“Up, up, down, side to side.”
Led by a fitness instructor, Homeland residents are doing a chair workout, but today, colorful disco lights spin around the Gathering Room. Residents happily wave glow sticks to 1970s classics, singing along to “American Pie” and spelling out the letters of “YMCA.”
It was part of Assisted Living Week 2026, when the Homeland Activities Department celebrated a different decade of the 20th century every day. More importantly, the week honored the staff who make Homeland renowned for its outstanding care.
“We like to recognize our staff for everything they do, because there are so many other places they could choose to work,” said Homeland Director of Personal Care and HomeCare Jennifer Murray. “They choose to stay here because of the love they have for the residents and the things that we do to acknowledge them.”
The National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) has presented National Assisted Living Week annually since 1995. Homeland first turned the week into staff appreciation events during COVID, when families couldn’t visit, but employees kept working despite the obstacles. Murray remembers the joy and surprise staff members felt when residents’ families staged a parade past Homeland, full of cheering and thank-you signs.
“We just took off from there, getting together with activities and planning things for the whole week,” she said.
Under this year’s theme of “Shining Through the Years,” the week kicked off in 1940s style, with trivia, name that tune, and a drive-in diner with root beer floats at the Homeland Diner. Personal Care Activities Coordinator Jessica Budd dressed as a waitress and, to the residents’ amazement, roller-skated around the room.
Tuesday, residents returned to the Diner for a 1950s drive-in movie experience and a screening of the ‘50s nostalgia musical, “Grease.”
On a beautiful late-summer Wednesday, 1960s day, residents got outside in the Chet Henry Pavilion to make tie-dye bags.
“For the ‘60s, I was wearing tie-dye and glasses and a wrap around my hair, and a couple of residents didn’t know who I was until I started talking to them,” said Murray. “It’s a fun time. The residents love it. They come to find out what we’re wearing.”
On Thursday, the 1970s featured a rousing glow fitness session and a photo booth where residents put their heads into a cut-out panel featuring a man in a John Travolta white suit and a woman in a purple ABBA-style jumpsuit.
The week wrapped up with 1980s trivia and music bingo.
For Housekeeper Sandra Ware, the week was all about dressing up and having fun while doing a serious job.
“I love when we participate in activities,” she said. “It’s so much fun. I think the residents really enjoy seeing us. They’re used to seeing us in uniforms and not relaxing as much as we do when we participate.”
For the 1980s, she decided to do “the overalls thing, and little tennis shoes with slouchy socks. The ‘80s were rollin’!”
Resident Loretta Colestock enjoyed the full slate of activities, from watching Jess Budd roller skate to singing along during the 1970s disco fitness class.
“The ‘50s are the best for me,” she said. “That was when I graduated, in 1955. We used to dance and jitterbug. We had a good time.”
Did she plan to get her photo taken in the photo booth later?
“Oh, sure,” she said. “Do it all.”
Fitness instructor Jen Angeles, who arrived with her 3-pound chihuahua Pepa, sees her classes as “mental health disguised as fitness.”
“The music takes residents back to wherever they were in life,” she said. “They like to sing. It’s loud. In this environment, a lot of things are quiet, and I think they like my loudness. They like the banter and the interaction. This is my favorite group because they’re so into it and remember things.”
As for the disco touch that Homeland Activities requested for the 1970s day, “I’m always down for glow,” she said.
The festivities continued during the next week with brownies made by Murray, personalized thank-you notes written to every staff member by Homeland trustees and Board of Managers members, and a display of “shout-outs” – cards asking Homeland residents and family to say a few words about a beloved staff member.
“We just had a married couple move in, and they said in their shout-out that the staff made them feel at home and helped them get adjusted to their living arrangements,” said Murray. “People say, ‘They’re so kind.’ ‘They go out of their way.’ These cards show how loved the residents feel.”
