Team Leadership, Tim Dressman CEO: The Vision

The vision for this center began over 5 years ago as a necessary amenity for our residents who had been asking for aquatic facilities as comments on their annual satisfaction surveys. It also provided a much needed answer for attracting younger seniors onto our campus, who have increasingly chosen empty nester patio homes and condos in the local community that provide a range of social activities and meeting spaces. With the impending wave of baby boomers entering retirement, it became evident to our Board of Trustees that we would need to find a way to attract them to our campus earlier, help them to age well, so they would not need the costly health care until much later in life. Operationally speaking, the cost of taking care of the young elderly would help balance the cost of providing care in the later stages of life. Last but not least, this generation of baby boomers is used to working out, jogging, swimming and other forms of exercise as a part of their daily routine and lifestyle and we wanted for them to be able to continue those lifestyle choices while residing on our campus. The Wellness Center or The Franciscan Center as we named it, is just one part of our overall wellness programming for our residents that extends into the local community and is part of our Vitalife strategy. I met Mr. Bill Witte, the founder of the Vital Nation, about 7 years ago while attending a trade show in Columbus, Ohio. I was not only inspired by his vision but energized by his wisdom for healthy aging that would help all of us lead more fruitful lives for longer periods of time regardless of our current health status. After accepting my invitation to visit our beautiful campus a few years later, I engaged Mr. Witte to help redesign our campus for the future. Andrews Architects from Dublin, OH were engaged to continue that work and complete the final design and oversee the construction performed by Corna-Kokosing from Columbus, OH. And here we are, a dream come true, better than I had ever imagined, a stunning architectural feat that encompasses all 8 ecologies of the Vitalife concept. I firmly believe this center will become the social hub of our campus and a location where everyone will know your name.