Kisco's 100 Ways to Wellness encourages residents to 'dare to make a change'

In North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad Region, three Kisco communities collaborated to promote “living well” in 2008 with the 100 Ways to Wellness challenge. The six-month program—developed by wellness directors Nicki Grudzinskas, Allison Pait and Leigh Grimes, of Heritage Woods, Abbotswood at Irving Park and Heritage Greens respectively—inspired participants to be more active, engaged and adventurous. Daring individuals to make a change, the program’s slogan reinforced the message that it’s never too late to explore and accomplish new things. Overall, the residents, family members and staff associates at the three Triad communities received the initiative so well that Kisco later rolled out the program at several other locations.

To learn more about 100 Ways to Wellness, the Journal on Active Aging® recently asked Grudzinskas, Pait and Grimes to tell us about their program, and how they developed and implemented it jointly in their communities.

JAA: Let’s first talk about wellness in Kisco communities. How do you define wellness?

LG: Our website defines wellness as “the combination of many factors that both strengthen and enhance the mind, body and spirit and involves the whole human experience encompassing the primary aspects of a healthy lifestyle: emotional, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual and vocational.” We believe that “our wellness programs … bring a new lifestyle perspective, an optimistic outlook, and a can-do attitude for both residents and associates.”

JAA: How would you describe the 100 Ways to Wellness initiative?

AP: Our 100 Ways to Wellness program was a list of 100 wellness tasks designed to inspire residents to step outside their comfort zones and engage in life in very meaningful ways. This wellness initiative was designed as an incentive program—something our three communities collaborate on annually. It was perhaps our most successful effort to date in terms of truly holistic wellness programming and addressing “The Art of Living Well.”

NG: The key programming element of 100 Ways was its focus on all six dimensions of wellness. We wanted this challenge to be much more holistic than a traditional physical activity incentive program. To that point, we hoped to reach a much greater audience.

JAA: How did you develop and implement the program in your three communities?

LG: The beginnings of 100 Ways to Wellness were a bit unorthodox. The idea sprang from the television show “My Name is Earl” and from the 2007 motion picture The Bucket List, which gave us the idea of creating a “wellness-specific bucket list.” We wanted a list of tasks that would challenge participants to do things that reflected our six-dimension philosophy of wellness, but also would, at times, push individuals out of their comfort zones. Our original list had more than 150 wellness tasks. Ultimately, we whittled it down to an even 100. A participant booklet was then designed that contained these tasks, and provided room for individuals to journal their thoughts and reflections as they completed each one.

Program implementation started with a kickoff party at a local park. The event, held the last Wednesday in May, took place in conjunction with National Senior Health and Fitness Day, and featured a wellness fair, a guest speaker, and a wonderful cookout lunch. Residents who came to the kickoff each received the booklet/journal, as well as a change purse screen-printed with the slogan “Dare to Make a Change.”

The 100 Ways to Wellness challenge continued for the remainder of the year. Each month we held a group program at one of our three communities to support residents in completing some of the wellness tasks. Transportation was provided so individuals from the other two communities could attend.