Just after the death of the flowers,
And before they are buried in snow, 
There comes a festival season 
When Nature is all aglow. 

Author Unknown

Decorating for the Seasons
Submitted by Kathy Hart of LifePath, Inc

We decorate for the seasons by creating simple scenes...for fall we use a large tree and leaves we cut out from construction paper or fun foam. On the leaves the staff write what fall means or reminds the seniors of. Then we put them on our cut out tree. We also have a Christmas tree we keep up all year and decorate it for the month/season. We ask our Seniors what to put on the tree and then "create" the items.

For Winter we make a large Christmas tree and use balls for their thoughts or snowflakes for a wintery scene.

Spring you could use Easter eggs or bunnies

Summer could be surfboards or flip flops.

Equipment: Medium size white Styrofoam balls, various colors of felt scraps, miniature straw hat, yarn, yellow spray paint, small artificial autumn leaves

Objective: A scarecrow ornament that can be hung by a piece of yarn for a decoration.

Description: Spray paint the Styrofoam ball yellow and let dry. Cut various pieces of felt to be used for eyes, nose and mouth. Using either straight pins, hot glue or Elmer’s glue, secure the fact in place. Pin an autumn leaf to the base of the ornament as a little ""necktie"". Glue yarn ""hair"" to the top of the head. Make a hole in the little straw hat and put a piece of yarn about six inches long through the hat, securing it to the head with a pin. Your little scarecrow guy is now ready to be hung up!

Girls Night Out!!
submitted by Venita Franey of Jefferson Healthcare on April 24, 2000

Size of Group: app 100 residents and invited guest

Equipment: potato bar with twenty plus toppings, 8-9 volunteer models and cooperating retail
ladies clothing store. a hard working facility team.

Objective: fun for ladies residents % honors mothers and is good PR

Description: Female residents that want to participate invite guest to a potato bar with many toppings and a style show. This annual event is a lot of fun with a different theme for decorations. This year we used butterflies as a theme to decorate hats. Last year we used red roses. The ladies love it!!

Fun Day

Size: no limit if hall is large enough

Equipment: three to four different entertainment groups, hotdog's, ice-cream and drinks, barbecues, certificates or pins

Objective: we gather together once a year,September for an afternoon with 12 seniors homes to celebrate Homes For Special Care Month.This allows our residents to greet old friends and make new friends.

Description: The Recreation Directors meet a few months before the event to plan the day. Each Home is responsible for certain foods for the lunch. My particular home brings 6 dozen hot dogs buns. We each bring our own drinks and snacks, plates, cups, cutlery and potato salad. We rent a large hall and split the cost between the Homes for rental (usually $10.00) each. We each bring our banners to put up while others bring the barbecues. We invite the MLA'S from our areas, a representative from our Recreation Association and a representative from Associated Homes. Our Administrator's attend and man the barbecues. We have 3-4 different groups entertain. Usually dancers of some sort,some old type sing a long music and fiddle players. We each bring in as many prizes as we bring residents,mark as to male/female and contents as each resident gets a gift. We get donations of small ice-cream tubs from a local ice-cream company, and a cake from a local bakery. We have certificates or pins made with residents name, date and event to give each resident.We rent the hall in a central location for the residents who may have to travel a distance. Local papers come and take a few photos on this event every year. We have a bagpiper playing as everyone arrives. It usually lasts 3 hours. A lot of planning by your Recreation Directors prior to the event, but well worth the effort!!! Have a great Fall.

:)