Annette Leuthold is no stranger when it comes to travel. In fact, even before she came to the United States from Switzerland in 1952, Annette lived in Yorkshire and Italy studying textiles. She came to the United States at the age of 25 with the intention of returning to Switzerland in a year. Instead, she and her husband-to-be decided to put down roots in Connecticut and get married. Never one to settle, Annette pursued various careers in insurance at Vick’s Chemical and in an antique book dealer shop until she became pregnant. She spent a significant amount of her adulthood raising her four children (three girls and one boy) in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her second home in New Canaan, built by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, served as a wonderful display of the many travel artifacts Annette and her husband collected throughout the years. Many from a trip to Africa where they started at the very southern tip in Cape Hope and traveled up through Kenya.

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Last Friday we had the opportunity to be a part of WLOS’ local spotlight, Spotlight Carolina. Sarah Marr and Kari Schrader arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to tell Mark Keady all about the variety of engagement opportunities available to Ardenwoods residents. In case you haven’t heard, every month at Ardenwoods Kari works to put together a community calendar. She arranges both on and off campus opportunities so that the art lovers can experience local art, music lovers can listen to music, pet lovers can parade their pets and so much more! You can check out an example of our community calendar by clicking here. 

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The Community Life Services department had a unique opportunity this June to spend two weeks with Emma, a rising high school junior, as an intern! We have not hosted many internships or service-learning opportunities and Emma set a fine standard for more students moving forward.

About the Internship

Kari Schrader, CLS Director, worked to create for Emma a meaningful and hands-on internship related to senior living. Emma spent her time shadowing Kari, diving headfirst into the ins and outs of the activities here at Ardenwoods. Her hands-on experience here included decorating for special events, delivering reminders, trip confirmations, and advertisements almost daily to our multiple areas of interest around campus.… Read More

The Ardenwoods Rocking Chair Readers are a staple of our retirement community. Twice a year the Ardenwoods community is graced with their wonderful collection of talents in the form of a live performance. This season, Rocking Chair Reader Director, Paul Bryant chose Greater Tuna as the spring performance. For those who aren’t familiar with the play, two men typically perform all 21 parts. In the Ardenwoods adaptation, eight Rocking Chair Readers divided up all 21 parts amongst themselves.… Read More

In honor of Mother’s Day in May, we dedicated this month as Ladies Month! We always make a point to have a May Day Celebration, and this year did not disappoint. On May 1 at 7 p.m. we welcomed the Pyramid Brass Quintet for a live concert on our patio.

We hosted a “ladies only” 2-part workshop with Stylist, JeanAnn Taylor. This workshop was open to all female residents free of charge. The ladies of Ardenwoods gathered for a conversation around “Your Personal Style.” JeanAnn talked about how to define your personal style and answered any questions that were posed.… Read More