BINGO-A-THON – DON’T MISS IT!!!!!

It’s only 2 weeks away!  The Fifth Annual Bingo-A-Thon event will be held on Saturday, April 19th.  The event itself will run from 2:15-3:30 at five nursing homes around Gainesville (most one-to-one volunteers will go to the nursing home they usually visit).  Then, the “Wrap-Up” party, with lots of great food, will be held from 4-6PM that same day, over at Barr Systems where our office is located

 

Double check that your calendar is marked now, and if you haven’t let us know yet whether you are coming to the event, please reply to this email and let us know.  All you have to do is come out to enjoy the fun and brighten the day of nursing home residents everywhere!  .  The theme this year is “Wild West” so look for cowboys and cacti!  There will be lots of cowboy hats and bandanas for participants to wear (residents and volunteers alike).  We will also have plenty of prizes for the nursing home residents, and all volunteers will receive a brand new 2008 Friends Across the Ages t-shirt for FREE!

 

This is our biggest event of the year, so don’t miss it!  When you count the number of volunteers and residents that participate (about 100 of each last year), it just might be the biggest annual celebration for nursing home residents held anywhere in the State of Florida. 

 

One last time – If you haven’t done so (or aren’t sure you did), don’t forget to email us and let us know if you’ll be attending.  We need to know how many volunteers we’ll have.

WANTED: MANICURES AT UNIVERSITY PLACE

As we mentioned in the February and March Nursing Home News, volunteer Ruth Hazen has been doing manicures for the residents at University Place almost every Tuesday for the past twenty-five years, but she has finally retired from her weekly visits (she’s only 87, after all!).  We have been looking for someone to carry the torch forward for her, but have not identified anyone as of yet (so we thought we’d run this appeal one more time).  If you or anyone you know would be interested, please contact us.  Ruth will be happy to show the ropes to a new volunteer.  She always saw it as a special way of helping the residents to still feel beautiful because, after all, they are beautiful!

 

UPCOMING GROUP EVENTS

Friday, April 11th, 2:30PM – “Reaction Reading” -- Lead by board member Vi Asmuth (also known as M. Violet Asmuth, Ph.D.), this event will be held at Park Meadows.  Residents will be invited to participate in a program that consists of choral reading of poetry.  The group reacts with active participation, knowledge, opinions, feelings, and imagination.  Vi did a study monitoring the results of this small group program in three nursing homes in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral area. One facility liked the program so much that she continued leading groups there for five years.  If you find this concept interesting, you are welcome to come out to participate.  This is a monthly event. 

 

Saturday, April 19th, 2-6PM – BINGO-A-THON!!!  See details above or visit www.bingoathon.com.  This event will be held at 5 different nursing homes, all at the same time.  Volunteers will only go to one nursing home. 

 

Thursday, April 24th, 3-4PM -- Birthday celebration -- Help us wish a happy birthday to all residents of Parklands Nursing and Rehab with birthdays in April. Meet us in the dining room where we'll have singing and cake. Volunteers are needed to help gather the residents together, serve the cake, sing, clean up, etc. 

 

 

 

MORE INFORMATION

Remember, be sure to check above to find out the nursing home at which an event will be held.  Directions to all the nursing homes can be found at:

http://www.acrosstheages.org/directions.asp

All events are open to everyone (children are welcome at most events, please inquire). If you've never been to a nursing home before, feel free to reply to this email and let the coordinators (Steve and Allison Blay) know what events you'll be attending, so they will be looking for you. You can also call them at 381-1117.