Woods Of Cedar Village - Participants

Alrighty. So I want to first start with thanking you all for taking the time to just share your experience, be able to uplift things that would be able to benefit other individuals as well, and really be able to inform programming across the board. So I'm going to start with asking each of you just to do a quick introduction of yourself so you could just share your name, some of your interests, and I'll start with you because you're close to me.

Okay. My name is Colette, and I have multiple sclerosis. And my interests are. My interests are exercising and arts and crafts, a lot of walking and things like that.

Hey, Miss Betty, could you share your name and a little bit about yourself and some of your interests?

Yes, my name is Betty, and some of my interest is also getting into exercise. I used to go to curves and when the COVID came in, I haven't been back since, but I did have in my mind to go back because I really liked it and it was getting me out the house. This is similar to this, you know, move thing. So when I saw that, I, you know, I said, oh, okay, I'll check this out first and, you know, see what's going on with this. So here I am, and that's it.

Thank you. Thank you. And Miss Dolly, could you just share your name and a little bit about yourself?

I'm Dolly. I love to crochet, which I'm not able to do at the moment because of arthritis, severe arthritis. It's going to be a week before I can get it checked out, but I like to keep moving constantly. Whether there's pain or not, I go.

I hear you.

I hear you on that. Thank you, James.

James. High school athlete, college laws, managers and, and like I say, kind of recovering a little bit, but I do take a strong, strong interest in trying to be without look and college, teach, practice, but government job, I do pay attention and try to focus on the hopes of the future. You know, any day.

Exercise.

Life is important. Watch emotion and think a lot. So I'm just casual and hopefully make life just as bright as it'll be. That's all I have.

My name is Karen, and I just want to come out and get a chance to meet people and get out of the house and get some exercise and get some ideas for exercise. Because if I try to self motivate, that doesn't work. But to be in a group setting, that really helps me. So that's my purpose.

Beautiful. And I know some of you touched on this already, but what were some of the motivations for joining this particular class or if you joined classes in the past, what are some of the things that motivated you? One, to be interested in signing up, and two, in actually showing up today.

To the exercises my sister suggested. And I think it's a great plan. 80 at one time, but I think it's an assistant. But I think it has been great the last month. I've learned new things, and I think exercises are careful attention. It's health that I appreciate.

I'm motivated, like I said earlier, just to be able to get out and about among other people and get some ideas, you know, because groupthink really helps me. Absolutely. Absolutely.

How about you?

I was motivated also because normally, I hate to admit it, but usually I would be in the bed at 01:00 so it really, you know, like, not every day, some days, because, you know, I have some good days and some bad days, but then when I know, okay, like I was saying last night, Thursday, you know, I'm supposed to come here for the, you know, get up and move. And so that kind of makes me, you know, get up and get myself together, you know, to come here because, you know, I want to see what else is going on, and I fear when I leave and, you know, that sort of stuff.

I totally get that. So we hear engagement, being able to connect that community, feel the value of what's actually being taught, the motivation to kind of come on out.

Yeah.

How about you, Dolly?

I want to do whatever I can to keep moving because not being able to move scares the daylights out of me. I have a niece in California. She's way worse than anybody I've seen here, and she's younger than I am. She's in one of those electric wheelchairs. She's the equivalent of a quadriplegic with Miss Wow. I never want to go that route.

It's like that desire to maintain movement and activity.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I get that.

How about you?

Well, with me, my friend Dolly over there coaxed me into it. At first I signed up, and I thought, well, I don't know, should I try this? And then Dolly coaxed me, so I said, okay, it gets me out of the apartment, number one, so I can socialize with everybody. Number two, I move a lot, but there's different ways of moving through the worksheets that were given to us. So these are exercises that I haven't seen since I was in physical therapy. And then I also like the clicker that we have. And so once in a while, I'll forget to use it, but I keep it right on my tv table. And every time I get up, I click it. And it's amazing how many times I get up off the chair at the end of the day and I start, you know, in that nighttime, I put it on my bedside, and then each time I get up, I click that, and it's still amazing in the middle of the day how much times I moved around.

So getting up and moving and coming to this class is just. It's been, I've only been to one previous class, but I love the experience of it.

Oh, that's wonderful. And can you just tell me, because I'm not familiar. Can you tell me a little bit more about the clicker? Does it monitor, like, your general movement?

Yeah, each time it's a little device, a little metal device, and it has a little button on it. And each time you stand up, you click on it and it'll say one. And when you get up and move again, then you click it again and it says two and so on and so forth.

So it's a way for you to kind of, like, be able to register.

Exactly.

Hold yourself accountable for your own level of engagement.

Exactly. And now I'm starting to get used to it. I forgot to do it a couple times today, but whatever I got in today was pretty amazing.

