Duane Via, Activities Director

We are getting tired of having rain, our residents enjoy going out on the patio to have some of our activities. We have had to go out, between showers, but at least its warm weather.  We have small group activities on the patio such as trivia, exercising; word games, reminiscing and sometimes we listen to music and have a sing along.

Since it’s getting to be summertime, we are bringing back some of our residents favorite summertime activities.

We have watermelon feast, tomato sandwich day, lemonade in the shade and many others. Each month we also like to have a Taste Test, just to see which the resident likes best. This past month we had 3 different kinds of Hummus, which many of them had never heard of or tasted. Most of them enjoyed the taste. Sometimes we get a crazy flavor ice cream for them to try. This is a fun activity; it makes them aware of new foods.

During National Skilled Nursing Care Week, we had a Show and Tell, which staff members brought in old timey items for the residents to see. This was such as big hit with them. We are going to put it on the calendar for June. We now have other staff members who want to bring in items for them to view and reminisce about. They really enjoyed talking with one another about how when they were little, they used them on the farm or they or their mother had one just like it. We are hoping to bring more items this time for the men to enjoy, like old tools.

We are now working on our in house Vacation which we plan for August. We still have to have a destination narrow down. We will let the residents vote on the destination during their monthly resident discussion meeting. We have thought about going to Tennessee, Europe, or having a Pirate week.

The residents are already telling us what bus trips they want for next month. They simply love going on these trips. They are a lot of fun. Sometimes we sing to the radio, discuss what we are going to eat, or just talk about our families.  We have really learned a lot about our residents on these trips.

If you would like to volunteer your time or talent, please call Dee Dee Via at 276-694-7161 ext. 1804. We would love to put you on our calendar.