Activities at Broadway Halls Care Home

Resident, Gwen Jinks celebrated her 97th birthday in style as she cruised through the skies above Staffordshire and Shropshire – living out her dream of taking a flight in a helicopter, proving the old adage, it’s never too late!

The Activities Team at the home aim to ‘Make a Wish Come True’ for their Residents once a month and have been successful in achieving this since they started in February this year.

Gwen has lived at Broadway Halls for two months and has already become a huge part of the home community, she loves telling stories about her adventures and this is where Activities Co-ordinator, Scott Bates was able to find out about her bucket list dream of wanting to take a flight in a helicopter and he then set about making it happen.

On the day of her 97th birthday, friends, staff from the home and the pilot from AA Helicopters greeted a beaming Gwen as she arrived at Wolverhampton Half Penny Airport to fulfil her dream.

Gwen was joined in the air by Home Manager Danica Chugh and Activities Assistant, Nicky Malay. Gwen invited Nicky to share the day with her.  Gwen said: ‘When Nicky told me that her feet have never left the ground and that she had never flown before, I wanted her to come along and share this experience with me, to share the flight with people who look after me every day was special – a day to remember!’.

Gwen was born and bread in Staffordshire, but enjoyed many travels throughout Europe over the years, she recalls her favourite trip to Holland where she was pleased to find clothes to fit as the Dutch women were tall and of similar height to her! 

The Broadway Halls Men Club enjoyed the hot weather with a trip to RAF Cosford Museum to make a Residents wish come true.

Arthur, who is a regular at our Mens Club has a keen interest in planes, particularly military aircraft and had shared that it would be his dream to sit in a cockpit of a fighter jet.  It was then up to Scott, our Activities Co-ordinator to make it happen!

Arthur got his chance to sit in a cockpit of a 1955 Hunter F4 Jet that was a front line fighter jet of the 1950s. Arthur said it was such a tight squeeze to get in and out of the cockpit, but it was a great experience to learn the controls of the jet.

His fellow Resident, Fred tried on the pilot’s helmet and got to see a Spitfire up close, which was a great opportunity, he said he didn’t realise how big the aircraft was.

Back by popular demand, our amazing Activities Team organised another canal boat trip.  Our Residents enjoyed cruising down the canal and taking in the gorgeous countryside views and the weather was certainly on our side.

The excursion was run by Truman Enterprise Narrowboat Trust and we were hosted by two fantastic skippers, David and Muriel who joined in talking with our residents and sharing memories of life on the water.

Everyone really enjoyed themselves whilst relaxing and taking in the wonderful surroundings and we even organised for a delivery of fresh fish and chips direct to the boat.

Resident Lilly said that it was something she had never thought about doing, however she thoroughly enjoyed her day.

We had a wonderful time joining Cadbury for an interactive virtual talk on their fascinating 200-year history, it was a fun trip down memory lane seeing how they first started, to how they are they today.

A Resident said 'I’d never be able to work in a chocolate factory, I’d never get any wages as I’d eat all the chocolate!'

Our Residents learnt many interesting facts about the chocolate giant, shared memories, and reminisced about their favourite sweet treats.

Residents joined in the Cadbury’s quiz and then guessed the Cadbury chocolate bars from the pictures.

The Residents agreed the Flake was the best chocolate, it always reminded them of summer with a 99 ice cream cone - it wouldn't be complete without a Flake on it.

It was a heart-warming experience filled with laughter, memorable stories, and plenty of delicious chocolate eaten by all the Residents.

In recognition of Dementia Action Week, this morning a group of our Residents, accompanied by our Activities Team attended the Crystal Gateway inaugural Dementia Art Exhibition, hosted at the stunning Himley Hall and Park.

Residents enjoyed viewing the pieces on display and reading the profiles of the artists, their life stories and how this inspires them to create their work. We were also treated to a performance from the Crystal Gateway Choir and we were all keen to sing along and play percussion to some well known tunes.

Thank you Dementia Gateway Service for all the amazing work you do. We hope to join you in choir very soon

Our Residents are always learning new skills, and this week was with the new updated touch screen technology.  Providing Residents with a sensory and interative digital experience.

Residents can use our RITA (Reminiscence/Rehabilitation & Interactive Therapy Activities) computer to watch films, play games, sensory, music, quizzes, and look back at old photographs from the 40s, 50s and 60s.  This brought back lots of wonderful memories, from toys and holidays to food and drink and so much more.

Dot really enjoys her sessions with the RITA computer, as it gives her confidence to do things on her own and the ability to learn new skills. Dot can now use RITA on her own and feels very independent using it.