KAMSACK — Residents and staff at the local retirement home are gearing up for a month filled with engaging activities and community involvement. Annette Purchase, the activities co-ordinator for the Eaglestone Lodge, shared insights into the upcoming events and projects planned for April, as well as activities that have been completed.
The residents of Eaglestone Lodge had what Purchase described as a “Memory Day” where, in collaboration with the Saskatchewan Inspired Western Development Museum, various items from the residents’ past were brought out to the lodge, including retro sunglasses, straw hats, and pearl necklaces among other things.
The lodge also received a new Broda Chair donated from the Bentley Retirement Village, which is designed to help residents who have limited mobility.
One of the highlights coming up for April is a collaboration with the local kindergarten class, where students will join residents to decorate eggs. Purchase expressed enthusiasm about this activity, stating, "We have a lot of really kind of cool things coming up. I also just confirmed with the Grade 2 teacher from Victoria School that she will be bringing the class to help do a craft in April. Then we have Dustin Wilson booked to do a spring or summer painting with the students. He tries to make it an easy painting for them to do, nothing too complicated."
Towards the end of April, the retirement home plans to host a pancake breakfast and hot dog day. This event will coincide with a yard cleanup effort, where residents, their families, and volunteers from the community are invited to participate. Purchase said, “At the end of April we also are going to be planning a yard cleanup day with a pancake breakfast and hot dogs. We're going to invite the residents' families and put it out there for volunteers to come out and give us a hand cleaning up the yard. For doing it you can have pancakes in the morning and hotdogs in the afternoon as a thank you, so that's what we have planned.”
In addition to these activities, renovations are in progress at the retirement home. Purchase mentioned plans to renovate a wall for displaying art, making it more aesthetically pleasing for residents. She explained, "We're going to be making it look a little bit nicer with a bunch of donated old picture frames."
While discussing upcoming projects, Purchase mentioned her participation in classes to enhance her ability to better cater to residents' needs. “I'm in the process of taking classes to be better equipped on how to deal with the different ailments residents have, so I know which exercises to do, which will work better for them and which wouldn't work better for them.”
Looking further ahead, Purchase mentioned the initiation of a gardening club and expressed excitement about residents participating in maintaining garden boxes donated by the town. “In the spring we're going to be having our first meeting of our gardening club. So that’s once it starts warming up a little bit. Then we have garden boxes that were donated from the town which we will be using in the gardening club.”
