The Latest News for You from Arbor Acres

The Art of Living

Request Information

No, this photo wasn't taken in Scotland! It's one of the gorgeous views from

Aldersgate Square overlooking the Crossnore Communities for Children.

Photo Credit: Mona Wu

Hello, Everyone!

We hope your new year is off to a wonderful start, and we wish you all the best for the coming year!

Arbor Acres' new year began with a flourish!

This past fall, we were honored to receive the "World's Best Culture" certification for creating an exceptional workplace environment for staff, a distinction about which we are quite proud and will work hard to live up to this year and beyond.

Our Fitness Center is alive with residents committed to keeping their new year's fitness resolutions, A full slate and wide variety of activities have been added to engage all parts of the body, mind and spirit--and encourage fun!

Residents are already focused on this year's fundraiser: to help raise money to build one Habitat for Humanity home in each of the next three years.

The growing popularity of croquet created the need to expand the existing croquet course, a project currently underway. Croquet players look forward to resuming play when the expanded course reopens this spring.

New art class offerings, an educational series spotlighting The Early Days of Rock and Roll, cooking demos, behind-the-scenes Arbor Acres kitchen tours for residents, on- and off-campus musical and theatrical performances, and a wonderful slate of speakers for the Live & Learn lecture series represent only a handful of the planned activities that will engage residents in all dimensions of wellness in 2024.

Winston-Salem jumped up 19 places in the U.S. News & World Report's 2024 Best Places to Retire list to the No. 17 spot this year! The publication cited Winston-Salem's strong happiness, retiree tax and affordability scores as contributing to the climb in rankings. Winston-Salem + Arbor Acres = two great places to live!

Arbor Acres' artistic and cultural values lie in the philosophy of "The Art of Living," encouraging residents to live with purpose, creativity, and motivation. This e-newsletter is full of information that demonstrates Arbor Acres' commitment to supporting these values in vibrant, creative, and stimulating ways that allow residents to thrive--and have fun!

If you live locally and would like to engage with the Arbor Acres community sooner rather than later, consider joining the Advantage Program, our off-campus residency program that gives residents full access to our campus while continuing to live in their own homes or apartments. Feel free to reach out to the Marketing Department to learn more about all the benefits of participating in the Advantage Program.

Continue reading below for more information about campus happenings! After you finish, don't hesitate to give us a call if you have questions or would like to schedule a(nother) visit to our beautiful campus. We'd love to see you!

--The Arbor Acres Marketing Team: Lynn, Pam and Martha

Lynn Ross, lross@arboracres.org, 336-748-4645
Pam Rosenberger, prosenberger@arboracres.org, 336-464-0481
Martha Murphy, mmurphy@arboracres.org, 336-722-0962

Visit our website

A Mission to Give Back

Fundraiser Campaign Logo

Habitat Leadership Team (l to right): Asheena Love, Human Resources Generalist; Debbie Cesta, Corporate & Community Engagement Manager; Paola Candalaria, Director of Family Services; George Redd, Chief Executive Offices/Executive Director; Joni Yoder, Chief Finance Officer; Amy Takacs, Director of Marketing & Communications

Arbor Acres 2024 Campaign Co-Chairs (r to l): Gloria Martin; Mimi Hein

Arbor Acres' woodworkers designed a miniature table-top model of the Habitat house under construction. As residents meet financial goals during the campaign, the woodworkers are adding structural features to the model until the house is complete!

Every couple of years, Arbor Acres residents launch a fundraising campaign to benefit a selected non-profit agency as a way of giving back to the local community. This year, residents voted to support Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County.

Recipients of past resident fundraisers have included Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, Crossnore Communities for Children, and the Forsyth Backpack Program.

In 2023, a subcommittee of the Resident Council voted to enter a four-year cycle: one year of study and discernment and three years of fundraising for a single non-profit agency. Residents voted to raise $100,000 in each of the next three years to sponsor construction of one house in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Money raised in excess of $100,000 at the end of each year's campaign will be donated to Habitat for Humanity of Forsyth County's Home Repair Program, which provides needed repairs for eligible homeowners, allowing many of them to age in place.

To kick off the internal campaign, the Fundraising Committee organized a Blue Ribbon Panel discussion with local housing agencies, the police department and representatives from Habitat to present a clear picture of the need for housing in the local community.

An on-campus celebration to officially launch the campaign included members of Habitat's leadership team, Arbor Acres' campaign team members as well as residents. The Arbor Acres' Sharps & Flats Chorus premiered an original song written for the occasion called "Build a Future, Build a Home" that you can listen to by clicking on the image below.

And, the Arbor Acres' woodworkers contributed their talents by designing a miniature model of the current Habitat house under construction. As residents reach key campaign financial goals, the woodworkers will keep "building" out the model until goals have been met! A true community effort!

Habitat Hero

No mention of Habitat for Humanity at Arbor Acres is complete without a mention of resident Dan Pearson. Dan has has been a champion of Habitat since he started his volunteer work in 1995. In 2011, he received the Clive Rainey Lifetime Achievement Award from the national Habitat organization. Dan is credited with creating and perfecting a "jig" system that calls for workers to pre-build some of the houses' frameworks in warehouses before being moved to the construction site, saving time, a system that is still used today! (Photo Credit: Winston-Salem Journal)

Residents and staff participated in an on-campus 5k race this fall, one of the many ways Arbor Acres demonstrates its outstanding workplace culture, which includes a special connection between staff and residents!

