By Melissa Rain, CVC Assistant Property Manager

We have all been impacted by COVID-19 in various ways over the past year.

On the upside, there are some positive outcomes from being secluded in our homes. Some residents at Century Villages at Cabrillo have picked up a fun hobby.

Henry Martinez, a veteran resident at Anchor Place is one of them. He actually had a knack for craft-making long before COVID-19. One of his many projects is pen-making! The Long Beach Department of Veterans Affairs has enabled him to take wood-shopping classes where he could use their machinery/tools to make pens. He has made them from wood and acrylic.

He also has another neat project where he custom framed an LA Dodgers puzzle that his daughter put together. He fit wood pieces and painted them white and added lettering onto the frame. Pretty darn cool!

Kevin Tachikawa is another veteran who lives at Anchor Place. He imprints pictures onto face masks.

“It’s a lengthy process,” Tachikawa said.

He makes a sketch of the drawing onto sketch paper with pencil; then, he puts masking tape over the drawing and sketches again onto the masking tape with ink. He cuts out pieces of the sketch and places them onto the mask where he uses nail polish for the medium and clear coat to make it shine.

Whether it’s learning how to cook, making bracelets, or finally finishing a project that we just never had time for, COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to take our creativity to another level!