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Casa de las Campanas celebrates 25 years

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By Elizabeth Marie Himchak

For a quarter-century Casa de las Campanas has served the needs of retirees in Rancho Bernardo.

The not-for-profit continuing care retirement community overlooking Lake Hodges and Rancho Bernardo Community Park celebrated its 25th anniversary with many activities for its almost 500 residents.

The celebration kicked off on July 22 with a “music under the stars” event that included dignitaries presenting their congratulations and proclamations. Other festivities through July 26 included a formal dinner, ice cream social and murder mystery dinner. Throughout the week memorabilia detailing the facility’s history was on display, said Marge Pronovost, sales and marketing director.

Casa de las Campanas’ name — meaning House of the Bells — reflects its founders’ profession, Pronovost said. It was started by retired teachers for those who worked in the education field, though later that requirement was waived and now residents come from a variety of career fields.

It is an independent facility, not part of a chain, but is associated with Life Care Management Services, a national management company. “It’s one-of-a-kind,” Pronovost said.

She said it is a Type A facility, which means residents pay an entrance fee that entitles them to a lifetime of care. They move into an independent living apartment and when the need arises can transition into the five-star rated skilled nursing center, assisted living, memory care or recuperative care programs. Residents must be at least 60 years old. Currently the youngest resident is 62 and average age is 82.

Around 94 percent of the 380 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are occupied on the 23-acre property. While there are 12 floor plans available, Pronovost said there is a waiting list for some of the apartment options.

Casa’s master plan has an expansion tentatively scheduled for two to five years from now, but that focuses on building a new, state-of-the-art health center not additional apartments, she said.

A recent capital improvement project included re-painting the facility’s exterior so it would have more of a Spanish motif, remodeling the north building’s atrium, lobby and internal bridge, and almost complete renovations to the dinner theater that included building a new stage and installing a high tech sound system, Pronovost said.

A major focus is to provide resort-style amenities, such as a dining room featuring the culinary creations of Executive Chef Stephen Window, the former head chef at Roppongi Restaurant in La Jolla. Other aspects include a fitness center, two heated swimming pools, social lounge, guest rooms for out-of-town visitors, transportation, housekeeping and more than 40 clubs and activities.

The latter include the Casa Residents for Education program that has residents helping students learn to read at Westwood and Felicita elementary schools, a knitting group that makes baby blankets for military families and computer classes.

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