PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!

The 2^nd Annual Peanut Butter and Jelly Fundraiser was another huge success!- Juniper Village at Naples collected 367 pounds of Peanut Butter & Jelly topping last year’s 302 pounds collected! We couldn’t be more thrilled! 

The generosity of our Community Care Partners and Juniper Village at Naples family members was very heartwarming. All week folks were stopping in with their jars of Peanut Butter & Jelly - and the front lobby looked amazing!

Guests of the afternoon event enjoyed Peanut butter and Jelly inspired appetizers including “sticky chicken wings” and “Peanut Butter and Jelly Bacon sliders” along with the most incredible Peanut butter ball candy - made with love by Steven!

We at Juniper Village at Naples want to thank all those who participated in this wonderful event. As some of you may know, children of Collier County can receive a free lunch at school during the school year - which may be the only meal they have for the day.

Juniper Village at Naples will donate the 214 jars of Peanut Butter and Jelly to St. Matthews house in Naples to help those families in need. 

June 2017 Events in Naples, FL: Live In Wellness

“You are what you eat.” The old adage is now truer than ever. Good health is largely dependent on good nutrition, so much so that doctors trace many physical and emotional ailments back to a diet deficient in vitamins and minerals. Eating a well-balanced diet is a major part of encouraging long life, lowering the incidence of disease, and helping sick people recover. On the flip side, inadequate nutrition and poor quality foods can generally cut life span and open us up to many illnesses and disease. In effect, food is medicine per Webster's definition of medicine: "The science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, alleviation, or cure of disease." Food acts as medicine - to maintain, prevent, and treat disease.

With this month’s Alive in All Seasons focus on food, we’d like to give you a prescription for a healthy diet: breakfast daily (do not skip); meals x3 (at least) daily; foods from each of the food groups per meal daily. The food pyramid defines the food groups as grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy and proteins. The amounts vary according to age, sex, height, weight, and physical activity level. Here’s a good guideline to start you on your way. Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Make half your grains whole grains. Move to low-fat and fat-free dairy. Vary your protein routine and eat and drink the right amount for you.

Join us as we continue our focus on healthy aging by shedding light on our hydration program with healthy snacks and juices, and demonstrate how food and nutrition help us to Live in Wellness from a dietitian’s point of view.

Our fabulous June 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples include our:

§  Celebrating Dad Family Luncheon for our FATHERS... Faithful; Always there; Trustworthy; Honoring; Ever-loving; Righteous; Supportive; so celebrate Dad on this day (and every day) with a very special “dancing” presentation immediately following the luncheon June 14^th from noon to 1:00 pm. (RSVP by June 7^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  The Mind Diet an educational discussion presented by John Fitzsimmons, Dietician and Author, that will include a clinically researched, published dietary strategy to address cognitive decline, and light healthy refreshments will be served on June 21^st from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. (RSVP by June 14^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  2nd Annual Peanut Butter & Jelly Fundraiser and Happy Hour for some appetizers and beverages while you donate your jars of PB & J to help the kids this summer who may not have a lunch except through your generous donation with all proceeds to be donated to St. Matthews House, so thanks for helping the kids on June 22^nd from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. (RSVP by June 15^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

We look forward to sharing our June 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples with you as you Live In Wellness.

May 2017 Events in Naples, FL: Grow Strong Daily

Continuing our Spring Alive In All Seasons focus on healthy again, we continue to let wellbeing thrive with a May focus on Fitness. Staying fit throughout all seasons of life is possible and at Juniper we promote fitness every day of the week! We recently shared on our Facebook page a New York Times story, authored by Gretchen Reynolds, providing results from the Mayo Clinic who recently conducted an experiment on the cells of 72 healthy but sedentary men and women who were 30 or younger or older than 64. The volunteers were randomly assigned to a particular exercise regimen. There were some unsurprising differences: The gains in muscle mass and strength were greater for those who exercised only with weights, while interval training had the strongest influence on endurance. But more unexpected results were found in the biopsied muscle cells. It seems as if the decline in the cellular health of muscles associated with aging was “corrected” with exercise, especially if it was intense, says Dr. Sreekumaran Nair, a professor of medicine and an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic and the study’s senior author. In fact, older people’s cells responded in some ways more robustly to intense exercise than the cells of the young did. So pick up those weights, get on that bike and remember it’s never too late to benefit from exercise. And if you’re not doing so already, follow us on social media so you don’t miss a thing.

We invite you to Grow Strong Daily along with us with programs such as Fitness Five and our Route 66 Walking Program. Learn more about fitness and keeping your heart healthy at our Heart Healthy Luncheon and educational presentation. Staying fit throughout all seasons of life is possible.