Yeah.

So you get to kind of give yourself a little pound of back.

Yeah, exactly.

Got it, got it, got it. And you each have one?

Yes.

Oh, nice.

Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. Have you all kind of seen a point of accountability or an increase in your movement by having that as a.

Absolutely, absolutely.

That's good. So my next question is, which aspects of this class do you all enjoy the most? So when you think about. I heard community, I heard connection, friendship. We all need a friend like Dolly to get us to do what we need to do. But what are some of the highlights for this class that you experience?

I would say the motivation from people here, what they share and what you can, you know, get back from them. You know, I take whatever people say, you know, with all the positive things that they do or say, I take back with me. So I learn from everybody from here. And that's the highlight of the class for me, besides the exercises, you know. But mostly I'm learning from everybody here.

Yeah, that's big because I also know you mentioned in your previous response that you're able to learn exercises that, you know, you wouldn't necessarily see otherwise.

Right.

Okay. What are some other things that come up for people as far as what you really appreciate or value about this class.

Well, it motivates me. It makes me wanna, you know, get up and get out and, you know, not be saying, oh, well, today is Thursday. It's time for me to get myself together. Although I'm still in the house doing exercises and stuff like that. I always did that. Yeah, this is not nothing new to me. But then, like I said, I have not been going, you know, out the house, you know, doing stuff. And this just seemed like it motivates me.

So I would be, you know, really wanting to get into some other stuff, you know. I was thinking about going back to curves.

Yeah? Yeah.

Because I really did enjoy joy being there.

Maybe this is like your step.

Yeah, this would be my step. Yeah. You know, get me back out there, you know, so I can have something to do and leave out the house. Like, I do walk the hallways, you know, like in the winter. And if it's nice, I would go outside, but otherwise I do the hallways and I do that, you know, pretty often. So I like walking in hallways.

Yeah. Yeah. How about you, Dolly?

Well, I've been here in this building for five years. And until I started this class, I never met her before.

That's significant. I have seen you, but I didn't.

Know who you were.

I don't know everybody name.

I thought she was too.

You know, like when you get on the elevator, but you don't know everybody. Well, yeah, we see each other in passing, but we don't know. Right, right. I. Yeah, I didn't know your name. I've seen you before.

Oh, yeah. I've been here five years, since February.

I've been here 13.

Yep.

And it still.

Well, yeah, I moved to didn't know who you were.

13 years?

Yes.

Wow.

But, you know, like, you know, people be moving in and I don't.

I never really got to know you until I came here. You know, I'd see you say hi, but I never knew your name.

Right.

And now that we're here, kind of getting acquainted a little bit.

So this is nice, the camaraderie ship.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

How about you, James?

I hear great stories and I think they're great here. And I'm learning those things as I am. I know that these exercise as beneficial and it really paid off. I think that I've come to find a difference and that's all I have to say. I appreciate being there.

How about you, Carrie?

I'd say the most beneficial part is that I'm cerebral. I like to see things in writing and I can take this with me and refer to it, but I also like it that she gives us the opportunity to stand up and look at this page. Try doing this and actually doing the exercises to see it's not that hard. Even finger exercises or stand up in some arm movements, and you readily feel it in your muscles that I must not have used these muscles in a while. You know, just, I like that part that we're given time to try these exercises together, but we're given so many examples, we can take it away and feel like we can incorporate some of this into our daily life. And so that's what I get from this actually coming together. Yeah. Yeah.

That's really big. So, in thinking about your participation, and we all know that there are, sometimes we're met with obstacles or difficulties or setbacks. Have there been any difficulties or hurdles that you've had to overcome in order to make it to the class? Like, was there any barriers for you all that, you know, made it difficult or hard or anything like that that maybe comes up?

Well, I was in the middle of putting my walker together today, and I was getting kind of tired from doing that because, you know, the Ms makes me tired. And I thought, okay, I'm going to put this thing together and take a nap. Then Dolly calls and said, oh, Collette, don't forget we have the get up and step class. And I said to myself, and then when I got here, I felt so much better. So it's nice to get motivated from other people. I mean, I motivate myself, too, but that just that little, you know, nudge in the right direction.

Yeah.

So, thanks, Dolly.

Oh, you're welcome.

And then I was gonna go up and help her with it in spite of my pain, but my friend Marie liked that. Before I could, she was out the door.

I love that. I love that.

Did anyone else encounter any difficulties? So maybe not today, but just in.

I did well last week, I'm telling you, I was in a October state, but as we were talking last week about the barrier, and I thought that I weren't going to make it, but then I said, oh, no, I'm not going to let this stop me. I want to go. And so I just got my clothes on, and every time I said, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. And I just got out the house, but I was in a lot of pain.

