Welcome to 2015! What a wonderful time for us to reflect on
the past year and forge ahead with new beginnings. January is a time for change
when we make and sometimes break our New Year’s resolutions and focus on what
we want to make better in the coming year.
January is also the month that Juniper Village begins our
Winter Alive In All Seasons theme of Creative Expressions: “Explore Your
Creativity” where in January we will focus on music! Research shows that music
can help us physically by easing pain, helping us sleep better, eat less and
enhance our blood vessel function. It is also suggested that music can help us
mentally by reducing stress, relieving symptoms of depression, elevating mood,
decreasing anxiety and improving cognitive performance. Hospitals are using
music to help cancer patients manage stress and anxiety and to ease recovery in
stroke patients.
Our fabulous activity offerings this month include our
“Disco Fever” Family Luncheon as Let’s
Dance under the disco ball for a Funkytown lunch so put on your platform
shoes and Boogie On Down on January
14th at noon; our Musical Afternoon with Curt Smythe a local
entertainer who will be playing fun and entertaining songs that we all know and
love on his guitar on January 20th at 2:30; our Music: The Magic
Healer educational session featuring Jessica Mull, certified music therapist,
who will provide insight into the impact of music therapy for seniors with
dementia as we discuss our implementation of Music and Memory while viewing
short videos of success stories with our residents and conduct an iPod and MP3
player donation drive for musical tools to utilize throughout the community on
January 21st at 3:30 pm; our Music Appreciation with Daniel G.
Klimoski event featuring him playing the Saxophone, Flute, and Clarinet as well
as a sing-a-long while playing the keyboard on January 22nd at 2:30
pm; our Alive Inside Screening of the inspirational and emotional film
dramatically portraying the power of music and memory that left the audience
humming and cheering at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival where it won the
Audience Award on January 22nd at 6:30 pm; or our Virtual Dementia
Tour and Create Your Playlist Event an interactive, experiential journey into
the realities of dementia that allows you to “walk in the shoes” of your loved
one, enabling you to better understand their needs and behaviors, at the end of
which you can create your own personalized music playlist on January 29th
at 5:30 pm!
Look through our
calendar and join us this month as we explore
our creativity through music with outings to local musical performances, Elvis’
birthday celebrations and concerts by our Joyful Noise Choirs. We invite you to
Welcome New Beginnings at Juniper Village and make a habit of joining us for
activities and events throughout the year!