Wellness Center Nearly Done

By Cochran, Diane

A decade after Ethel and Clyde Fleming moved into a new independent-living center called Mission Ridge and began inviting neighbors to start each day with coffee in the lobby, the West End community for senior citizens has institutionalized their morning tradition.

Clyde’s Corner, a coffee bar that will serve as a juice bar at lunchtime and a Happy Hour bar later in the day, is just one part of a 6,500-square-foot, $2 million “wellness mall” under construction at Mission Ridge.

“He was the one who started coffee hour,” Ethel Fleming said of her husband, who died in 2005.

When the wellness area opens next month, Mission Ridge residents will be able to belly up to the bar in Clyde’s Corner and keep their own beverages and glassware in locked cabinets along the back bar.

The bar will sit just around the corner from a country store, a 21-seat movie theater, an Internet cafe, a two-lane heated lap pool with its own locker rooms, a game room complete with a billiards table and four card tables and a fitness center named after Mission Ridge resident Betty Nefzger.

Outside, there is already a putting green, christened “Soapy’s” in honor of the late Frank “Soapy” Messmer, and looking onto the green is a beauty parlor that offers manicures and pedicures as well as haircuts and styling.

An indoor walking route circling the mall will have mileage notations on the walls, and an outside garden area will lead into a dog run.

“There’s nothing like this in Montana,” said Margie Prokop, resident services coordinator for Mission Ridge and The Vista, its assisted-living center neighbor on the St. John’s Lutheran Ministries campus.

Set to open next month after almost a year of construction, the mall – which physically connects Mission Ridge and The Vista – was designed to address six aspects of wellness: physical, spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional and vocational.

“The one consistent thing we always hear is that people coming into a community like this often live longer, healthier lives than someone who stays in their own home,” said Kevin Sider, executive director of Mission Ridge and The Vista. “Here, with our wellness philosophy, there are so many opportunities available.”

Residents will be able to participate in a raft of free fitness classes, including yoga, tap dancing and water aerobics, and will have regular access to a trained professional, wellness director Ellen Schultz Wilson.

Schultz Wilson will teach classes in the pool and in the Nefzger Fitness Center, which will be outfitted with both strength-training and cardiovascular exercise machines.

“I need it, and I know a lot of other people need it,” Nefzger said of the fitness center that bears her name. “There may be a lot of people who think they don’t need it, but they do.”

About 130 people live at Mission Ridge. Another 60 call The Vista home.

“People in our 80s and 90s enjoy keeping active,” said Dr. Paul Crellin, a retired pediatrician who serves as president of the Mission Ridge Residents Association. “But many times they are no longer able to drive.”

Having a wellness mall on-site leaves residents with no excuse for being sedentary, said Crellin, who admits he was skeptical at first that people his age would make use of its offerings.

After visiting independent-living centers in other states with similar setups, Crellin became convinced it would be a success here.

His enthusiasm spread to others, and residents raised $450,000 of the $2 million needed to build the mall, Sider said.

“We believe in healthy living,” Crellin said.

Copyright Billings Gazette Jul 15, 2008

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