Maple Gardens Village

Judy

We love Maple Gardens Village. It was the most reasonable in Wichita that was not low-income sensitive. It's got some problems but the positives far outweigh the negatives. It has structural issues that are being addressed that are pretty severe. Their exterior structure is architecturally compromised, but that's the only issue. The positives are a lot. It's a large space. The smallest apartment is 650 square feet for $695 and it's well maintained. Any maintenance issues we have, have been dealt with in less than 24 hours. It's a very friendly community with a lot of social interaction for my mother. The grounds are beautiful. The grounds are A++. It has all kinds of additional services available that they don't have to provide. They have a low-income eating program there, a hairdresser, a podiatrist that comes that trims toenails once every 11 weeks for Medicare recipients, free washers and dryers that are brand new, a well-maintained library, a craft room, craft activities, and social activities. You're getting so many of the very same services through the residential volunteers that you would have to pay thousands of dollars for in another facility. They don't have a formal activities director but they have a volunteer craft director, a volunteer librarian, and a volunteer gardening committee that keeps the grounds beautiful. Six days a week, they have either card games, bingo, or dominoes, and an activities director does not do that. That is overseen by volunteer residents. The resident volunteer programs keep the costs low. It gives seniors purpose. It's the difference between having to pay for a Sunday school teacher and having a volunteer Sunday school teacher. It's like a double benefit. In three days, mom already had six visitors and three volunteer helpers. Every day, she has somebody calling her and saying, "Do you want to go with me? We'll take you down." She's 92 and people take care of her. It's pretty wonderful. There's a little fishing pond onsite where the residents can go fishing for free and they can bike ride and it's all shaded. It's a wonderful walking path that they can take their grandkids. The apartments are very light. She's got a patio off the back where she can overlook the fountain and in the front, she can overlook a koi pond. It's pretty nice. The meals aren't provided by Maple Gardens. They're provided by a nonprofit government program.