Healthy living for 10 years

[attach]4563[/attach]Neptune Drive makes 83-year-old Reuben Cipin nostalgic.

He and his first wife lived there. Their son was born there. And the building on that street where he now lives happens to be named after him.

When his daughter Marla Dan and her husband Aubrey donated $5 million to Baycrest in 2004, the hospital and research centre’s condo was renamed Reuben Cipin Healthy Living Community in his honour.

And it’s lived up to its name — right down to the last word.

“It just wasn’t another apartment building, it was more of a community,” says Cipin.

That reputation will be celebrated on Aug. 16, when residents of the seniors’ life-lease condominium hold a dinner to mark the building’s 10th anniversary.

When Cipin and his wife Sharyn first arrived soon after it opened, he was planning to take it easy.

[attach]4564[/attach]But it was not to be.

Spurred on by an initial lack of communication with the building management, the leaseholders elected a council and Cipin, a retired lawyer, was picked as president.

He served in that capacity for almost 10 years before resident Marilyn Fine recently took over.

“I feel like I’ve made some contribution to the benefit of other people and that is the satisfaction that I get out of it,” Cipin says.

Over the building’s decade-long existence, the residents have become interconnected, getting together in numbers too large for the dedicated social room to accommodate, says 84-year-old Monty Mazin, co-chair of the program committee.

“When they built this place, they underestimated the people that were coming in here,” he says. “They never knew that we would be doing what we’re doing.”

Which, it’s worth pointing out, is a lot.

“There’s too much to do — if you want to do it,” says Temi Rosenthal, the program committee’s other co-chair.

Open to anyone above 65, the building’s population is largely Jewish, so the program committee organizes events for their religious holidays, as well as others like Canada Day.

Rosenthal says they try to keep things fresh, including the year they decided to hold a Purim in Hawaii themed celebration complete with male residents in hula skirts.

“And you should see them dance!” Rosenthal exclaims. “They did the hula … good grief! Fortunately they didn’t see themselves.”

All these activities are still being supported by Cipin’s daughter’s donation.

“Actually it’s very nice because it enables us to do more,” says Rosenthal.

The result is a support system robust enough to withstand the tests time brings.

“We feel responsible for one another,” says Rosenthal. “Everybody’s approximately the same age, so we all have the same aches and pains, and we have the same age grandchildren with the same problems.”