The summer days are upon us and as we bask in the glorious sunshine, we really couldn’t get into the summer spirit without sharing the joy with a few elderly folks who are sometimes lonely and need some kind of activity to lure them out of their rooms. So last Sunday, eight of us came together to host a summer party for the residents at St. Wilfrid’s - an elderly care home we have been visiting for almost a year.

We decided to make the most of the amazing weather by hosting the party outside in the lovely garden. The theme for this event was ‘holidays and seaside’ and we set the scene by decorating the garden with balloons, paper windmills, beach balls, swim rings, etc, kindly provided by Jenny. As shops are starting to stock up on their Autumn/Winter collections, she had a hard time finding summer holiday/seaside-inspired items. But serendipity played its game as unrelated businesses including a Western Union branch and a real estate agent decided to give away their shop window displays to let us decorate the venue for the elderly! :)

We kicked off the party by ushering in the residents into the garden and all the volunteers helped them get seated. We served them with welcome drinks of Pimm’s and orange squash. We had a list of fun activities lined up to keep the guests entertained. First up was a holiday-themed quiz compiled by Vin and conducted by Paras. The team that emerged as the Holiday brainbox won a box of shortbread cakes! Next we had the raffle draw which the residents thoroughly enjoyed. The prizes included quirky stuff like vintage milk bottles from Swansea and old maps of Rome!

The raffle was followed by a seaside-themed crossword competition compiled by Paras. Priya, Ram and Vin did some brilliant community-weaving making the residents feel at ease and Ali was on hand to take beautiful photos. Halfway through the party we began to serve food which was a traditional English affair with fish and chips, with tomato ketchup and malt vinegar - a reminder of holidays by the seaside :) We listened to the interesting stories that the residents shared about their lives. Most of the elderly folks seemed genuinely happy to have some youthful energy injected into their afternoon :)

We wrapped up the day's event by clearing up the place and having a circle of sharing. Every volunteer was really touched by the experience and are some of the highlights of people's experiences from serving the elderly in this way:

• Paras felt that his loud voice is put to good use in events like this as the elderly folks really enjoyed his eloquence.
• Vin felt reluctant to interact with the residents at first but gradually became more relaxed and also quite emotional thinking about how lonely these people are.
• Priya liked the holiday theme which she said helped start conversations with some of the timid residents.
• Ali had never volunteered with the elderly before and found it a bit daunting at first. He noticed that some people do not gel together and events like this bring them closer and help galvanise their interactions.
• Ram felt that the experience is important for him to interact with people from a broad cross-section of society.
• Paula, the vibrant lifestyle coordinator at St. Wilfrid’s, spoke of how the elderly are faced with silence and loneliness all the time and why it’s important for us to be funny and let go of our inhibitions as it helps elicit some sort of reaction from them. She also noted that the use of primary colours for decorations not only looked pretty but has been shown to help with dementia

Thanks to all the volunteers for helping us serve the elderly folks at St. Wilfrid’s! We plan to be back with some Halloween fun and festivities! :) Drop us a line if you have any ideas to share for our upcoming Halloween celebration!