country are already implementing international cuisine into their menus for special events. This trend is going to not only grow but explode, as residents want to adventure to new places with their taste buds. Remember, Generation X and their juniors have grown up in a society where eating out is pretty common. This is sure to have impacted their tastes and preferences in dining, making them even more demanding than current residents.

The demands on your physical facility are also going to grow. Communities are already repositioning their offerings, becoming more like resorts every day. The next generation of residents will want spaces and living environments that work for them and meet their unique needs. Remember, Baby Boomers (and, to a lesser extent, Generation X) are the original “Me Generations.” If your campus doesn’t have the amenities, living spaces and extras that potential residents desire, you are going to have an uphill battle.

Certainly, it’s fun to theorize what will happen in the future — man has been doing it for thousands of years. While we still don’t have flying cars, robot lawn mowers or devices that can read our minds, we can see the immediate future — and it includes smart home technology, better wellness facilities and an increased desire for the finer things in life.

What will your campus look like in 10 years? The choice is yours, and you are making it every day.

Since the 1990s, divorce among adults 50+ has doubled, according to a Pew Research poll. People under the age of 50 have seen declining divorce rates, but later-in-life divorce (often termed “grey divorce”) continues to climb. Many researchers are studying why this is occurring, while families and senior living communities are on the frontlines, dealing with the real-life fallout from the ending of marriages.

Before we can understand how to handle grey divorces, we should probably understand the reasons why they are happening. An article on HuffPost, dated September 2015, actually laid out a pros and cons list for those who are “di-curious” and considering a divorce after 50. Reasons cited in favor of divorce included the ability to more easily meet new people (such as when moving into a retirement community), rediscovering of one’s sense of self, new sexual experiences and a freedom to engage in new hobbies that the previous spouse may not have been interested in. Of course, the cons list included issues like loneliness, feeling out of place among married friends and having to handle all of life’s challenges alone after many years of interdependent marriage.

With all of this in mind, we generally see a couple of trends for the reasons that people get divorced after 50. First, as attitudes toward divorce have changed in America, so have the attitudes of those growing older. The stigma of divorce used to be strong; today, it’s become more normalized. As such, older adults now feel less social pressure to remain in relationships that aren’t working for them. Of course, these divorces are enabled by “irreconcilable differences,” the modern catch-all phrase for when couples can’t seem to get along anymore. With children out of the nest, and the daily grind of work coming to an end, many couples find that spending so much time together in retirement is much harder than they had anticipated. They realize just how far they’ve grown apart and start to consider life beyond the marriage. Of course, these kinds of conversations can and do happen after a couple moves into a retirement community, creating a very murky situation, indeed.

Another sad trend that directly affects grey divorce and senior living is financial issues. There are more than a few instances where being divorced leads to a better financial situation for those involved. When nursing expenses become income-based, and one spouse was the breadwinner for years, the couple can be left holding a bill they weren’t prepared to pay. If divorced, those costs could be significantly reduced. What a terrible option this must be — pay to keep your marriage alive or divorce and keep yourself out of the poorhouse!

So, with all of this in mind, what can aging services providers do to help?

First, recognize that just because a couple has been married for 25, 30 or even 40+ years, there may still be issues in that relationship that you can’t control or understand. Everyone loves to say, “Awwww!” when they see an older couple holding hands, but for every couple like that, there is another that struggles to stay together every day. Having your pastoral care staff and social workers prepared to deal with marital issues in retirement is a great first step in providing resources for your residents.

We also advise that directors, admissions and marketing associates have a standardized plan in place for when a couple decides they are going to divorce after moving into the community. How will you handle the finances? Who moves out? What happens to the apartment or cottage? Taking a little time to think about these issues before they arise not only helps your organization better manage the situation, but it makes the transition easier and more respectful for the residents in question.

While the grey divorce trend can be unsettling for community managers, adult children and other residents of a community, it is an issue that is on the rise. We would like to think that every relationship will be able to grow and mature into retirement, but we know that not all will. It behooves aging services professionals to understand and plan for these changes now, before they are presented with them.

