There’s something special about a first birthday and that was true at Regency Southwood Retirement Resort recently.
“It feels awesome, we’re very, very lucky. Penticton has received us with open arms and we have extremely wonderful residents and staff. It’s been great,” said Sheri MacKenzie-Gibson, Regency master host.
Located on Wilson Street, just north of Skaha Lake, Southwood is one of the company’s newest of its five locations, the other four are in the Kelowna area.
According to MacKenzie-Gibson the initial response when the doors first opened to the Penticton facility was a strong indicator the company’s reputation preceded it.
“We were so successful at first that my staff had to work day and night to get everything worked out,” she recalled. “Usually in buildings like this you maybe get two or three people a week, we had something like 30 move-ins in 15 days. We just exceeded all our expectations and we kept up with it. There are certainly some things we have fixed along the way and made better but the staff were outstanding.”
Southwood is a living-assisted facility with the goal of helping people remain as independent as possible, but also providing healthy, chef-prepared meals and other services.
Southwood also boasts many amenities to keep people active ranging from a small golf course, a bocce court and a swimming pool which will be open later this year. As well, on the birthday residents got their own present from Regency in the form of a no-charge bus. It will be available for a wide variety of transportation needs within the city.