Kensington Park

The main entrance to Kensington Park.

Today I visited Kensington Park, a retirement community nestled on 8 acres of land, but located very near to Connecticut Ave. and downtown Kensington.  I had a very special tour guide – Andrew Klansek, who works in Community Relations there.  It was special to be given a tour by Andrew because he is a former Kensington Club Coordinator at Kensington Park, and his grandparents are longtime residents.  We even ran into his grandmother in one of the buildings.

Kensington Park has that special sort of family feel to it.  Everywhere we went, people knew one another, and staff and residents alike were very friendly.  Kensington Park is a little bit unusual in our area, in that it offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care, but there is no buy-in.  Rather, everything is paid on a month-to-month basis.  It is a private pay community.

Its size is also somewhat unusual.  It has 3 separate buildings—one each for independent living, assisted living, and memory care, but each building only has around 60 residents.  Nevertheless, each building has its own dining room and its own lounges.

Each building also has its own activities director.  The independent living building had a full slate of activities for each day, that residents can choose to participate in.  But it also had something called the “Kensington Club.”  For a small extra charge, residents can participate in this club.  It is designed for residents who might be likely to never come out of their rooms to participate in things and be involved.   The Kensington Club director tailors activities to the people in the club, and comes to get them each morning, just as if they were participating in a camp.  That way, a resident’s loved ones can be sure that the resident is remaining involved in the community, and being stimulated by art, music, etc.