Good for you.

And I didn't let that stop me.

Yeah. Yeah.

And I found myself doing a lot of that now. It seemed like I'm just motivated, and I just wanna, you know, get my exercise in and do what I need to do.

Got it.

Well, I try not to let that, you know, that barrier stop me. At one time, it had me down, I'm telling you. So I do see it, you know, I'm changing. That makes me want to move and which I always been a person that can't holler, you know, sit down. I got to stay somewhere, moving, moving, moving, moving, moving. I could go to my kids house, and instead of just sitting there talking to them, I'm getting up and cleaning their house. This is the type of person that I was. But then since all this stuff start coming to me, I can't really do all of that now, but I try not to let it, you know, keep me down.

So, you know, I still try to keep going when I can, but sometimes it's very tough. And you're very tough? Yeah, very tough.

So we hear a little bit about kind of energy and activity also. Sometimes just emotionality can be a hurdle that we have to overcome. Physical pain where it may feel better to. I'm just gonna lay back, right. And take it easy with myself.

That's how I feel. Because when I'm in the bed and when I lay down, I don't have a pain in the world, but when.

I get up, everything turns on.

Huh?

Everything turns on. And then a lot of time it's from my shoulder all the way down to my feet. So it's been a trying time. But, you know, I do see, since I've been coming in here and even when I was going to other places, I could see the benefit of, you know, and I can see what happened when I stopped.

Yeah, that's when, like, nope. I need to just stick with it. That consistency. Are there any other barriers that maybe we haven't talked about yet? Pain. Physical pain.

Physical pain. I have arthritis real bad. I don't know whether what kind it is, rheumatoid or psoriatic, but I would rather sit in my recliner. Cause if I don't move, I'm not hurting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm glad it starts at 01:00 in the afternoon because I'm not a morning person, so it's not a barrier, but it would be if this class started at eight or nine, you know, tonight, that would be a barrier. So I'm glad it's in the early afternoon. That gives you time to address whatever it is. Put your walker together, get, you know, some cooking done, and then 01:00 you know, come to the. So actually, it's not a barrier at the time, but it would be if it was earlier in the day. So I like it that there's consideration for people that have morning issues.

Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. I don't want to skip over you, James, but I just want to. Did you have anything to add or are we good? So, and I know we kind of mentioned this a little bit, but just speaking more directly to it, how has this program impacted your daily activities and your overall physical health? So have you been able to. I know we talked about having that tracker or the little clicker that helps you to monitor at the very least, how often you're moving. Are there other things that you notice with yourself about your daily activities that you engage with?

I've been walking a lot more because since I moved here last February, I slacked and I thought, okay, summertime came, it was too darn hot. I have heat sensitivity. So I walked the halls in the summer, but then I got complacent, and I was complacent for a number of months. And now, ever since this class, I've been getting up and moving more, walking in the halls. And yesterday or the day before, whenever it was like 70 degrees outside, I actually walked 4 miles. And usually I do a little more, but I'm starting out very slowly. I'll walk three. I'll walk three loops around, come up to my apartment, take a break for about 15 minutes, then do some more loops, go up, take the break.

I do it about five or six times. And, you know, it's a wonder. I feel it. I feel it in my back and in my legs. I haven't done it for so long, but I also do four step aerobic with my walker. I put the earphones on and I just go at it, but I've been a little complacent with that, too. But since this class has been getting me up and getting me motivated, just the one class I took.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's wonderful. Has anyone else noticed a change in your daily activities based on the information that you're learning from this class?

For me, I'm encouraged to track my activity so I can see when I haven't done anything for a few days. So just in the last week, I started to try to write down if I walked or if I did some movements and if I keep it on a calendar that I think will help me in the long run. So at least I started that habit. As of last week, you know, try to keep track of what I'm doing. Yeah. So I know if I'm slacking, or at least I'll have a visual to know. Yeah.

Yeah.

That accountability piece.

Yeah, got it.

Got it. Alrighty. And we're getting down to our final questions here. So, are there improvements or new activities that you would like to see being offered as a program?

Well, I'd like this one to continue on.

Yeah. Are there any.

Be nice if it did continue, because we'll be right here. Right.

Yeah.

We're gonna have to go out our way to go somewhere else. And, you know, teacher, she's. We like her a lot. She's good. Explaining to us. And with the weekly thing that we fill out what we doing and, you know, how many times we stand, that's all good. And that really motivates you. You know, we have something that you really want to do.

Are there any other programs that you would like to be offered here? So, is there anything that you would like to learn or to just have presented to you as a program option?

