Activities at Dudwell St Mary Care Home
Our activity coordinator provides our home with a fun-packed weekly programme to engage all residents. Past activities include bread making, pottery, knitting, and card making. Not only do we run regular exercise programmes for the residents but we also have our regular entertainers come in to entertain our residents and their families. The activity coordinator visits residents on a one-to-one basis, for a chat, manicure and hand massage. The activity co-ordinator said "Residents love the one-to-ones and especially enjoy the manicure and hand massage, as not only is it stimulating but it boosts their confidence and pride in their appearance.''
Linda Lawes
My Name is Linda and I am one of the Activities Co-ordinators at Dudwell St. Mary care home.
I joined Dudwell St Mary in April 2008 as a Housekeeping Assistant and later became the Head of Housekeeping. In 2018 I then became an activities co-ordinator where I brought lots of new exciting ideas to the role.
I am passionate about my role within the home and aim to bring a smile to all our residents’ faces through different types of activities. My personality is bright and bubbly so aim to share this each day at work.
As I gather the residents likes and dislikes if you would like to come and chat with me about your family member please contact the home to arrange.
Read our brochure 'Life-enriching activities' for more information about life in our care homes.
Read our brochure
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Dudwell St Mary Care Home
Cool Treats
Residents enjoyed some delicious ice cream to cool off during the recent bout of hot weather.
Fish & Chip Fun
We delighted residents with some old favourites, including cockles and muscles! Each resident that requested them was given a small dish of their seaside favourite and an authentic wooden fish fork to eat them with. As their lunch was served, their chips were placed in a fun chip cone. Lots of singing and giggles followed and naturally there was lots of smiles all round.
Thank You Boards
Over the last couple of weeks our wonderful residents, with the support of Amy from activities, have been creating 2 boards of gratitude for the staff at the home. They individually created hearts and diamonds using a selection of crafts and a tremendous amount of glitter!
They wanted to make sure all the staff knew how much they were appreciated during this difficult time and asked that the word ‘THANK YOU’ was displayed in the native tongue of some of the staff members too. On Thursday 28th May the boards were presented to the staff who were overwhelmed with the kindness and love that had gone into creating the beautiful displays.
Our Deputy Manager, Joao, commented that when the lockdown is lifted the boards will be positioned within the 2 reception areas for the relatives and other visitors to see when they come to the home.
Reg’s Vegetable Garden
One of our residents had expressed a passion for a vegetable garden. He sat with one of our staff members that he is fond of, Amy, and they talked for a long time about allotments and vegetable patches. They shared pictures of what they had both grown and Reg was very happy. Every day he has his veg chat and it brings a smile to his face.
To help with his passion, and also as a keen gardener herself, Amy created a designated area for Reg where he could grow bits and pieces. He was overjoyed at the result. Amy has helped him keep a growing diary that he often sits and looks at, referring to them as his ‘babies.’
Many other staff members now go up onto Reg’s floor and he proudly shows them Reg’s Veg Patch.
Landmark Birthday
On 30th April one of our residents celebrated his landmark birthday. He is a war hero and remembers proudly how he fought for his country during the war, keeping a special newspaper article close by telling his beautiful story always brings a tear to whomever reads it.
Our resident was spoiled, and quite rightly so, by one of his favourite carers Rosalyn Everton. She came to work early to decorate the whole of the floor in balloons and bunting all in a very posh gold and black that he thought was amazing, not only this, Rosalyn by her own kind heart arranged for his telegram from the queen.
They was both emotional for this moment in the giving and receiving. The celebrations were then carried on with all his favourite foods and a beer, lots of music and dancing made his day super special, like him.
VE Day Celebrations
On Friday 8th May the residents got together to wave their flags, sing to their favourite music and watch the red arrows fly past on the TV to celebrate the victory in Europe. They all enjoyed the televised programme with various articles being read and pieces of music being sung, they tapped and hummed along and all wore big smiles as they relived being free.
The activities co-ordinators ensured that the residents all had, if desired, a glass of ‘bubbly’ to raise to the queens speech and a delicious assortment of scones and cakes were provided by the cook Tina.
Each resident had a tale to tell and was delighted to be able to sit amongst fellow residents and share them. At the end of the day they all took their flag and commemorative pin back to their rooms with a big smile.
