On Aug. 10, residents from Riverbend and Maple Crest came together for their annual ice cream social. About 90 persons enjoyed the sweet treats during this time of community fellowship.
After some had their fill, they headed out for a time of fishing at the pond.
Background of Maple Crest and Riverbend
Riverbend and Maple Crest have had a design lifestyle relationship from the very beginning. It was planned that way. How did this all come about?
Dr. Robert Kreider lived in Bluffton as a child and then returned to join the faculty of Bluffton College as dean of academic affairs. He became president and served from 1965 to 1972. During his years in Bluffton he and his wife, Lois, purchased the land that is now Riverbend and Maple Crest.
As the years passed, he developed a dream for this land -- that it become an intergenerational residential community whose residents would support and utilize the Bluffton University Nature Preserve, a community resource that was developed while he was president of Bluffton College.
Early in the 1990s he offered to donate this land to Bluffton University if the university would help make his dream come true. The university fiduciary responsibility meant that if they accepted this gift of land, they had an obligation to try and make Kreider's dream come true.
The university soon decided that they needed to find a developer who would buy the land from the university and complete the dream as a private venture.
Landscape Architect Jim Bassett of Lima began shaping a plan. From the very beginning the plan included pedestrian trails that linked to the nature preserve and ponds that would provide some natural habitats for wildlife.
The university knew that finding a developer who would "buy-in" to this plan would be a challenge. After approaching three or four experienced developers with this concept, the university discovered that there were no buyers, so they approached Stan Clemens and asked if he might consider taking on this project.
As Clemens studied the possibilities for how to make this challenging concept viable, he approached Mennonite Communities of Ohio showing them some sketches for a unique intergenerational community.
He offered, assuming that he was selected as the developer, to sell MHCO 18 acres including the highest ground and the largest stretch of road frontage, both important to the MHCO plan for a new independent living facility.
Within a month the board of MHCO said yes to Clemens and Jim Bassett's team began to develop an integrated design of single family homes for families in Riverbend, and independent living duplexes and apartments for senior citizens.
And so the dream became a reality. The pedestrian bridge between Maple Crest and Riverbend is important both symbolically and functionally. It allows Maple Crest residents access to Riverbend walking trails and the University nature preserve, and it allows Riverbend residents access to Maple Crest for visits with family and friends living there.
The relationship between Maple Crest and Riverbend residents is an important one with each group having unique gifts to offer the other.