Welcome to Ridgecrest Village, located at 4130 Northwest Blvd. Davenport, IA. We are the longest standing senior community with the full care spectrum in the Quad Cities, and we are very proud of it! Adding the fact that we are a not-for-profit community only contributes to our pride. To top it all off, we have been in the Quad Cities for over 50 years helping our seniors from independent living all the way to end of life. They are able to stay in the same community with all their friends and family through everything, so their support system is always intact.
When someone moves into our independent living, they are able to make it their home by picking their paint colors and adding some personal touches. We have committees (made up by residents) in our facility that address anything and everything you can think of to ensure our residents are enjoying their retirement years. When living at Ridgecrest, you receive access to our full-time chaplin, bi-weekly housekeeping, a cook, a handyman, and a driver, so if you don’t want to drive in the snow, you don’t have to! We do our best to make sure there will never be a worry to interfere with the fun.
Talking about fun, a small group helped to do a yard bombing. What is that, you ask? Well, if you go to Augustana College, you will see trees of many colors; these are the ones our residents, through our founder Margie Hansen, helped make. They also helped with the ones at the Figge Art Museum. They are extremely unique, and I hope you get a chance to go see at least one of them.
Marlene, our activity director for independent living, looks for ways to change things up, and our activity committee is always giving her ideas. They recently started a “Lunch and Learn” travel log, which has had a nice turn out. I have heard many people share stories about their own personal experiences. I was able to sit in during one; we traveled down Route 66, residents shared their stories about how it used to be, it was a great history lesson for me!
Today, I felt extra blessed to watch one of my residents helping another. One resident had to have a surgical procedure done, and she has no family in town, so another resident spent the entire day sitting at the hospital with her. She was there before the surgery started, during the surgery, and when it was over. she was still there sitting in the room, waiting to make sure everything was all right. The resident that had the surgery said when she woke up “You’re still here? You should have gone home. I feel guilty taking you away from things.” The response was “that’s what we do; we are family and we help each other, just like you would have for me.” That just touched my heart. I love where I work because they do treat each other, as well as us staff members, like family.
In our assisted living, when a resident has a doctor’s appointment, many times one of our independent residents volunteer to ride with them so they have companionship and don’t feel alone. During some of their many activities in assisted living, our independent residents will come and help, or even teach them how to do different kinds of activities that they may have just learned themselves. Our bell chimes group does concerts over there, and one of our residents that plays the mandolin regularly goes over and plays music for them.
In our assisted living, instead of one meal a day, they receive all three meals. Housekeeping is done weekly and as needed. Laundry is included with the housekeeping, and is also done by itself. They have regular happy hours, games, movies, and outings to different places. Linda, our activity director, takes their ideas and makes them happen. She has a special place in her heart for our “Memory Gardens” residents. This is a unit off of our assisted living that takes care of our residents with Alzheimer’s. I have seen many hands-on activities as well as group activities to help stir up memories. Sometimes, songs can even bring back a special memory that they have forgotten. Linda is right there trying to stimulate them and help them feel comfort and familiarity.
In our health care facility, we have one activity director and two assistants so that they are able to get more participation for each activity. Recently, Jennifer did a trick or treat so they were able to see all different-aged children dressed up and feel the excitement from the children. Some of our residents even chose to dress up with them. A few family members brought in their family pets and had them dressed up as well. It was an exciting evening for everyone. We posted many of the pictures on our Facebook page; feel free to check them out. I bet it will bring a smile to your face, too.
For even more smiles, we invite you out to see our Forrest of Trees, starting on December 8th and staying up until the new year. We decorate many trees in our arcade area and through out the village. This all started when one of our health care residents couldn’t physically go to the Festival of Trees downtown anymore, and she had been very active in it for years. Her heart was broken, so our activity director at that time asked if we (our different departments) would be willing to do a few trees to bring her a little happiness. So many departments agreed to do it that we ended up filling the hallway. Since then, our residents wanted to do trees as well, so they (each building) took over a tree and decorate it differently every year. This event has brought a lot of joy to our community. Last year, Fran Riley even came out, took pictures, and talked about us on his show. One question he asked when he was interviewing a few residents was, “what does this event mean to you?” The answer from them was simple; “Love.” When they see our staff putting in so much effort to make it look nice for them, they know they are loved. Every time I think of that comment I think of a time when I was young and would hear my mom say, “There is nothing greater than the feeling of love!”
If you are interested in feeling the true love of Ridgecrest, come visit us. No matter where you go, you will see our family bond and the true love of our community. Mary Huebbe, Marketing Director | Ridgecrest Village | 563-391-3430