Oh, Canada! Our home and native land. Celebrate all things Canada on July 1st with your residents. Here are some ideas to consider:
- Make an authentic Canadian breakfast with maple leaf-shaped pancakes, peameal bacon, and real maple syrup, and encourage your residents to wear their red and white.
- Watch the Canada Day Festivities that take place in Ottawa on TV
- Gather your residents together in the evening for sparklers and fireworks
- Do Canadian music trivia!
On June 21, celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day! It's a day to celebrate the cultural richness and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Why June 21? For centuries, many of the first inhabitants would celebrate the arrival of the warm weather and the pleasures of the summer solstice. The summer solstice is the day of the year with the longest light. It is a day with spiritual significance for many people and is a good time to celebrate Indigenous peoples and cultures.
You can take part by organizing your own traditional or contemporary activities with your residents. When planning, we strongly suggest you get some advice from a person who is knowledgeable about Indigenous traditions. Here are some considerations:
Celebrate all those Dads in your community this upcoming Father’s Day. They play an important role in their kid's and grandkids' lives and they deserve to be celebrated. You can honour those amazing dads by hosting a special dinner or BBQ for the Dads, kids, and grandkids or doing an outing to a baseball game, car show, or bowling. For those dads who have kids who live far away, arrange a virtual visit with their kids in advance of Father’s Day and have volunteers and students help set them up for the call.
Did you know that there was a World Sauntering Day? It was news to us too! The purpose is to remind people to slow down and enjoy life as opposed to rushing through it. So think about activities you can plan that encourage your residents to stop and smell the roses? Sauntering is a slow walk that carries a cheerful attitude. You don’t hurry and instead, absorb the things around them like the sounds and the sights. Schedule a walk with your residents where they have enough time to stroll or sit and take it all in, without a specific plan or end time. A beach, a wooded trail, or a nice park are great spots to go.
Looking to switch up your entertainment in the month of June? Hire a juggler to entertain your residents? Better yet, get a juggler to teach them how to juggle too. Your residents will practice coordination AND come out with a new party trick!
Celebrate International Picnic Day with a delightful outdoor picnic! Bring your residents outside for a day of sunshine, good food, and great company. Enjoy a variety of picnic treats, games, and activities in the fresh air. It's the perfect opportunity for residents to socialize, relax, and make new memories.
Sushi has become increasingly popular. If your residents are open, there are a few programs you could run. You could go out for a sushi lunch. You could do a sushi-making class, buying all the ingredients from sticky rice to seaweed (here’s a recipe). You could put on a cooking show that evening that showcases how sushi is made. The world is your oyster. I mean, the world is your sushi!
While this may not be a lighthearted day, it’s an incredibly important one, especially for the older adults in our community. World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is a great opportunity to have a guest speaker come in to talk about a variety of subjects including personal safety, frauds and scams, self-protection, and more. Arm your residents with the information they need.
Another day to celebrate what we have in nature: our beautiful, blue oceans. This is a great day to show some documentaries in the evening about Oceans. Here are some titles to get you started: My Octopus Teacher, Chasing Coral, David Attenborough's Life on our Planet, Mission Blue, End of the Line, Blue Planet. Encourage some discussion after the documentary between residents to help them connect.
A day to remind us all to take care of our planet and protect our environments. Try running a program that relates to helping Mother Earth: Create a plastic reduction plan for your community as a group, invite some students from a local school to come learn from your residents about gardening and growing food, or plant a tree in the outdoor space at your community. Take advantage of the restorative power of nature and celebrate and care for your environment!
