ICHS ‘Lights Up’ with Lunar New Year Celebrations
On February 4, 2025, International Community Health Services (ICHS) Healthy Aging & Wellness Program staff held a Lunar New Year celebration for its senior services participants.
In Seattle, smiling elders in International Community Health Services (ICHS) senior programs put their hands together to mark the start of the Year of the Snake with loud applause and big smiles.
On February 4, 2025 ICHS’ Healthy Aging & Wellness Program staff held their annual Lunar New Year celebration at Legacy House Assisted Living facility in Seattle’s historic Chinatown-International District.
With the music of drums pounding through speakers, lanterns swinging above, and mooncakes handed out, the elderly residents and Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) participants joined in the clapping and laughter of celebration.
“What I love most about celebrations like this is the way our participants' eyes light up and they become so vibrant,” said Mindy Balk, ICHS Recreational Therapy Supervisor. “It's my hope that celebrations like these remind us all that even as we age, we can still be ourselves — performers, artists, spectators, planners — and we continue to contribute and belong to our communities.”
Lunar New Year celebrations revolve around common themes. Time with family, honoring ancestors, and celebrating health and prosperity.
Events like this are deeply meaningful for ICHS’ senior participants, said Balk. A number of PACE senior participants live alone at home, receiving transportation to ICHS’ Legacy House Assisted Living facility for their care. Nationally, Asian American seniors, especially those from immigrant backgrounds, are more prone to feel social isolation and lack a sense of agency due to language barriers. Isolation is directly linked to reduced everyday physical activity and greater sedentary time, leading to health concerns for elders.
Empowering senior participants to be active, to take part in dancing and singing is a core part of ICHS’ care model, explains Balk. “Our staff do such an amazing job working with participants to help them practice, prepare, and feel confident as they step up on the stage to dance, sing, or share their talents,” said Balk. “So many participants share that these practices and performances give them something fun to look forward to.”
In other words, Lunar New Year celebrations manifest the very real themes of health promotion and longevity.
Other ICHS Lunar New Year Celebrations
Bang-Tam Nguyen, ICHS Outreach & Enrollment Specialist (on left) and Elsa Anderson, ICHS Community Health Specialist, took part in the 2025 Tết Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday, February 8, 2025.
On February 8, 2025, members of ICHS’ outreach and enrollment team also took part in the Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration at the New Holly Gathering Hall in South Seattle.
ICHS has a multilingual team of enrollment navigators, who offer long-term, phone and in-person assistance to our diverse immigrant and refugee community members as they navigate health insurance enrollment.
Enrollment navigators at ICHS are unique not only in their long term partnerships with the community, but also in their language ability. Navigators speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Amharic, and more, enabling them to reach communities in the language they are most comfortable in.
Not far away, at ICHS’ Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic, staff celebrated Lunar New Year with team lunches and traditional Lunar New Year formal ao dai dress and red envelopes.
Called the “Biggest Celebration in the World” for good reason, Lunar New Year is a time-honored holiday heralding the arrival of spring. It’s celebrated by over a billion people around the world.
In the US, the holiday is often been generalized as “Chinese New Year”, in respect to the celebration’s rich history in the Chinese American diaspora. However it’s slightly different, lunar new year being celebrated by many different cultures with unique traditions.
And in Bellevue, despite snowy weather, ICHS’ Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic staff celebrated a Lunar New Year feast on February 6, 2025.