Arbor Acres Earns Prestigious

"World's Best Culture" Certification

In the fall, Arbor Acres earned Drive's "World's Best Culture" certification for meeting key benchmarks using the globally acclaimed Barrett Values Centre’s Culture Values Assessment. Drive is a leading international consultant that provides corporate culture assessments.

This prestigious honor validates Arbor Acres' commitment to creating an exceptional workplace culture that both aligns with organizational values, and supports and values staff members.

Organizations that have received this certification cross all industries, utilizing Barrett’s rich 25-year database and experience in conducting four million culture assessments with such companies as Mastercard, Coca-Cola, Prudential, Wegmans, PWC, and Volvo. Drive is the leading user of the tool in aging services.

A “World’s Best Culture” certification from Drive is more than a symbol of excellence. It provides tangible benefits for staff, residents, and families by reflecting a positive and engaging workplace culture that can be measured by employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention. An empowered, valued and motivated workforce creates an environment where residents thrive, families feel confident in their loved ones’ care, and the community flourishes.

Arbor Acres will use this recognition as inspiration to further enhance workplace culture, refine practices, and ensure that already high standards of excellence and care are maintained and exceeded.

"Hi, Barbie!"

This past summer, the "Barbie" movie took over the world. For one day this fall, "Barbie" took over Arbor Acres! The entire day was planned around an afternoon showing of the movie and the color pink!

Residents and staff donned their pink finery and greeted each other with, "Hi, Barbie!" "Hi, Ken!" all day long.

Fitness Center Director Heidi Day encouraged everyone to come to class wearing pink workout clothes.

The Book Nook Bistro's free yogurt flavor of the day was pink lemonade. Happy hour featured a lovely Rosé wine.

The "Barbie" photo booth was the hottest attraction on campus.

But Dining Arts took the cake--literally! Managers gave staff the freedom to create original pink confections to honor the day, and the result was nothing short of stunning!

Following the movie showing, residents were surprised with a smorgasbord of pink delicacies (set up for them during the movie!) that included edible high-heel cupcake "shoes," pink Petit Fours, dipped strawberries, frosted wafer cookies, candy covered almonds and cake pops.

"Barbie" day was full of happiness, smiles, laughter, friendship--and it gave everyone a great excuse to eat dessert first!

Staying Fit in the New Year

Fitness Center Coordinator Heidi Day (right) has devoted the start of the new year to helping residents stay active so they can meet their fitness goals and fulfill New Year's resolutions.

She's developed a full schedule of varied classes to keep residents motivated and moving, including aqua exercise, strength training, chair yoga, mat yoga, aerobics, balance, ping pong, badminton, pickle ball, corn hole--and many more.

As a certified trainer, Heidi can help residents develop personalized workout programs and train them on how to use exercise equipment effectively and safely.

Heidi, with help from the Fitness Center's multi-purpose resources and convenience, removes all excuses for exercising! The Fitness Center is a hive of activity throughout the week. A one-stop shop for making New Year's resolutions come true!

A Little This, a Little That

Welcome Home, Michelle!

During its 2023-2024 season, the Winston-Salem Symphony held audition concerts for six finalists vying for the honor to become the new music director. Arbor Acres sponsored the sixth and final audition concert that featured the brilliant musical and conducting talents of Michelle Merrill.

Not long after, Michelle was selected as the first female music director of the Winston-Salem Symphony and the only female music director of a professional orchestra in North Carolina.

As a sponsor of her audition concert, Arbor Acres also sponsored Michelle's two opening concerts for the 76^th season of the Winston-Salem Symphony on September 23 and 24, 2023.

As a surprise, Arbor Acres Sharps & Flats chorus recorded a song parody from Les Mis--the video was played before each of the first two concerts. Click here to listen.

Arbor Acres continues to find unique and creative ways to demonstrate its commitment to artistic and cultural values.

"Croquet at Arbor Acres is Only a Game," said No One Ever

For years, croquet has been among the most popular activities at Arbor Acres, representing one of the largest social groups on campus with more than 80+ players. Participants take the game seriously, bringing in pros every year to work with them on refining their skills. And some players travel within the state for competitive matches against other retirement communities.

Interest in croquet continues to grow to the point where residents requested the courts be expanded to include two regulation-sized croquet courts. In order to do this, existing croquet courts had to be moved from the top of a knoll down to street level. This excavation required the removal of 400 dump trucks of dirt!

Construction began in early December and is expected to be completed by mid-March, just in time for the 2024 croquet season.

Learning How the Sauce Is Made

Twice a month, Arbor Acres Executive Chef Jolie Shafer offers residents tours of the three independent living kitchens to give them an opportunity to see how the kitchens work.

According to Jolie, she wants to help residents understand the challenges of producing food on a mass scale while having them see first-hand how organized and clean the kitchens are.

She describes the ordering process and how food is prepped to keep the kitchens running as efficiently as possible. Taste-testing snacks along the way is an added bonus!

Jolie also introduces residents to some of the back-of-the-house employees. "This helps build community and contributes to making everyone take even more pride in the wonderful and varied Dining Arts program!

Plus, I get to show off some pretty cool equipment."