Duane VIA
Activities Coordinator

It’s hard to believe that it’s already August, and school getting ready to start again!

Where does the time go? Before we know it, winter will be back again with the cold weather. It seems that we didn’t have a spring this year; it went from winter to summer. We have really had some hot days this summer, and haven’t been able to do as many activities outside on the patio as we normally do due to the heat.  We still try to get the residents out early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

We are always asking our residents what kinds of activities they want and most of them want music and games. We have had many of our long time groups to retire from coming to the Center to perform due to their age or their health. We are always looking for new groups to come in and entertain the residents and we would love to put you or your group on our calendar. The resident love having their musical activities and the songs bring back so many memories for them. They enjoy having bluegrass, country, gospel, and rock. It really doesn’t matter to them. They say music is the universal language and I truly believe that.  Music can take you to so many places in your life time, by just hearing a song. With memories good and bad, you can always remember where you were at sometime in your life when you heard that song. We played the Eagles DVD for the residents, and many of our older and younger residents knew the songs and sung along with them, especially our veterans. Many of them were serving our country when these songs first came out. They really did enjoy seeing the DVD. A lot of our veterans like talking about music they listened to when serving in Vietnam and music they grew up on. They enjoy everything, from Roger Miller to Pink Floyd.

We took some of our residents to Little Richard’s in Mt. Airy, N.C. They really enjoyed their meal and the staff at Little Richard’s is great. They couldn’t do enough to help our residents in and out of the restaurant by holding doors for them, and the service was fantastic. They give you so much food for the price. It’s unbelievable. This has come one of our resident’s favorite places to go. We also took them to Mabry Mill. We wish they stayed open all year round. The food is great and the scenery is beautiful. Some of our residents had never been to the mill, and they really enjoyed getting to seeing this Patrick County landmark.

Blue Ridge Therapy Connection and The Landmark Center hope you all had a wonderful time at our annual Splish Splash celebration on July 28. We love having the community visit for events like this during the year. Our residents also enjoy seeing all the children running, playing, and having a good time. We hope to see you next year at the next Splish Splash. We would like to thank all of our sponsors for supporting this community event.

We are working on our August calendar; we would love to put you on it. Please call Dee Dee Via at 276-694-7161 ext. 1804.

Victoria Mabe enjoys setting outside at Mabry Mill after having lunch.