Our W.C.Pongers were featured on 13News Now. Daybreak Anchor Dan Kennedy highlighted our volunteers during his "In Session" segment. He talked about how our residents go out and teach 4th and 5th graders at Thalia Elementary how to play ping pong. It's a labor of love that is making a lasting impression on these children and teaching them a skill that will last a lifetime.

We know what a great city Virginia Beach is to live in and now thanks to MONEY Magazine so does everyone else. The magazine recently crunched the numbers to find big cities—those with a population of 300,000 or more—with the best of all worlds: attractions, iconic neighborhoods, a relatively low cost of living, and promising job growth. No surprise our beautiful city made the list of top 10 picks for best big cities to live in. 

Click here to find out what number Virginia Beach is on the list

Click here to watch Revolutionizing Dementia Care documentary

The Army-Navy rivalry took center stage as residents at Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay competed for bragging rights at their 6th annual croquet game. The highly anticipated match-up is always a fun-filled event on our beachfront campus.The friendly competition embodies the spirit of the long running Army-Navy football game complete with cheerleaders and plenty of pomp and circumstance. Twenty veterans from all branches of the military competed in the intense match with Army trying to make a comeback against Navy’s last four wins. But in the end it was Navy for the win.

Mary Ann Lipscomb says her father John Ellington White didn't talk much about his time in World War I. That's why she holds dear a letter her father received from King George V when he arrived in England with the other American troops in April 1918. 

Click here to read more about Mary Ann Lipscomb's story

Westminster-Canterbury wins Dignity Gold in McKnight’s Tech Awards

Seniors with cognitive impairment are at risk for isolation and depression. But Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach, VA, used innovative bedside technology to boost engagement, allowing it to land the Gold Award in the Dignity category of McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards (Skilled).

Westminster-Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach, VA, won Dignity Gold in the McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards (Skilled).

The community launched a clinical trial through the Birdsong Initiative to find if digital engagement helped residents’ moods. It did, with results that included a 55% decrease in depression. Participants had an overall 7% decrease in blood pressure.

However, continuing using the engagement software was too expensive for individual bedside use, CEO Ben Unkle said. In frustration, his team partnered in May with engineering company TMM Groupe to create its own in-room engagement tool called “The Birdsong Tablet: No mind left behind.”

That cost is less than discounted in-house cable tv, he told McKnight’s. The Birdsong Software costs have been reduced to $7 per month per unit to about $18 per month per unit depending on the number of units purchased.  

“We put it in one hundred percent of our rooms and people love it,” Unkle said. One resident, Karla, had cognitive decline that progressed to the point she was nonverbal.

“Through these tablets and engagement her interest in life was reawakened,” he said.

Published in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on October 1, 2018

Written by Elizabeth Newman, Senior Editor

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A BIRDSONG TABLET