EngAGE likes stories of elders embracing technology! After resisting learning how to use her computer, now, “at 73, [Shirley] Barrowclough has not only mastered email and Google searches. She has found and watched [her daughter’s] presentations on YouTube, recently used her laptop to create a booklet of memorabilia and old photos for her mother-in-law’s 100th birthday, and has set her sights on an iPad.” Her facility with technology is thanks to the Elder Technology Assistance Group (ETAG), a non-profit group of young volunteers who provide free tutoring to seniors on everything from the basics of opening a Word document to storing photos on an iPad. Read more here.
Staying in Touch Online, Thanks to Young Tutors
Community Photo Album: June
In Los Angeles, we often refer to cool weather in June as “June Gloom,” but there was no gloom at any of our lively community activities! Check out this assortment of photos from some of them, including painting and crafts classes, aqua fitness, gardening, a trip to the Hollywood Bowl, EngAGE Senior Olympics training, a great Hawaiian-themed gathering, free haircuts for Father’s Day, and a multi-community Senior Rap featuring some musically-minded residents. Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them. Also be sure to see our new monthly post called “Community Highlights” that will feature a few of our special or unusual events.
Community Highlights: June
This new monthly post will feature some of the special events that take place in our communities. Here’s our selection for June. Click on any picture to enlarge it:
It’s not often you can get a free haircut, but that’s exactly what San Antonio Gardens residents enjoyed as part of their Father’s Day celebration. A group of stylists treated both men and women to a cool new ‘do.
The Kenneth A. Picerne Foundation has provided EngAGE with facilitator/artist, Jo McLachlan for the 2012 year. Jo invites residents to have some fun with improv and creative thinking. The group picture below shows members of the Improv RAP group, performing at The Jasmine Senior Apartments in Fountain Valley. Jo brought folks together from Jasmine, Dorado, and Villa Anaheim, under the theme of “laughter.” The groups each developed their own lyrics to a hip, rap-style background beat. A DVD is available of their performances, with each group rapping their memorized rhymes to the beat. It has been shared with the residents at the properties. The fun continued as many of the residents were part of the audience at Jo’s professional improv performance in Westminster on June 29th. “I will be sure to show this DVD to my grandson,” participant Bonnie proudly rapped. “He thinks I’m not hip!”
Piedmont residents celebrated June birthdays with a Hawaiian-themed gathering that included a ukelele band and hula dancing instruction from Lincoln Kaio and his Senior Hula troop, and specially made artwork made by Randall’s art class. Residents were encouraged to dress in Hawaiian-style clothing . About 160 people attended!
Many Seniors Say “No Thanks” to Living with Their Adult Kids
There is a rising number of intergenerational households (read more EngAGE Online Art Gallery Is Open
EngAGE is pleased to announce our online art gallery at Fine Art America that features the work of some of our talented community residents. Click here to take a look. You can order greeting cards from the gallery and if you’re interested in purchasing the original artwork, you can send us an e-mail or leave a comment here on the blog. All proceeds from the sales go to the artist who created the work. We’ll be adding more artists continually, so be sure to check back at the gallery regularly to see what’s new!
Posted in Art/Architecture, News in the Arts, Resident Spotlight
Tagged changing aging
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Featured Resident Artist: Max Dunham
C. Max Dunham is a 70-plus years resident of Southern California, presently residing in the San Gabriel Valley. With a lifelong interest in art and a career in advertising/graphic design (retired), the artist’s main artistic endeavors have been acrylic paintings. Other mediums Max has explored include ceramics, hanging mobile assemblages, papier-mache, and photography. Below are some of his whimsical papier-mache creations. Click here to see Max’s work in our new EngAGE Art Gallery online at FineArtAmerica.com where you can order greeting cards featuring the work of some of our artists.
Worth Repeating: Inspiration for Memoir Writers
“Worth Repeating” is a new weekly feature on the EngAGE Blog that will bring you previous posts that we think are still timely, interesting, or just plain fun!
From 7/19/11:
Today a new social network was launched, but this one has a twist: it’s designed to encourage you to write your memoirs by using prompts in the spirit of the Proust Questionnaire. Then, if you wish, you can share them online with your friends and family.
The Proust Questionnaire was a 19th century parlor game popularized by contemporaries of Marcel Proust, French essayist and novelist, that was supposed to reveal your true inner nature through your answers to a series of questions. Samples of the questions at the newly-launched Proust.com: What was your most memorable birthday? When was your first kiss? What did you admire most about your parents?
You can add photographs or other images to your stories, too, so it’s rather like an on-line scrapbook that enhances the stories you tell. Are you a writer who would find this helpful or inspiring? You can investigate at Proust.com. EngAGE encourages everyone to tell their personal stories, so we’re interested to learn what you think about this new website. Please let us know in the comments on this post!
