Contact: Lisa Lipsey, Activity Director
Office Phone: 858/674-9719
Cell Phone: 760/822-3764
E-Mail: lisa@sunshinecare.com
August 19, 2010 Poway CA (North San Diego County) — Sunshine Care Assisted Living Homes, San Diego County's leader in
Intergenerational Programming and Horticultural Therapy, holds Intergenerational talent show with a garden
theme.
With the help of their parents, children participating in Sunshine Care's intergenerational garden club became stage
stars, delivering jokes, poems, songs and more—all about gardening, nature, fruits and vegetables. The 45 minute
show concluded with everyone enjoying a healthy garden salad! The kids helped pass out salads made-up of the
vegetables they harvested from the fields that morning—lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and carrots.
Highlights of the show included: Devon Shepherd, age 5 and Aubrey Shepherd, age 3 singing, "I'm a little watering
can." Sing-along songs with all the kids together—including "I heard it through the grapevine". Jokes performed by
Pavolina Otmar and Sebastian Hornbeck and several readings from Shel Silverstein poems about nature.
Two year Garden Club participant Marianne Shepherd says, "Garden Club is a wonderful experience for our whole
family. My kids [Devon and Aubrey] love to interact with everyone, play in the dirt, & eat the results. I love it because
it feels like a natural cycle. Being with the Grandmas and Grandpas reminds me to live each day in the present. They
remind me that every human being just wants to interact & longs for compassion. A lesson that I think everyone
should learn - compassion! I have a real enthusiasm for organic gardening, and involving my children in a community
project where we can grow & nurture a little seed into a bountiful harvest, then see its immediate effects set into
action... I mean, come on, what else would I want to do? I want these types of values placed into my children in
everything they choose to do in life."
High resolution photos available of the campus, intergenerational programming and more.
ABOUT INTERGENERATIONAL GARDEN CLUB
Intergenerational Garden clubs meets on the 1st and 3rd Thursday of every month. Eight of Sunshine Care's
Residents, "Grandmas and Grandpas," come up to the on-site greenhouse to work with a garden buddy ranging from
babies to age ten. Together they plant seeds, harvest fruits and vegetables and of course taste test the fruits of their
labor. Garden Club (also known as Horticulture Therapy) gives our Residents a unique reason to get out in the fresh
air, exercise, build friendships and teach skills to young people. Past meetings have included tomato tasting, making
fresh cut floral arrangements, a visit to the local farm and pumpkin patch for a hay ride and creating Thanksgiving
Cornucopias. Upcoming Garden Club topics include (but are not limited to): picking vegetables and planting seeds,
organic pest control, composting, worms, birds, bugs and butterflies, bubbles and bathing suits in the summer to cool
off and nature arts and crafts.
ABOUT SUNSHINE CARE, POWAY, CALIFORNIA (North San Diego County)
Established in 1990, Sunshine Care is a community of assisted-living homes on a 28-acre Campus in
Poway, California. This unique alternative for assisted living specializes in Alzheimer’s and Dementia
care while providing an environment with all the comforts and reminders of home. Sunshine care
provides the highest level of individualized care and attention that we would want for our own loved
ones. Sunshine Care is also on the cutting edge of activities and going green, from our
intergenerational programming to our organic farming. The campus has an on-site greenhouse and
orchards where organic fruits, vegetables and herbs are grown from seed. For more information,
please visit http://www.sunshinecare.com
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