I'd like to see them bring back the walk and be Fitzhen. They used to do that every other week or something like that. If the weather was inclement, we walk the halls. Otherwise we'd walk around the building.

Yeah.

Okay. So the walk and be fit.

That is a good idea.

They used to do that here.

Really?

Yeah, I remember.

That. With a change of program, they really.

Ought to bring it back.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So that's the big one. So we want to have this one continue, and then we'd like to see a walk and be fit.

And it's nice to walk with other people. I mean, it's okay to walk with yourself, but it's a lot more fun to walk with others.

Oh, I agree.

Yeah.

I'm getting a theme from this group here that community is so important and, like, having individuals around you who you can connect with and have those relationships with as you are trying to better yourself than having people along you kind of motivating you or teaching you new things, that that seems to be really important here. Am I accurate?

Oh, yeah. You realize you're not alone with the obstacles that you're personally facing.

Yeah, that's big. That's big. Because feeling alone just, you know, makes you feel isolated. Yeah. So, like I said, we're getting down to our last two questions. How did you all find out about these programs or about this program.

Management? They had it posted on the bulletin.

Board and sign up sheets.

Okay.

So they do a good job of communicating things out.

Very good word of mouth.

Yep, that, too.

Dolly told me about Dolly's keeping for it.

Nice.

Okay. And then the last piece is, would you recommend this program or other programs to others? And if so, why?

Oh, absolutely. Because it gets you out and about. It motivates you. You get to know other people, and it's just positive, you know, instead of sitting in your apartment, why don't you come in with me and, you know, let's just try it. Maybe you'll like it. You know, just a trial class. You know, just come on in and give it a shot, because it's really. Yeah, give it a chance.

Yeah. Yeah.

The more you're fit, the better. The younger you feel.

Absolutely.

Wonderful.

None of us want to feel our age, actually.

I don't mind the age. Right.

I just think introverted seniors, some of us are very introverted. It's not difficult to join this group or come to this setting. It's not intimidating to come here, even if you feel like you're shy of and you're used to just being on your own in your own place. I like it that this community makes you feel like you're welcome, even if you're a little timid. This environment seems to be really nice for not feeling intimidated to come into a group where you don't know people, because I've only gotten to know each of you just in the last few months, and you just in the last couple weeks, both of you, you know, and Dolly, I've seen you.

Yeah.

So. So it's a nice environment, a comfortable environment.

Any final thoughts? So those were all of the questions that I have for you all today. I want to thank you all. But I did just want to kind of hold a little bit of space. If there's anything else that you would like for us to know about this particular program, your experience with it, or any other programs that you would like to see.

I thought the county used to have day trips for seniors where you could pick people up at different, like the Clinton Rose center or Wilson center. And by the time you have. Right. A number of people. Right.

To pick up, like the blue lotus.

To go to a day.

This is the domes here in Milwaukee.

Oh, the domes of.

Okay, there used to be the county would offer day trips, the museums or the domes or the zoo. I'd like to see more of that.

Sure would.

Oh, that would be nice.

And it was a nominal fee.

Yeah, yeah.

Very affordable. And you could fill up a bus easily amongst all those community centers.

Yeah, I'd love to see that come back.

That's a really good suggestion, because if.

We'Re going back how many years, you know. Yeah. If they haven't done that in years, that would be really nice.

And we need to get to the.

Domes while we still have them.

They're threatening.

And the museum, too. And the museum before that. Yeah.

That's a really good. Okay.

I remember the museum when Goliath was alive.

The streets of old Milwaukee, that's all going to be gone when the new one is ready. Ready to go. What, in less than two years?

Yeah.

Yeah. It would be really nice.

So some day trips, things to get out and about, stay connected with community outside of, you know, seniors and have a nice day. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that.

We take one trip a year. When is it, Dolly? Is it in August?

Between July and August.

Okay. It's called the Blue Lotus. And the Blue Lotus is sponsored by who again?

That is a project for seniors, has bus trips going up there, and it's a daytime retreat.

Oh.

They have an outdoor swimming pool. They have live music. They have a man made lake where you can fish and.

Oh, wow.

And you don't need a fishing license. It's a catch and release. They have their poles and bait and everything. Or you can bring your own pole. They have canoeing, paddle boating.

They have someone to assist seniors that need assistance.

Yes.

So you're not there trying to get in the boat or get in kayaking?

Oh, yeah. They definitely have the volunteers with projects for seniors that help with that.

Oh, that's beautiful.

You went on that trip. That's wonderful.

Okay, any other ideas, things or things that you would love to see come back? No. All right, listen, you all have been absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to share. Thank you again for being so gracious with this hour and allowing us to come in to just learn a little bit more. That is everything that I needed to accomplish today. So thank you again for your participation. It is so well appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you.