While life finds a way to always move forward, one thing that never grows old is a love of cars. Even in the summer heat, Rittenhouse Village at Portage’s residents were ecstatic to be connecting with the community, enjoying some music, and cruising down memory lane at Rittenhouse’s eighth annual car show.
The show featured 22 classic cars lined up nice and pretty while DJ Joe Zirconia played golden oldies and Rittenhouse staff served food to the residents. The event, a joint production by Rittenhouse and the Portage Chamber of Commerce, is an opportunity for seniors living at Rittenhouse to engage with the community.
“It's just a wonderful event for the seniors,” said Nancy Simpson, Executive Director of the Portage Chamber of Commerce. “Some of them can’t go out into the city, so for them to get out and get some fresh air and look at cars that were from their day and age is just wonderful.”
On top of supporting Rittenhouse’s residents, the money raised through raffles is donated to fight Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“There are two reasons we do this event,” said Senior Lifestyle Counselor at Rittenhouse Danielle Balek. “One is our residents. The thing most of them miss the most is a community, so it's our responsibility as a community to bring the community to them.”
“The event benefits the Portage Chamber of Commerce who then, in turn, gives back and donates to the charity of choice of Rittenhouse, which is the Alzheimer's Association Greater Indiana Chapter,” added Simpson.
While the car show always draws in new people, it also keeps people coming back year after year. Zirconia, a Neil Diamond impersonator, started helping with the event thanks to his prior relationship with the Rittenhouse senior community.
“I do shows for Rittenhouse, and they said, ‘We’re going to do a car show. Do you think you can DJ and maybe sing a little and maybe tell a few jokes?’” Zirconia said. “The residents are absolutely awesome here. I love them to death. They love the car show.”
Of course, an event like this isn’t possible without sponsors within the community. One of the sponsors, Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, made sure to send representatives to the event that have experience working with senior communities.
“It was my pleasure and my honor to be able to sponsor this,” said Lisa Stevens, an agent with Indiana Farm Bureau. “I have a passion for working with our older population – I have previous experience working in the medical field at a nursing home and assisted living. When this opportunity came up, I jumped right on it.”
Other sponsors for the night included Samuelson Insurance Agency and Castle Subaru of Portage.
At the end of the day, the most important thing was giving seniors the chance to take a nostalgic stroll through time with crisp cars straight from their youth. Despite the heat, Rittenhouse’s car show proved to be a pretty cool place to be.
The Portage Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit dedicated to positively impacting the Portage community and its businesses. Find out more at portageinchamber.com.
Rittenhouse Village at Portage is a retirement community offering independent and assisted living as well as memory care. To find out more, visit its website.