Last week for Care Homes Open Week, Walton-on-the-Naze based care home, Luff House, run by Pilgrims’ Friend Society, opened its doors to welcome children from Hamford Primary School to spend some time with their residents. The day was Olympic-themed to get everyone excited for Paris 2024.
The ‘Care Home Olympics’ saw the children and residents join together in teams to enjoy many sporty activities including, “guess the Olympic sport”, archery – with balls hitting a target on the floor, a ball passing relay, shotput – balls into a net, and javelin – throwing balls at cone targets. Then a fitness instructor came and led an Olympics-themed fitness session.
The activities were enjoyed by the children and residents alike!
The day was organised by Ruth Mockler, ACE (Activities and Community Engagement) Facilitator at Luff House. She said: “It was lovely when the children first arrived, just to hear the buzz of conversation in the room. Some of the people that live here don’t have a lot of contact with their family or the community, so Care Home Open Week enables us to engage with the community we are a part of. It helps people know that we’re here and also the folk that live here have different experiences with different age groups.”
Arthur, a pupil at Hamford Primary School who went along to Luff House for the day, said: “It was fun to do sports with the older people. My favourite was probably the football!”
Nicola, Learning Support Assistant at Hamford Primary School, said: “It’s been a really lovely afternoon where the children have been able to interact with members of the community that they don’t see every day. Initially, when the kids came in, they were a bit shy, but everyone got over that, but then the competitiveness came out in everyone. It’s important because those young people are the people that need to look after the older generation”.
Pam, one of Luff House’s residents, said: “It’s been a lovely day chatting to some of the children. I didn’t get to know elderly people when I was young, and I think it’s quite a good idea that they find that they are still people.”
The residents of Luff House have a wonderful and varied past – many of which include some great sports stories.
Pam’s parents met on the Tennis Court. She loves watching Wimbledon and is excited for the Olympics. She says, “My parents had met on the tennis court so I did enjoy playing tennis, at the tennis club. When the tennis was on in London, one of my parents would take me to watch it. We had a seat in centre court and court number one and my father had seats in court number one, so he took one of us, either my sister or my mother or me.”
Leslie went to school in Lawford and played volleyball for Essex County. He said: “I went to Harlow to watch the Volleyball just last year. My daughter said, ‘Dad, I’ve got tickets for you to go to Harlow tomorrow’. So, me and my wife both went. We thoroughly enjoyed it, there were some beautiful photos.”
Shirley worked in a peadeatric clinic for 20 years, so enjoyed being around the children anf reminecing about her past as a Netball centre! She said: “I’m small, not too good at the goal shooting really. Well, I could do it, but I liked to play centre, I didn’t have to shoot then”.
The Care Home Open Week activities continued throughout the week to include a ‘Flamingle’ party where secondary school children came to volunteer and help serve drinks and dance with our residents at a pink flamingo-themed party!
