It was a unique afternoon for Ventura Place residents who ventured back to the 1920’s for a little speakeasy fun. They channeled their inner detective this afternoon at their murder mystery luncheon.
“It’s like a real life game of clue,” says Ventura Place Community Manager, Rachelle Riedlinger. “The murder mystery seems to be a real draw. I think they enjoy the interaction of it. They don’t just sit and watch, they get to participate.”
Everyone participates by questioning the “characters” to find out who the killer is. They have about an hour to do so before their guess is revealed.
“It forces them to kind of move around and meet different people,” says Riedlinger.
Joyce Cline, who has lived at Ventura Place for almost a year now, says it’s always a fun challenge.
“It’s really hard, because you don’t know…no one knows until it’s over, not even the characters…not even the murderer,” she says.
They solve it all together as a community.
“That’s what we are, is a family,” Cline says.
For Paul Archinal and his wife, it’s a little different story. They don’t actually live at the independent senior living community, but they always come and participate in events.
“We know several people that live here, and they all enjoy it,” he says. “We saw the last one they had here and it was really great. I mean, the killer ran up the stairs and said, ‘you’ll never catch me,’ and just like that he was gone. It’s just exciting.”
This is the third murder mystery luncheon that Riedlinger has planned, and she says it takes about 3 months to put it all together. She says she will start planning the next one right away, and it will be 3 months from now with a completely different theme.
