Published August 28. 2026 09:11AM<\/p>\n
Country Meadows of Allentown Retirement Community, 410 N Krocks Road, Allentown, hosted a special themed meal \u201cA Night in Italy\u201d for all residents on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n
It was an evening of fun, festivities and resident engagement.<\/p>\n
It brought a true sense of community to those who miss former friends, former neighbors and large family dinners.<\/p>\n
The festivities and preparation began Aug. 3 as some of the \u201cNonnas\u201d gathered to roll 500 meatballs.<\/p>\n
Meatballs were carefully rolled under the supervision of chefs.<\/p>\n
Residents freely shared their own family secrets for rolling the perfect meatball.<\/p>\n
To set the mood and with help from residents and coworkers, every dining room was decorated with Italian restaurant inspired centerpieces.<\/p>\n
Special entertainment featuring songs from the crooner era and Italian restaurant music was offered by Ted Winn (vocals), Chris Lorenzetti (violin) and the Parkland High School Strolling Strings.<\/p>\n
The entire campus came together, wearing red scarves around their neck as they served a specially prepared four course Italian meal: chef select salad, rigatoni alla vodka sauce served tableside; a trio of four cheese lasagna, chicken Marsala, homemade stuffed meatballs and green beans.<\/p>\n
Dessert was the perfect ending with spumoni, cannoli and tiramisu.<\/p>\n
There was dancing and toe tapping while staff served wine tableside.<\/p>\n
It was an evening to remember as several residents shared: tonight reminded me of one of my favorite Italian restaurants where I used to take my entire family for special celebrations. We don\u2019t have many of those restaurants in the area anymore, this was a nice way to reminisce about special family celebrations.<\/p>\n
Staff is planning more themed meals throughout the year.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS COURTESY COUNTRY MEADOWS RETIREMENT COMMUNITIESMarilyn Lochner starts rolling the first tray of meatballs two days ahead of the Aug. 5 dinner.<\/p>\n
Nancy Sutton, Marlene Gervasio, Marion Zabitchuck, Mary Erney and Angela Levy gather around the table for an afternoon of meatball rolling.<\/p>\n
Entertainer Tedd Winn serenades Barbara and William \u201cTracey\u201d Todd on their anniversary at Country Meadows of Allentown Retirement Community\u2019s special themed meal \u201dA Night in Italy,\u201d on Aug. 5.<\/p>\n
Fred and MaryAnn Starkey share a special dance.<\/p>\n
Kim Honsberger, marketing coordinator helps lead dining associate Kimora Bey prepare for the night.<\/p>\n
Country Meadows of Allentown Retirement Community\u2019s team of dining associates prepare for the night ahead.<\/p>\n
Parkland High School Strolling Strings entertain the crowd during dinner.<\/p>\n
Special Italian-themed centerpieces made by residents and co-workers decorate the tables.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published August 28. 2026 09:11AM Country Meadows of Allentown Retirement Community, 410 N Krocks Road, Allentown, hosted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-274006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}