Our fabulous May 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples include our:

§  Celebrating Mom Family Luncheon because special and few are the moments we can share, so let’s make memories together while we enjoy a delightful luncheon prepared by Chef Steven on May 10^th from noon to 1:00 pm. (RSVP by May 5^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  Hospice and Assisted Living Partners in Caring an educational forum that will outline the partnership between Hospice and Assisted Living services to learn how they complement each other in the care of the resident on hospice on May 18^th from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. (RSVP by May 11^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  Lori’s Movin’and Groovin’ with Lori Adams who has combined her skills to create a music and movement experience that is engaging and fun because getting the body moving is vital to better health and wellness and music feeds the soul, so join us for an uplifting, fun and energizing movement class on May 25^th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. (RSVP by May 18^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

We look forward to sharing our May 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples with you as you Grow Strong Daily.

Laughing Out Loud

They say laughter is the best medicine, so we decided to invite Lenore Farkas to share her joy with us. She is known as "the woman with the tickle in the middle". Lenore taught us that laughter therapy can bring happiness back into our lives and help relieve the pain; and it's contagious! Everyone enjoyed playing silly games, sang amazing songs, and exercised our internal organs.

Oh what fun we had laughing away!

Celebration of Life

We hosted a celebration in honor of a wonderful woman named Oma. Oma was a woman who ran her own business in the 1920's and rode a motorcycle in her mid-70s. She was always ready to share her laughter, wisdom, and sheer love of life. She lived life to the fullest and raised an amazing family. We would like to shine a light on her granddaughter named who we proudly call our founder - Lynne Katzmann.

Lynne loved her grandmother so much and was so inspired by her love of life. Juniper Communities is a place where Lynne's vision of seniors living in a community honoring the concept of being alive in all season of life truly comes to fruition!

April 2017 Events in Naples, FL: Believe in Yourself

Each April we begin our Healthy Aging Series with a focus on brain health, and encourage you to Believe in Yourself. We know that believing in yourself has a positive effect on your mental health, but did you know that self-confidence influences your physical health as well? Recent studies show people who exhibit self-confidence are generally healthier and tend to live longer. That's because confidence is a positive emotion and positive emotions have countless health benefits for your mind, body and spirit. In nurturing wellbeing by encouraging an active body, an engaged mind and a fulfilled spirit, Juniper is also building self-confidence. The link between health and confidence also may be related to the ability of positive emotions to boost our brain's power to hold attention, be aware and remember things. We are better able to learn, build new skills and relate with others when we are feeling optimistic. Also confident people are better able to handle chaotic situations in a positive manner. This helps to reduce or avoid excessive stress, high blood pressure, anger, confusion – all the negative side effects of feeling powerless, overwhelmed and out of control.

If you need to kick start your confidence, here are a few things to try: smile; count your blessings; surround yourself with confident people; learn how others have found their confidence and follow their lead; challenge negative or inaccurate thinking and replace with accurate, constructive thoughts; and encourage yourself. You can also plan to join us this month for uplifting discussions and a focus on brain health with offerings such as Daily Brain Builders, Wii games, and a Brain Healthy Luncheon.

Our fabulous April 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples include our:

§  Family Caregiver Discussion Group with Debbie Fulton of the Alzheimer’s Support Network who will be our guest speaker this month, so join us as we learn how to care for ourselves as the caregivers and learn how to reduce stress and let our wellbeing thrive on April 11^th from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm. (RSVP by April 5^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  Brain Healthy Family Luncheon because we need more than nutrients essential; our human brains, have so much potential; assorted berries, a memory boost; apples protect us, cancers reduced; cherries fight inflammation; dark chocolate boosts our circulation; oysters provide us with plenty of zinc; aging and healing, there is a link; eggs and fish, will build our brains; all these foods, have countless gains; so join us to feed your brain on April 12^th from noon to 1:00 pm. (RSVP by April 5^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

§  Make Laughter Part of Your Life for Mind and Body Wellbeing with Lenore Farkas, known as The Woman with a Tickle in the Middle, who is a Certified Laughter Leader, whose passion is to place the Joy of Abundance in Everyone’s Heart, so join us for a belly laugh or two on April 13^th from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm. (RSVP by April 6^th to Dinelle at 239-598-1368.)

We look forward to sharing our April 2017 events in Naples, FL at Juniper Village at Naples with you as you Believe in Yourself.

Music is the Treasure

On this beautiful day, we found Bill outside on the greens with his one true treasure…his guitar. To Bill nothing could be more satisfying then to sit in the garden playing his favorite tune. Bill is a Florida born and raised resident. His favorite types of tunes to play are country. On the days he isn’t playing a tune, you can be sure to find him in the garden holding tight to his guitar telling stories of the good old days.