It was standing, and stretching room only at Wildflower Terrace earlier this month as residents of the affordable apartment building for seniors, and others from the Mueller neighborhood gathered for the Tai Chi class. The so-called “meditation in motion” is one of a handful of free health-related programs DMA Companies offers including seminars on topics like diabetes and heart disease, balancing classes, and nutrition classes. It’s part of an effort to improve the quality of life for residents.

Wildflower manager Jenny Buxton says staff comes up with most of the ideas for healthy activities, but they also take recommendations from the seniors.  “We love seeing them active in the community and try to do as much as we can to find new and fun things for them to do,” said Buxton.

On this day, the Tai Chi class is being led by Wildflower resident Joy Stone. Stone started taking part in the class on her first day at Wildflower. “I found it to be a wonderful way to relax, breathe deeply and meet people,” said Stone. At that time the class had a professional instructor. When they lost his services the classes stopped for awhile. Stone says almost immediately residents started losing their balance and falling down. They decided to restart the classes with a few residents taking turns as the leader. Now the classes are larger than ever. DMA Companies, which owns and manages Wildflower Terrace is a sponsor for our Housing + Health Summit on November 17th.

Joy Stone leads the Tai Chi class at Wildflower Terrace in some movements.