Vi at Highlands Ranch, nationally works to keep resident voices alive

BY HALEY LENA HLENA@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

From being part of the rst Navy SEALs in World War II to starring in “ e Grapes of Wrath” with Henry Fonda, behind the doors of Vi Living residences across the nation are incredible stories of people’s lives, including a resident in Highlands Ranch.

“I hear these things and I don’t want them, the stories to go away,” said Darrell Baltimore, vice president of operations at Vi, based in Chicago.

Baltimore joined the organization in 2007 as an executive director, which gave him the opportunity to engage and develop relationships with the residents. After hearing their stories, he knew he couldn’t be the only one to hear them.

Inspired by StoryCorps, Baltimore, along with the Associate Vice President of Living Well at Vi Tony Galvan, decided to start a podcast to share residents’ stories called “Vi Living Resident Archives”.

“I feel honored to be able to develop relationships with our residents where they share memorable stories of special times in their past and stories of what they’re doing now,” said Baltimore.

Wanting the stories to be small sound bites, Baltimore and Galvan decided to make each episode no longer than three minutes.

Baltimore asked Vi Living team members across the country if any of the residents had neat stories or are active in the community and would be interested in sharing. e two travel to di erent Vi locations to record the podcasts.

“It’s an opportunity for residents in our di erent communities to hear what the other residents are doing,” said Baltimore. “It kind of motivates people to say ‘hey, I’ve got a good story to tell’.”

One of those stories came from Highlands Ranch resident Deb Zelkowitz, who was featured on episode nine, titled “ e Beauty of Birding”.

Zelkowitz rst fell in love with bird watching when she lived in Virginia and after moving to Colorado nearly 12 years ago, Zelkowitz began seeing more birds that she hadn’t seen before.

Her interest in birds led her to volunteer at South Platte Park where she found a group of bird watchers. Every weekend, a woman would lead the group on a bird walk and when the woman could no longer do the walk, Zelkowitz and a friend took over.

After coming to Vi in Highlands Ranch in August of 2022, Zelkowitz was asked to lead its bird club. e rst season of the podcast will be coming to an end in July but Baltimore and Galvan are looking forward to traveling to hear more stories.

“And I found from doing the bird club stu that there’s a fair number of people who can’t get out and hike for bird watching and everything, but they’re very interested in the presentations that I do,” said Zelkowitz.

“I hope that it is a way of keeping those residents’ voices out there in the mainstream for forever because when they pass away, their stories pass away and we don’t get to hear them,” said Baltimore. “So that’s why I’m hoping that this really outlives me and continues to share their stories with the world.”