It’s the infamous Mickey Mouse’s birthday on November 18th! He first appeared in the short film “Steamboat Willie” on November 18, 1928 and since then, people all over the world have associated some of their childhood with Mickey and Disney. So, celebrate this beloved character by hosting a Disney birthday party! Encourage your residents to dress as their favourite Disney characters, host a Mad Hatter tea party, deliver some Disney trivia and celebrate the magic of childhood imagination!
Let’s highlight and encourage good deeds in your community on November 13th by creating a program all about simple acts of kindness! Get your residents together and write positive messages on post-it notes. Then, spend time going around your community and post them for people to find: bathroom mirrors, residents’ doors, inside books, on staff desks or computer screens. Positive and kind messages and compliments can help turn someone’s day around and make the world a kinder place to live in.
Japan is the birthplace of origami, and while the origin story of this holiday remains unclear, it honours the ancient art of creating intricate objects and complex shapes out of square pieces of paper for ceremonial purposes. Host a craft program today to learn the crane — one of the most recognized origami models around the world. All you need are square pieces of paper! Here are some instructions to get you started.
On Friday, November 11th, senior living communities across Canada can recognize and honour those who fought in wartime conflicts and those whose lives were lost defending the country. Using your Veteran question in your Welbi profile, you can pull up a list of all of your veterans and honour them by seating them at the front of any service you hold. Here are some considerations for your community’s ceremony: invite a bagpiper, have one of your veterans/residents read “In Flanders Fields,” observe a minute of silence, visit your local cenotaph, perform songs from WW1, encourage residents to share displays on any Remembrance Day related items they have, hold a candle lighting service, make poppy wreaths, collect donations for veterans’ services and more.
Geography Awareness Week aims to raise awareness about the significance of geography to everyone’s lives and encourage consideration of how we all relate and interact with the environment. Geography is the study of places and how people relate to their environments, touching on things like geology, botany, economics, sociology and demographics. This week was created by National Geographic. To celebrate, organize an event or activity each day this week: hold film screenings with an environmental theme, host a Geography-themed trivia program, invite a guest speaker to share a presentation on a specific topic, or encourage residents to complete a puzzle of a world map.
For all those red wine lovers in your community, this program will be just for them. To celebrate International Merlot Day, invite a seasoned sommelier to run a wine tasting of various merlots with your residents and enjoy a happy hour. For those folks who don’t drink alcohol, feel free to provide some red grape juice so no one feels left out.
National Seniors’ Safety Week is an opportunity for all of us in Canada to consider how we can support the older adults in our lives to maintain their safety and independence. This week gives staff at senior living communities a chance to bring education and awareness right into their residents’ homes. Consider organizing presentations about falls prevention, telephone and online scams, safe driving tips and more. You never know how this information can really help an older individual stay safe and out of harm's way.
Ghosts? Check. Goblins? Check. Ghouls? Check.
Invite your residents to dress up in costumes or black and orange, play some Monster Mash and get residents in the Halloween spirit as you serve some Magic Potion Punch or Witch’s Brew. Decorate your community with Halloween decorations and organize some activities: pumpkin carving, door-to-door trick or treating, and costume competitions. There’s lots to deliver a fun and spooktacular ghostly affair.
Pasta might just be the greatest comfort food there is. And there’s nothing quite like freshly made pasta. So, invite one of your community’s chefs or one from the wider community to come in to teach your residents how to make pasta. Types, lengths, and shapes are endless, and the best part will be that they can eat the fruits of their labour with each other.
There is no better time to recognize the beauty of opera than World Opera Day. And if you have residents who have yet to develop a passion for it, then it’s the perfect day to begin. If you live in a bigger city with access to a theatre or opera, see if there’s a performance you and some residents can attend. If that’s not an option, see if you can hire an opera singer as your pre dinner entertainment. Renowned for their powerful voices, you won’t need a microphone to fill your community with their song.
