Heritage Senior Living has teamed up with Feet to the Fire Writer’s Workshops to bring a new creative outlet to its residents.
The senior living organization is now offering writer’s workshops for one hour at a time for six weeks for participating residents.
Heritage Senior Living founder and CEO Milo Pinkerton said he learned about Feet to the Fire at a convention and knew that he wanted to bring the program to the company’s residents.
“The thing that resonated with me was that my mother was a writer,” he told McKnight’s Senior Living. “It was a creative outlet for her. This is my way to remember her, by bringing this program to the residents at Heritage.”
Throughout the program, participants are prompted to write stories about their own lives. A topic such as “high school sweetheart” will be selected to trigger a memory to be written about. At the next class, residents can read the story aloud to a group of seven to 10 other members.
“Some stories are happy and make people laugh,” Pinkerton said. “Others are tragic and make people cry.”
At the end of the six weeks, a new session will begin so new residents who want to join the program are able to. New topics are selected for each round, however, to allow for people to continue the program if they choose to do so.
Pinkerton and other leaders at Heritage were trained to facilitate the classes. During their training, they had the opportunity to create their own stories.
“I felt a feeling of accomplishment,” Pinkerton said. “Like, ‘I can do this,’ and I hope that’s how the residents feel, too.”
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