Cindy Horgash lets no grass grow under her feet. On this particular Wednesday she’s conducting a morning exercise class, bending and stretching with senior citizens at Residences of Deer Creek, an assisted living facility that opened nearly a year ago in Schererville.
“They’re always ready to go,” Horgash said of her dozen or so charges as they moved in unison. “They don’t like to sit in their rooms and be bored.”
Neither does Horgash, who was recruited in December to fill the new position of life enrichment director for Residences, which opened in January. Horgash made the difficult decision to switch careers after working for more than 20 years as recreation coordinator for the Schererville Parks & Recreation Department, where she was so good at her job that the Schererville Chamber of Commerce named her 2012 Citizen of the Year.
The department grew along with the town.
“I was working a lot of hours for the town, 60 to 70 a week,” said Horgash, who wanted more family time.
Over the years, the parks department’s programming had grown by leaps and bounds, from four to almost 100. Nearly all of the programs were Horgash’s ideas. A new community building, which opened recently, meant more programming.
“I was given this offer and I actually felt it was a new calling for me. John (Novacich, Park’s & Rec director) thought I’d be bored over here, but I’m not,” Horgash said. “I did actually think I was going to slow down a little bit, but seniors are busy all the time! It’s kind of the same job in a different venue.”
Her hours are fewer, though; she no longer has to stay up till after midnight working on parades and festivals.
“We’ll have a bunco party or entertainment in the evening, but folks are ready for bed at 8:00 pm,” she said.
Horgash admits it was difficult to leave her former co-workers behind, but she feels she made the right decision.
“It’s a good change for me,” She said. “I love to be busy and on the go and I get to do just what my title says, enrich our residents’ lives,” she said. “A lot of times in assisted living, even in a nursing facility, the one thing you want to keep doing is keep active. Don’t sit in a chair and look at each other. My goal is to keep people moving and enjoy programs.”
The biggest part of her job, Horgash said, “Is to get them motivated and stay motivated. Some of our folks have just lost their spouses. What a difficult transition they have. They’re leaving a big home and coming to a smaller apartment. Everything’s changing in their lives.”
Horgash’s recreation background has been a boon to her new job.
“I have all kinds of ideas in my head, planning an activity; coming up with trips. I like variety. I don’t want the same thing over and over again. That’s one of the reasons they hired me. I’d read in the newspaper one time someone had commented about nursing homes and assisted living, saying they’re a glorified prison,” Horgash said. “I thought, ‘What a terrible term that is.’”
Horgash has seen activities calendars at other facilities that bear out that philosophy.
“You see the same thing on their calendar every day and you think, ‘Oh, my God. They’re going to play bingo again today,’” she said.
“We have bingo and bunco but we try to bring in all sorts of new things,” she said. "We just had a scarecrow contest and I’m planning lots of activities for Christmas.”
Horgash isn’t completely away from her past life in parks & rec.
“I still keep in touch with the town,” she said. “I helped plan out their veterans service.”
Additionally, her residents will be in attendance in December for a senior luncheon through Schererville Parks & Rec.
“It’s something I started before I left, so now I get to incorporate both jobs a little bit,” Horgash said. “We join them together. We like to use the parks, too. I’ve taken my folks to some events the parks hold. I started Evening Under the Stars years ago and we take our folks to it. It’s nice that I can go to that program and not have to work it till midnight.”
Horgash is, among her other talents, a storyteller. Already a volunteer storyteller at Buckley Homestead County Park, in Lowell, she created the Legend of Sleepy Hollow program there 14 years ago. The interactive program, which is highlighted by the headless horseman galloping through the fictional town, sells out early every year.
“The best part is hearing that horse coming over that bridge,” Horgash said.
She’s president of the Northwest Indiana Storytelling Guild, of which she’s been a member for 24 years. She shares her stories in schools all over, and in January she’ll do a program for the Chicago Park District. The Challenger Learning Center at Purdue University Calumet has commissioned the guild to do a storytelling program on constellations.
“We do a lot of festivals in the area,” Horgash said. "We’re just growing, and that is fun.”
“I think it’s fun to create new adventures and programs and kids camps and those kinds of things,” Horgash said. "That’s why I love this new job. I want to create new programming. I don’t think I could sit at a desk. I’ve been very blessed.”