We are teaching Move With Balance® with Music at the University of Cuenca Adulto Mayor (for Older Adults) two days a week. For gringos and locals. The book has been translated into Spanish and is available on the website.
Patricio is doing The Elephant to improve his balance, head-turning, hearing, and tight neck. Others are improving timing and coordination by playing different games with the beanbags (bolsitas de frijoles).
Here is a short 1 ½ minute video of us doing the Cross Crawl (from the “Move With Balance®: Healthy Aging Activities for Brain and Body” book). We are Hogar Cristo Rey assisted living facility in Ecuador. I am leading the activities, Bill is playing the original Move with Balance® song he wrote, and Antonio is our Spanish translator. Click and Enjoy
Laura Vandegrift, a Move With Balance® instructor from Sedona, AZ wrote me this wonderful letter. I am including 1/2 of her letter today and 1/2 in the future.
“Hi Karen: Just a quick update on my classes and some interesting stories and pictures.
I have been teaching the Move with Balance program for 3 years. Last I started teaching at the Sedona Winds Assisted Living Center. These people are low functioning and some with memory problems. Recently a lady named Lyla and her husband arrived at the center. She comes to class almost every week and shared with the class that she can now cross her legs which she could not due prior to the classes because of her stroke. With the vision exercises, she can now move her eyes back and forth, which she could not do in the beginning. She practices a lot of the movements in her room and is slowly improving.
I also present the program at the Sedona Community Center and I have a 95 year old gentleman who comes almost every week. When he first started he was using a cane. Now he does not need it. He loves the class and recognizes how much it is helping him not only with balance, but focus and concentration.
Attached are some pictures from both facilities. Thanks for all your efforts in putting this program together. It helps so many people.”
Laura
I love it when this happens. David Kintler, from Port Saint Lucie, FL bought the Move With Balance® book in 2015. He contacted me March 18, 2018 and had this to say:
“The first time I used your book/videos was to help me recover from a stroke about 3 years ago – in 90 days I was almost as good as new. I contacted you again because I fractured my pelvis (now healed) but I am beginning to learn to walk again. Appreciate your good work.”–David Kintler
I asked him for a photo of himself, and he sent me the one you see on his 82nd birthday March 20.
Bill Fuller, the Move With Balance® musician, sent David a birthday song he wrote called “Another Journey Around the Sun”. David said it made his day. You can enjoy the song, too, with the link below. http://www.musicinthekeyoflove.com Scroll near the bottom and click.
Bill’s songs are aslo available on https://movewithbalance.org/store Scroll down to the Music.
Please send me your success stories.
On March 6, 2018 NCOA (National Council on Aging) put out their newsletter on fall prevention. Cynthia Rockey from East Tennessee, a great supporter of Move With Balance®, read through the newsletter in detail and noticed that Move With Balance® was listed under “Testimonials”!
Mentee Dorothy Wall and mentor Maggie Elliot were featured in the article. Here is the link.
We are honored that NCOA chose Move With Balance® as one of the features in “Testimonials”. We are happy that Cynthia Rockey noticed it so that I could send out this newsletter to all of you.
Please send us your photos of Move With Balance so that I can share them in the newsletter and on our website.
We gave two free demonstrations of Move with Balance® with Music at the Neuromedicenter in Quito, Ecuador. We worked with Alzheimer’s patients at a day care center. They were totally accepting of us. The couple who runs the day care center are very dedicated. They have a diagnostic room, a small “gym”, a sensory/motor room, and a gardening area for the clients.
The people here love the program because they said we exude Love. They said they worked on the body and brain, but not the heart, and they loved the way we did the program. We work on the heart and they saw it.
Thank you, Lissette and Alberto, and all the Alzheimer’s patients.
Karen and Bill, August 1 and 3, 2017, Quito, Ecuador
