![\"\"](\"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Palisades-w-Mayor-bach.jpg\" "\\"Palisades")
<\/a><\/a>Mayor Steve Bach presented the Palisades at Broadmoor Park with a Spirit of the Springs Award Monday afternoon in recognition of the groundbreaking partnership between the privately owned senior housing facility and UCCS.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Spirit of the Springs Celebration Award is\u00a0intended to\u00a0\u00a0recognize noteworthy achievement\u00a0that has brought great honor and pride to the City of Colorado Springs or has been distinguished at a state, national or international level.<\/p>\n
Bach presented the award to Jeff Dunn, principal, Dunn and Associates, Inc.; Toby Gannett, executive director, Palisades; Sara Qualls, Kraemer Family Professor of Aging Studies; Amy Silva Smith, associate professor, Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences; and Mary Ann Kluge, associate professor, Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The award recognized the eight-year partnership between Dunn and Associates and UCCS to develop an integrated model of fitness and wellness promotion for seniors.<\/p>\n
The unique collaboration was recently described in \u201cThe Gerontologist\u201d published by Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n
In February, Palisades was recognized by the National Home Builder\u2019s Association with a gold award for its integration of technology into the senior living community and a silver award for its fitness and wellness program. The Palisades won the Colorado Springs Gazette\u2019s \u201cBest Senior Housing\u201d award the past\u00a0three years as well\u00a0the paper’s \u00a0\u201cBest Chef in Colorado Springs” award in\u00a02012. The Palisades also received the Gazette\u2019s silver medal for \u201cBest Place to Work\u201d in 2011 as well as the Intergenerational Foundation’s grand award for Colorado.\u00a0Since its opening, the Palisades has won 31 awards, a feat Gannett attributes to the senior housing facility\u2019s partnership with UCCS.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>