Pat Heckel, a resident of The Devonshire of Mount Lebanon, a Brookdale Senior Living independent and assisted living retirement community in Pittsburgh just returned from her awarded Experience of a Lifetime.
Recently, Heckel revisited Deer Valley YMCA Family Camp in Fort Hill during Women’s Week. During her day visit, she rode in a Hobie Cat boat. After her boat ride, Heckel stayed for dinner, and played the ukulele for the other campers.
Heckel, now 78, learned how to sail a Hobie Cat boat all by herself during Woman’s Week at the camp while she was in her 60s.
"It was quite an accomplishment," Heckel wrote in her Experience of a Lifetime submission application. "I’d like to go back for just a day and sail again."
Heckel had her dream come true on Thursday, Oct. 1 during the peak of the autumn colors.
"The experience at the camp was almost religious. Everyone there was loving and positive," said Heckel. "There is nothing like the freedom of being in a boat on the water; you feel closeness to God, and it requires skill and provides a sense of achievement."
Heckel won this opportunity through Brookdale’s Experiences of a Lifetime program, in which residents at select Brookdale Senior Living communities nationwide are invited to share and submit their wishes as part of the program. To request her Experience of a Lifetime, Heckel filled out a survey form explaining an experience she would like to have fulfilled, and how that experience relates to one or more dimensions of the company’s Optimum Life® concept. The six dimensions of Optimum Life are emotional, social, physical, intellectual, spiritual and purposeful.
In her winning essay, Heckel wrote, "I’d like the opportunity to go back to camp just one day and sail again. I can picture a blue sky, white puffy clouds, green hills, red and white sails waving in the breeze…that’s a ‘high.’"
Brookdale’s Optimum Life® concept is geared toward cultivating whole-person wellness through fulfillment in the six key dimensions. The company’s Experiences of a Lifetime program provides a helping hand in making some of the dreams of its residents come true.
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