 Home | Recent News | Newton | Communities Launch Joint Marketing Campaign 13 Dec 2007 Newton retirement communities launch joint marketing campaignThe Newton area is a great place to live. It’s also a great place to retire.
That’s the message of four retirement communities who are launching a joint campaign to promote retirement community living in the Newton/North Newton area.
Asbury Park, Kansas Christian Home and Presbyterian Manor, all of Newton, as well as Kidron Bethel Village of North Newton, say they decided to work together to better educate the public for several reasons. Among them is a need to dispel “myths” people may have about retirement community living.
“People often associate our current communities with the ‘nursing homes’ of the past,” said Noelle Dickinson, marketing director at Presbyterian Manor, located at 1200 E. 7th Street. “Our industry as a whole has fought an image problem.”
Residents from the four communities have volunteered to share their stories in a series of articles in The Kansan’s “Living Well” section in coming months. Their stories will offer informed viewpoints to dispel widely-held myths about what life is like in a retirement community.
“Individually, we all face the same challenge,” said Dickinson. “Together we can use the same language and message to address the myths and misperceptions that the public has about retirement communities.”
Tom Williams, chief executive officer at Asbury Park, 200 SW 14th Street, said, “People are scared of ‘nursing homes’ because they think they are still the institutional setting. They feel that if you are moving to a nursing home you are dying. That is not true. Elders at our community continue to grow, teach and learn more about each other and themselves as they age.”
The fact that competing businesses are working together may surprise some. But it makes perfect sense to these four communities. All four are Christian, not-for-profit organizations, thus making a pooling of resources even more ideal.
Marilyn King, director of independent living and marketing at Kidron Bethel Village, 3001 Ivy Drive in North Newton, noted, “People may not realize that area retirement communities routinely cooperate. We decided that by working together, we could attract more interest and, therefore, have a greater impact.”
Erin Boehner, marketing director at Kansas Christian Home, 1035 SE 3rd Street, added, “It’s not just about each of us as individual businesses but as part of a larger community. We want to show a working partnership and that we care for the individual and not the almighty dollar.”
Area retirees already find Newton appealing, according to a senior housing market survey conducted recently by Asbury Park. That survey revealed that the majority of Asbury Park’s residents come from Harvey County.
The Environmental Services Research Institute (ESRI) reports that the number of seniors age 65 and older in Harvey County is expected to grow in the next few years. The greatest growth among seniors will take place in the 55-69 age group, which is expected to grow by 18 percent in four years.
King of Kidron Bethel Village said too many people refuse to consider or delay considering a retirement community move, saying they are “not ready.”
“The perception is that in order to ‘be ready,’ they must have severe health problems or be ‘old,’ which is always older than they are,” she said.
The four agree that one of the most pervasive myths is that the only people who live in retirement communities are the old and the sick. Another is that people do not choose to live in retirement communities; they live there because their adult children put them there. Those are just two of the misperceptions that will be addressed.
The project is important, said Asbury Park’s Williams, because it mirrors the community’s efforts to promote Newton as an ideal place to live.
“I think it is important for members of our business district and the entire city to see that all of the Newton retirement communities are collaborating on a project to educate. We love what we do and will work together to bring the best of retirement living to Newton.”
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