Parade of Retirement Homes targets active seniors

Rosalie Hoover remembers what it was like when her mother was in a retirement home. Perhaps that's why she and her husband, Ike, have been holding off on leaving their four-bedroom house in the Denver area that they bought in 1972.

Their daughter Elizabeth St. Onge has been encouraging them to move to Colorado Springs since she moved here five years ago, but they kept putting it off. In truth, they were a bit scared, Rosalie Hoover said.

"It's starting another lifestyle and it can be very exciting and very scary," she said.

But the Hoovers were pleasantly surprised after spending the weekend touring several Colorado Springs retirement communities and seeing amenities like spas, workout rooms, daily activities and restaurant-quality meals with a wait staff.

"They are much more upscale now than they were back then," Rosalie Hoover said.

The Hoovers were among the hundreds who spent Saturday and Sunday touring six retirement communities in Colorado Springs in The Parade of Retirement Homes. The event is the first of its kind in the nation, said Amy Sufak, cqevent publicist. In it, people get to see what kind of retirement communities are available and learn more about the lifestyle they provide.

"One of the misconceptions is that retirement communities are nursing homes," Sufak said. "They're not."

While some of the communities do have space for people who need more assistance, the Parade of Retirement Homes targets active seniors who are looking for a fun and relaxed lifestyle, she said.

"It's for people who want to get out of single-family homes with lots of maintenance and get into a low-maintenance lifestyle," Sufak said.

The communities that were in the parade all are full-service communities that pamper their residents. For example:

• Brent Beavers, a gourmet chef who owned the popular Sencha restaurant, is now chef at the Village at Skyline.

• At the Palisades at Broadmoor Park, your apartment key also helps you out in the exercise room. When you swipe it on the exercise equipment, your personalized workout pops up.

• A veterinarian makes routine house calls at Viewpoint.

At Cheyenne Place, a tour of a 1,148-square-foot apartment featured two bedrooms, two full baths, a living room and a kitchen with a stove, full-size refrigerator and dishwasher. Though most residents opt to eat in the dining room, where three full meals a day are part of the cost.

"At this point in their lives, they've decided that they're tired of cooking," said Skip Hale, executive director.

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Call the writer at 636-0274.