Wendy Orr was born and raised in Kentucky and relocated to Missouri in 2018. She graduated from Western Kentucky University with a degree in health care administration and has spent the majority of her career in the long-term care industry, with the last five years in senior independent living.

Chandler Smith was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri, and graduated from Missouri University with a major in hotel and restaurant management, including a minor in business. Chandler worked at Tony’s Pizza at the age of 15 until graduating from college. He worked at Les Bourgeois Vineyards until 2012, when he started as a chef at Boone Landing Retirement, which is now Solstice Senior Living. He loves seeing the joy his food can bring to the residents.

Tara Thorpe has been with Solstice Senior Living at Columbia for five years. She started out as a home health aide for the Caring Group and switched positions in 2016 to the Vibrant Life director for Solstice. She is responsible for the happiness of 126 residents, whom she considers family. For Tara, every day is a great opportunity to experience and learn about each person while keeping smiles on their faces.

Walter Palma is Solstice at Columbia’s Building Services director. He’s been with the community for one year and enjoys helping residents and making sure they are happy with his resolutions and repairs – he never walks to his next task, he runs!

Originally from Guatemala, he enjoys the outdoors with his family by biking, hiking and especially white-water rafting.