Villa Serena Senior Residents Share the Love of Valentine's Day Together with Lotería Social

CHULA VISTA, CA - For many of our senior properties across California, our residents love to attend recreational activities such as game nights, community potlucks, and arts and crafts workshops. As part of our health and wellness services, these fun and social services that our PSCDC Resident Services Coordinators provide help achieve our goal of promoting a life of healthy wellbeing for our senior residents. The residents of Villa Serena, a senior community in Chula Vista, were invited to celebrate Valentine's Day Lotería event by our PSCDC Resident Services Coordinator, Linda Leon.

Lotería, a traditional Mexican game of chance, shares some characteristics with bingo. Lotería utilizes a deck of cards instead of numbered ping pong balls, and has become a popular past time for many of our senior communities. For the Villa Serena community, Linda hosts lotería days twice a month. Socializing events like loterías are what her residents seem to appreciate about PSCDC hosted services, as it allows them to see friends and gives them a reason to go out and have fun.

"I get anywhere from six to twenty residents to socialize at some of the events," shared Linda. "I think when residents see on the calendar a socialization event, they are most likely to participate."

Socializing events are also a great opportunity to introduce our residents with partners from our local community networks, since they always bring in a sizeable attendance. For Villa Serena, representatives from Humana come to visit during these lotería events. Once a month, Humana hosts a small informational seminar where residents can get information, discover resources, and ask questions about health insurance and Medicare. During Valentine's Day, Humana representatives came to celebrate with the community by bringing donuts, coffee, and even prizes for attending residents. Prizes for lucky winners this time were detergent pods and dryer sheets, yet the residents were super excited about winning them.

The residents enjoyed playing lotería but for them, the best prize was the social interaction with one another. PSCDC believes that physical wellbeing is only half of the challenge when talking about providing a healthy lifestyle for our senior residents. The other half, one's mental wellbeing, is just as important. Socialization events and services that promote creativity play an essential part towards mental wellbeing. For many of our senior communities, other services hosted by PSCDC Resident Services Coordinator, such as senior companionship support, health presentations and screenings, walking clubs, arts and craft workshops, food distributions, and many more, offer residents a way to stay active and healthy, both physically and mentally.