By Mike Cooper

At Naperville Senior Center, we have a new theme every week, such as Craft Week, Earth Week, and Be Happy Week. We plan various activities for the week around the theme. It’s just one more way to get our Members involved in a coordinated activity. This week’s theme is Wear Something Pink.

I know what you are thinking – Why pink? Do the men even own something pink? You are thinking too literally. It’s about being creative and thinking outside the box. If someone doesn’t own something pink, we can make something during one of our craft activities that is pink that will suffice! It’s about the interaction with each other and DOING something.

Here are a few reasons why we celebrate the color pink at NSC:

• It can mean sweet, nice, cute, romantic, feminine, and tenderness.
• It is the symbol of universal love of oneself and of others.
• It is the symbol of compassion and nurturing, and is associated with giving and receiving care.
• A pink carnation means “I will never forget you.”

At NSC we strive to be compassionate and nurturing to all of our Members who receive our care. We know that we need to love ourselves in order to truly love others – and we really do love our Members as if they were a part of our family. In a way they are! We spend more time with them – listening, engaging, playing, singing and socializing – than we do with most of our own family members.

We give our Members the opportunity to colorize, harmonize, hypothesize, verbalize, improvise, evangelize, socialize, exercise, have fun, and plenty of activities to provide mental and physical stimulation throughout the day. They can also take a ‘time out’ if they want just to relax or take a nap. Whatever works!

Call to action: contact us to schedule a FREE 3-hour trial at our facility so you can see what we have to offer and understand the Naperville Senior Center experience. It’s like “Home Away From Home,” but with a nurse and therapists in your living room.