For more information go to www.partiesbymarty.com, or call me at 303-649-9125, or email martypickert@aol.com.

Monday June 17 the meeting will start at 5:00 and go to 8:00.

Join us at any time before 7:00.

Good News: Our project is moving forward!

We are planning an approximately 20 unit condo building.

We have only 7 units still available at this time!

Join us NOW for this great opportunity.

If you are interested in hearing more, please come to the meeting on Monday May 6, from 5:00 on.

Here is an article that appeared in the Parker Chronicle February 28, '13

http://www.ourcoloradonews.com/parker/news/parker-condos-targeted-to-serve-active-adults/article_0af47f1a-82c4-11e2-a64a-001a4bcf887a.htm

Our weekly meeting is on Monday evenings from 5 till 8 at The Warhorse Inn, 19420 E. Mainstreet, Parker, CO 80138 ( 303-841-4018)

Downsizing and want to stay in Parker?

This is a ground floor opportunity for luxury living at affordable prices in downtown Parker!

We now have 13 people in our group, both men and women and couples. We are looking for 7 more interested people!

We have an approximately 20 unit condo building that is absolutely beautiful being created (for active adults 50 & over) by our core group and the developer.

The building includes a common house for dining/rec/meeting/parties, with a community kitchen, outdoor patios, green areas and underground parking, in an urban setting where we can walk to Mainstreet, grocery stores, theatre, restaurants and night life!

Each unit is self contained with a washer/dryer/kitchen and glassed in sun porch.

Have you ever heard of the expression "looking a gift horse in the mouth"?

"Move it or lose it"?

We are now being presented with an exceptional opportunity!

7 units are still available!

For more information please call Marty at 303-649-9125, or email martypickert@aol.com

Hi Everyone,

For a complete explanation of what cohousing is, and my views on what we are aiming for, please arrow down to the article.

If possible please make a copy of the material and bring it to the meeting, thanks!

The Warhorse Inn: 19420 E. Mainstreet, Parker, Colorado, 80138. Food and happy hour 2 for 1 drinks are available for purchase.

Directions: Head south on Parker Road, enter the town of Parker, make a left turn onto E. Mainstreet and go one short block down. The Warhorse is on the right side of Mainstreet.

There is lots of parking across the street in the Park parking lot.

Parker is a wonderful choice for our community.

We are the pioneers, the visionaries - for sustainable independent (yet in community) retirement living that serves our social, practical, emotional, health, stimulation and financial needs.

Please call me 303-649-9125 or email martypickert@aol.com for more information

Senior Cohorts for Cohousing, by Marty Pickert

Quoted from “Pocket Neighborhoods” by Ross Chapin “The first of 79 million Baby Boomers has just begun entering retirement. At each stage of their lives, this generation has questioned the status quo, and it’s not likely to be different now. They are replacing the term “aging” with “saging” as a way of emphasizing the value offered by their years. Many are looking ahead and actively grappling with how to preserve independence without isolation. They are shunning the packaged leisure life of gated senior “communities” –which in actuality are for-profit business schemes - in search for real communities that meet their needs. Cohousing fits the bill for many of these seniors.”

What is Cohousing?

Cohousing is a community approach to independent living that serves our social, practical, emotional, health, stimulation and financial needs.

Cohousing communities are pocket neighborhoods that are planned, built, owned and managed by the residents themselves. These communities typically include 12 to 25 separate residences plus a common house and common outdoor grounds owned collectively.

Cohousing is NOT a commune. This is a different model from hippie communes of the 1960s. Residences own their own home, do not share income, political beliefs or religious beliefs. We do share a common rec/dining/party/meeting room, and common outdoor grounds.

The term Cohousing was introduced to the US by American architects Charles Durrett and his wife Kathryn McCamant well over 25 years ago. This community housing model came from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, dating back hundreds of years but changing form and gaining in popularity in the 1960s. There are hundreds of cohousing communities in Europe. In the US there are 112 intergenerational cohousing communities and 4 senior cohousing communities. Silver Sage Senior Cohousing is in Boulder and was completed several years ago.

50 % of cohousing communities are in California. There are many more on the drawing board as this way of creating sustainable “living in community” life styles is becoming a very interesting and popular option for many people, especially for seniors. We can age in place independently with the support and caring of our neighbors.

The best information out there is the book “The Senior Cohousing Handbook, Second Edition, written by Charles Durrett and his wife Kathryn.

I sold my house two years ago and moved to Parker to be closer to my children and grandchildren who live in Elizabeth.

For the past 7 years I have been researching my future “living” options.

The only solution that makes any sense for my aging desires and pocketbook turns out to be cohousing!

Parker is the perfect place for an active adult "aging in place" condo community. Being downtown will be a huge plus!

AS a single Mom for the past 32 years, I put away a comparatively small nest egg for retirement. When I sold my house I put the equity with the bank to invest, but to keep the principle safe. Well, that didn’t happen and I finally had to sell the funds. In the past 6 years my retirement funds have gone down over 100K due to the real estate and investment world.

At this point I can’t afford the retirement communities or assisted care facilities that are out there. Nor do I think that they are a viable option for most seniors and baby boomers. You have to put a huge amount of cash down and the monthly fees are more than my fixed income. And then to boot, your life is no longer your own because other people are telling you what to do and not do. …Other people are running your life - and then determining what you will pay to let them do so!

We are 79 million baby boomers starting to retire. As a Country let’s value our seniors enough to come up with more healthy and viable living options.

The very expensive retirement communities that want our life savings, and yet do not address many of our basic needs, are not where we want to go.

There is a better way! It’s called active adult cohousing. There are approx. 20 new active adult communities on the drawing board around the country. Let’s make Parker Colorado one of those places!

I insist on running my own life as long as I am mentally capable.

Cohousing offers that opportunity. I think if people really understood what cohousing is all about, (that) they would be as excited as I am!

I took Chuck Durrett’s weeklong workshop in California two years ago on how to facilitate a cohousing community.

We begin as strangers and we end up as “family”. The process of building our community bonds us. We start out as a support group of active adults getting together to discuss our questions, ideas and concerns of aging, and we end up as friends who are there for each other. In the mean time we build a beautiful vibrant living community that serves all our needs! Could this vision be any more wonderful?!

Serving our basic human needs through this type of living model is of particular importance to me because I love the study of psychology.

When we are getting our basic needs met we are happier. When we are happier we are not as “sick or tired”.

Basic needs include: Self-value, as seen through the mirroring eyes of acceptance; Independence and uniqueness; Security and predictability (food, clothing, shelter, money); The need to belong, to be part of a group; The need for strokes (support, love and belonging); The need for structure (limits, predictability, knowing the “rules”, emotional safety); The need to self-actualize and the need for spirituality; The need to be needed, the need to give; And of course the need to laugh, enjoy and have fun!

Active Adult Cohousing addresses these human needs better than any traditional retirement community. We own and run the community ourselves, write our Bylaws and Rules & Regulations, and are caring neighbors.

An active adult cohousing community built from scratch searches for people in their 50s, 60s and 70's. We are all relatively healthy from the start. Seniors who are not yet retired are also welcome. Singles and married couples are welcome.

In the meantime for more information call Marty Pickert at 303-649-9125,

Or email me at martypickert@aol.com.