“Inside the Judson Manor retirement community in Cleveland, Ohio, they have about 100 senior residents. One is 66 years old. One is 77. Another is 93. And then there’s Marissa Plank,” a 24-year-old flutist studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, reports Steve Hartman in a CBS television story that aired on Friday (10/10) and Sunday (10/12). “ ‘I live here with my peeps, as I call them, my neighbors,’ Plank said. ‘I’m really just not looking forward to graduating because I have to leave. I mean it’s literally the best way to live.’ … At CIM she first heard about a deal they were offering over at Judson—free rent—in exchange for monthly performances. It was a deal too good to pass up. So now she and two other college students are fully immersed in their golden years…. ‘Those young people do a lot for us. They bring us alive,’ said one resident…. And that’s the amazing thing, at some point this stopped being about the concerts—not only for the residents, but the students too. ‘It became more like a family than a job,’ said Plank. ‘Yeah, they’re all my grandparents.’ … She knows they didn’t set the program up for her benefit. ‘Yet, I think I get the better end of the deal, I really do,’ said Plank.” In the residency program, inaugurated in 2010, students stay for free at Judson Manor and perform for the residents and provide cultural programming at all three Judson retirement communities.
Posted October 14, 2014
Pictured: A Judson Manor resident with flutist Marissa Plank and pianist Daniel Parvin, students from the Cleveland Institute of Music who reside at Judson Manor as part of an intergenerational residency program
