Kendal at Oberlin

Kendal at Oberlin proudly holds the 5th spot among Ohio's top continuing care retirement communities, as recognized by Newsweek's America's Best Continuing Care Retirement Communities 2025.

Fresh flower arrangements brighten up the main entrance, Heiser Lounge and a couple of other public spaces in Kendal year-round (examples photographed), thanks to the dedication and creativity of about a dozen Kendal residents. Explains Anne Wardwell, chair of the Floral Creations Committee: “Between May and mid-October, we rely on flowers that residents grow and share, on wild flowers growing in various parts of Kendal, and on zinnias and gladiolas grown specifically for Floral Creations in the Community Garden. Between late October and May, we purchase flowers mostly at Carlyle Gift and Flower Shop in Oberlin, but also occasionally elsewhere – we have a budget from KORA (Kendal at Oberlin Residents Association). We use only fresh or dried flowers - never artificial flowers.” Residents and visitors often comment on the creative flower displays and are surprised to learn the arrangements are the work of residents, not florists. “We tell residents they don’t need to have flower arranging experience. What they do need is an artistic sense and a love for flowers. We work mostly in pairs for 10-day periods. When we get new members who don’t have much experience, they work with us so we can show them how we make the arrangement decisions we make, how to pick a suitable container, when to use oasis versus a frog, and so on. Occasionally in the past we have been fortunate to have a member or two with real flower arranging experience.” And the committee’s name – Floral Creations – is deliberate. “We do not try to make flower arrangements as one finds in florist shops, but rather specialize in creative arrangements using flowers, dried materials, driftwood, stones, shells etc. Hence Floral Creations as opposed to Flower Arrangers,” Anne says.

The land drew Dan Wright to Oberlin, the people drew him to Kendal. Six months later Dan feels at home living in a progressive, open-minded, welcoming community. https://hubs.ly/Q02Z2NfD0

The Kendal Early Learning Center 12-year journey incorporating an innovative self-discipline program in the classroom took another big step last month. The center’s director and four teachers traveled to Las Vegas for Conscious Discipline? annual Elevate conference. The group also included two teachers from Kendal at Hanover’s Early Learning Center and Jenn Keathley, director of OberlinKids. “My biggest takeaway was from one of our keynote speakers, DJ Batiste (photographed with the KELC teachers). He shared his story of how a teacher changed his life, and it was powerful! The teacher approached him with the skills of Conscious Discipline and saw something positive in him when all other teachers saw the negative. This inspired DJ to learn the Conscious Discipline skills and to set a goal to graduate high school,” says Emily Hoffman, Kendal Early Learning Center (KELC) teacher. Conscious Discipline is based on seven skills: Composure, Encouragement, Assertiveness, Choices, Empathy, Positive Intent and Consequences. “The Seven Skills of Discipline are the only skills we need to transform these everyday discipline issues into teaching moments. These moments are our opportunity to teach children the social-emotional and communication skills necessary to manage themselves, resolve conflict, prevent bullying and develop pro-social behaviors,” according to Conscious Discipline, which in 25 years has reached an estimated 20 million children in 100 countries. Jeni Hoover, KELC director, says the conference reinforced the importance of seeing the best in children and meeting them “where they are not where we want them to be developmentally. Also, the conference stressed not only teaching children Conscious Discipline skills in the classroom but modeling them every day. It’s easy to try and teach the skill but the way the child will truly learn the skill is by watching the adults around them put the skills into action and model what it looks like.” Other teacher takeaways: “making sure that all students and staff feel safe.” Molly Stonestreet. “the importance of building a school family.” Karen Moore “the importance of connection. Connecting with students, their parents/families, and each other (the teachers) in the classroom is such an essential component of being able to teach, learn, and grow.” Sierra Gessner

We may celebrate different winter holidays but holiday movies - well we can generally all get behind that. One highly anticipated movie this holiday season is “A Complete Unknown,” a Dec. 25 release which tells the story of an emerging Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. According to a Rolling Stone interview, when Dylan asked director James Manfold what the movie was about, he said, “‘It’s about a guy who’s choking to death in Minnesota, and leaves behind all his friends and family and reinvents himself in a brand new place, makes new friends, builds a new family, becomes phenomenally successful, starts to choke to death again — and runs away.” To which Dylan replied, “I like that.” “Mufasa: The Lion King Movie,” released Dec. 20, tells the story in flashbacks of orphaned cub Mufasa who meets the heir to a royal bloodline. Other holiday releases include: “The Piano Lesson (Nov. 8, Netflix Nov. 22), an adaption of an August Wilson play by Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm, starring another son, John David; “Emilia Perez” (Nov. 13) “a lawyer receives an unexpected offer to help a feared Mexican cartel boss retire from his business and disappear forever by becoming the woman he's always dreamed of being”; “Maria” (Nov. 27, Netflix Dec. 11), the story of American Greek soprano Maria Callas played by Angelina Jolie: “Queer” (Nov. 27), based on the William S. Burroughs novel of the same name. To many watching a holiday movie means one of the classics. Five of the top 100 most popular holiday movies, according to IMDb are: “It’s a Wonderful Life: (1946) “Die Hard” (1988) “A Christmas Carol” (1951) “Home Alone” (1990) “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1964). Let us know what your favorite holiday film is.