Sources:
http://www.griswoldhomecare.com/blog/3-reasons-why-seniors-are-getting-divorced/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barry-gold/gray-divorce_b_8045840.html?utm_hp_ref=fifty&ir=Fifty
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/09/led-by-baby-boomers-divorce-rates-climb-for-americas-50-population/

I once worked at a large retirement community. The residents came from all walks of life and had very diverse views of the world. One day, I was talking with a couple just prior to election season. With politics consuming the media, it made sense that the topic became part of the conversation. I knew this couple had fairly liberal views, while many others in the community tended to be conservative. I asked them how they adapted socially during the election.

“Well, we just avoid people that we know will want to talk politics and disagree with us. Many of our neighbors sit and watch Fox News all day. We aren’t going to change their opinions, and they won’t change ours. So, why go through the exercise? It’s just easier to avoid it. Like during meals, we know which tables not to sit at or near,” said the woman.

During my time at that community, it wasn’t uncommon for political officials to make campaign stops on the campus. With more than 1,000 residents and staff, it was an excellent location for getting your name out there. Plus, we all know that older Americans are more likely to vote and generally spend more time learning about issues that affect them (such as health care). Knowing all this, what politician wouldn’t want to swing by a retirement community full of potentially influential voters? The administration also enjoyed having candidates and office holders visit the community because it buoyed the community’s reputation and provided an opportunity for free lobbying about issues involving aging services. Naturally, these visits focused the political spotlight — if even just for a short time — and got residents and employees talking.

As aging services organizations like LeadingAge devote ever-increasing budgets to lobbying, the role of politics continues to balloon. This puts residents and providers into sometimes unenviable positions. For example, an administrator may want to have lunch with a local representative to talk about issues relating to her community. Meanwhile, the residents hear about this and ask why she’s supporting a candidate that doesn’t match their views. Perhaps the residents even ask the administrator what her political leanings are, which could only exacerbate the issue, leading to a harmful situation.

While it’s not a topic that many think about, senior bullying is a very real problem, and politics are one way it comes out. Think back to the woman at the start of this story. She said that she avoids people who want to talk politics. She is being forced to change her behavior to avoid uncomfortable situations induced by others. Is this bullying? Probably not, but it’s easy to see how residents could become so vocal in their views that it intimidates others and rises to the level of bullying.

So, with all this being said, what can providers and marketers do to help these situations? Start by settig the tone from the top — and we mean the very top! The board of directors and administration need to be on the same page, regardless of what that page might be. Most human resources departments have policies in place regarding political activities while at work, but it can never hurt to go back and ensure that it covers all the bases. For instance, does it include guidance on how to deal with political activities from residents? All of this should be done with one goal in mind — and that’s creating a culture of civility between everyone on your campus.

Politics are part of life in America. We can’t ignore them, and we shouldn’t expect our residents and employees to, either. However, we can and should discuss proper boundaries around the topic and be proactive in creating civil spaces on our campuses. Politics, by nature, will always be divisive, but that doesn’t mean they have to divide our communities.

As communications professionals in the world of marketing, the way we frame language around our products is very important. In the digital realm, it becomes vital — especially in a world of search engine marketing and optimization that’s driven by customer vocabulary. Through this, users influence how organizations market themselves; meanwhile, providers try to influence a user’s search language by changing industry-accepted terms.

A great example of this is the term “Continuing Care Retirement Community.” It was adopted by the aging services field, but over time, it failed to truly describe what consumers want. Recently, the industry leaders (including our team at Varsity) pulled together to recommend the term “Life Plan Community” be adopted as a more aspirational term for the Boomers. Let’s pull back a bit further and think critically about how we continue to use language as senior living marketers.

If you perform a Google search for retirement communities or senior living options, you’ll generally run into two euphemisms used by marketers — “luxury” and “affordable.” I ask myself, if I were in the market for aging services, what do these terms say to me?

Luxury — “Luxury means the finest amenities and high-end dining” or, perhaps, “Do I have enough money to afford this property?”

Versus

Affordable — “Oh, great. A community that won’t break the bank and that I could actually afford” or, perhaps, “I guess I’ll settle for whatever an affordable community has because I can’t afford luxury.”

