By: Duane Via, Activities Director

With the warmer temperature, we planned a bus trip to Dippers in Martinsville, but they weren’t open at the time of our bus trip, so we changed our trip to Cookout in Mt. Airy, N.C., for milkshakes.

Although it was cool that day, our residents had a good time and they enjoyed their shakes. We are planning another trip to Cookout next month for more shakes and food. We are already getting our bus trip list going for next month. The residents tell us where they want to go and eat. Our veterans have already asked to go to Golden Corral for their next trip. During the spring and summer, we really try to get the residents out and about as much as we can in fresh air and sunshine.

Each month Helen Cowley volunteers her time to lead a cooking activity with our residents. We try to have simple and seasonal recipes. The residents assist her with putting the recipe together, and at the end of the activity, they eat their creations. We try to have different activities for our residents to enjoy that are related to their senses.

With hurricane season underway, we will have a Hurricane Party on June 22.  We will discuss hurricane names and give our residents safety tips about hurricanes, tornados and severe thunderstorm warnings.

As employees, we have to go through these drills for the safety of our residents. We will explain this to our residents to let them know that we are getting our training when we have to move them out in the hallways, away from windows and doors to help shield them from flying objects in case of a tornado.

We never had to think about these types of storms in our area, but lately they have been happening closer to us. We must be educated on these drills, and sometimes, it seems that the residents don’t understand what is going on. By having a party about them, we also can educate our residents so they will understand what is going on during the drills. Just talking to them about the drills will help them understand that we are having a practice drill to prepare just in case it really happens.

As staff members we never know when we are going to have these types of drills and we are timed on them. We also will check to see if any of our residents have the same name as the names of this year’s hurricanes.

We are planning on meeting with our residents next week to find out where they want to go on their in-house vacation this year. We look forward to planning a fun filled week for them in August. We always try to get our staff members involved in any celebrations we have here at the Center, and we will be thinking of ways to get them involved in the activities as well.

We always look forward to volunteers visiting with our residents. If you are interested in volunteering your time, please call Dee Dee Via at 276-694-7161 ext. 1804.