Happy Veteran's Day from all of us at Kendal at Oberlin. Today, we honor the brave men and women who have served our country with courage and dedication.

Kendal residents and staff are off to the races this week, running hither and yon to see how much money they can raise for United Way of Greater Lorain County and the Kendal Early Learning Center. And this year the Kendal community has gotten super creative with its annual fundraiser, starting with an auction to play gold and have lunch with Kendal CEO Seth Vilensky. The top three bidders will enjoy an outing at TopGolf in Independence with Seth, who celebrates his first anniversary at Kendal in January. Here are other FUN fundraisers going on the week of Nov. 4: Raffle for a prime parking spot, an employee favorite. Three winners will be drawn for a parking spot closest to the staff entrance during the cold months of December through March. (Raffle tickets are $3 each); Guess how many candy corn are in the jar at the Heiser Front Desk. (Each guess costs $1); BIG bake sale on Wednesday featuring scrumptious sweets from Kiedrowski's Simply Delicious Bakery in Amherst; “Penny Pots to Help our Tots,” a competition to see which Kendal department can raise the most pennies. To add more fun and money to the competition, staff can place paper dollars and non-penny coins into competing department containers, which will reduce the penny total. Wear jeans to work once a month by making a payroll deduction donation. All proceeds from these events will benefit United Way’s OberlinKids which brings community and educational organizations together to ensure local children are kindergarten-ready, and Kendal Early Learning Center. One of OberlinKids collaborative partners is the Early Learning Center, which provides scholarships to some of the pre-schoolers.

Our neighborhoods and parks are swathed in fall colors. But how about taking those orange and red hues onto the dining room table for delicious and healthy meals? “With their spectrum of vitamins and nutrients, red and orange vegetables can provide people with vigor and vitality. Vegetables in this category are especially high in vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and Vitamin K. Red and orange vegetables include carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes, winter squash, and various types of red peppers,” according to WebMD. Let’s start with the star of the fall season – pumpkin, technically a fruit (it has seeds) but a type of winter squash commonly considered a vegetable. While the perennial pumpkin pie is its most popular use, pumpkin can be roasted as a side dish, turned into soup or added to stews and pasta. And pumpkin seeds are edible, tasty after roasting and packed with nutrients. According to Healthline, health benefits of eating pumpkin are: Low in calories; High in antioxidants that help reduce risk of cancer and other diseases; Packed with vitamins A, C and E that support eye, heart and skin health, Good source of fiber. Now let’s take a look at other squashes. “Nutritionally, butternut and acorn squash are arguably the overall MVPs, but it’s by the slimmest, most subjective of margins,” says Cleveland Clinic registered dietitian Amber Sommer, RDN, LD. “However, don’t worry about choosing the healthiest squash. Instead, choose the ones that taste best to you and try to eat a variety to get the most benefit from eating squash.” And like pumpkin, squashes can be roasted and used in soups and stews. Finally sweet potatoes, which come in a variety of colors and sizes, are also highly nutritious and versatile. They can be baked, broiled, roasted, steamed or pan-cooked, even turned into fries and chips.

In this polarized political climate, there’s one area of common ground: the election is stressing us out. According to the American Psychological Association’s annual stress report, along with the typical stressors of money, health and family this year the well-being of our country is front and center. “Seven out of 10 adults say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress in their lives and the issue crosses party lines: 80% of Republicans rated it a top stressor, so did 79% of Democrats and 73% of Independents,” reports Katia Riddle for NPRs “All Things Considered.” One national organization that is trying to address the stress in our politically divided country is Braver Angels, grassroots, cross-partisan organization focused on civil discourse. “Embracing values of respect, humility, honesty and responsible citizenship, our goal is not to change people’s views of issues, but to change their views of each other,” according to Braver Angels vision. The organization offers workshops and training, both remote and in-person. For instance, this month a Braver Angels speaker visited Kendal to talk about “disagreeing better in difficult conversations.” Limiting social media and 24/7 news, volunteering as a poll worker or canvassing on behalf of a candidate or cause are also ways to reduce election anxiety. And whether it’s political or personal stress, tried-and-true stress busters include: Mediation or mindful breathing; Physical activity, even better if it’s outside and surrounded by nature; Writing in a journal, listening to soothing music or other creative outlet; Reaching out to a trusted friend for support; Practice gratitude (For an assist sign up for Grateful Living daily email that contains an uplifting quote.)

This was a great opportunity to talk about owned and earned communications with our colleagues. Thank you #LeadingAge24!