There are upsides and downsides to how we interpret these shorthand phrases. Certainly, marketers like them because they force consumers to self-segment. Those without assets will naturally avoid luxury, and those with money wouldn’t be interested in the more limited offerings found in the affordable space. Certainly, as we manage search engine marketing campaigns, providers often identify “affordable” as a negative keyword, meaning that if a user enters that phrase in his or her search, an ad will not be shown because the organization assumes that the user can’t afford its offerings.

Maybe you’re like us, and you’ve noticed something missing. Yes, just like the rest of America, we’re forgetting the middle class. Middle class used to be something everyone aspired to. It was a positive to be middle class, and people were proud of that label. Today, it seems that if you aren’t part of the upper, then you’re just part of the lower. When did that change? When did aging services stop engaging with the middle class?

For instance, let’s look at these search terms from Google Trends. This data is only for the United States, over the last 12 months, and shows the popularity of each phrase when it comes to searches:

The blue bar is “affordable senior living.”

The red bar is “luxury senior living.”

The yellow bar at the bottom is “middle class senior living.”

As you can see, no one searches for “middle class senior living.” There are plenty of reasons why this may be, but certainly it’s not a term used by providers to market their products. No one wants to be labeled “middle class,” it seems. What, then, is the term used by average Americans to find a middle-of-the-road community? In this case, there isn’t a universal answer — and, in my mind, that’s an opportunity.

While many communities are focusing on luxury and are trying to bring in asset-laden residents, there’s a strong middle class, driven by Baby Boomers, that are going to be looking for a retirement option. If providers can find a way to cater to this segment, they could potentially have much to gain. Marketers need to begin working now to define what middle class retirement accommodations look like and educate potential residents on how to find them.

Language is an amazingly powerful tool. As marketing professionals, we have a way of impacting how people perceive and interact with the products we make. No one would describe an Apple product as an affordable brand, but many do think of it as a luxury. Yet, for many Americans, it’s a luxury they can afford and represents a certain amount of prestige and status.

As we look to the future of marketing in the senior space, how do we capitalize on this and tell middle class Americans that a quality retirement experience is a luxury they, too, can afford?

That’s something that we, at Varsity, are thinking quite a lot about.

Many of us have fond memories of going to summer camp as children. Hiking through mountains, boating on a lake, shooting archery and learning crafts are all a part of the common memories that many share. But, as we age, we leave those summer days behind, letting them create a bygone era in our mind, when summers were carefree and fun — fortunately, though, that no longer needs to be the case.

Take, for instance, Camp Meraki. Marketed as a retirement camp for seniors, the program runs in the early fall at John Knox Ranch, in Wimberley, Texas. During the hot summer months, the camp runs activities for children, but as the cooler fall temperatures approach, it welcomes a different crowd of those 60+. The activities, however, are largely the same, including canoeing, archery, crafts, stargazing, sing-alongs and more! Oh, and don’t forget the one activity you won’t find at a kids camp — happy hour! The camp runs for three days and two nights, letting campers relive their childhood memories in a fun and safe environment.

Now we’re sure you’re thinking something along the lines of, “That’s all well and good, but my community isn’t in Texas, so this doesn’t really apply to me.” Au contraire! This is an opportunity for your community to do something new and intriguing.

First, you could work with your life enrichment/therapeutic recreation staff to create a camp experience right at your community. While it wouldn’t necessarily be as involved as the Camp Meraki, it could make for a unique program that sets you apart from your local competition. Make sure to include all of the important camp activities — s’more making, campfire sings and arts and crafts!

For those who want to take this one step further, how about contacting your local youth camp and consider setting up a senior camp of your own? You could invite not only your residents, but also prospective residents. It would be a great way for them to get to know your community and could easily provide three days of marketing opportunities for your sales staff. Now that’s a quality program that will differentiate you from your competition!

We love the idea of Camp Meraki here at Varsity. It shows that older adults can enjoy activities that are more commonly attributed to youth. It also helps with memory care and brain stimulation by bringing back those thoughts of childhood and reconnecting people with skills they otherwise might have lost. It’s truly a win-win for everyone involved.