Activities at Cherry Trees Care Home

Cherry Trees is pleased to be working with local school students as part of the St John’s Ambulance Health Citizens Programme. Students from St Benedict’s Catholic High School, are volunteering with us and spending time chatting to residents as well as arranging for some fantastic activities for them to enjoy. So far they have arranged for a singer and a magician, and there are plans for lots of other fantastic activities over the next few weeks.

The Cherry Trees Memory Choir is back for the New Year. Led by the amazing soprano Victoria Wilson, our Memory Choir is a fun and informal singing group that meets every other Tuesday on our Memory Lane community. We sing a whole range of songs from ‘The Sound of Music’ to the Carpenters and the Beatles.

Singing is proven to have many therapeutic benefits for people living with Dementia and can help relieve anxiety and depression; maintain speech and language and enhance quality of life. Our Memory Choir welcomes all residents and family and friends are also invited to come along and join us. It really is good fun and our residents always leave telling us how good it makes them feel.

Across our services our residents have enjoyed a wonderful live virtual talk about starlings, one of the UK’s most gregarious birds, hosted by Rachel Dowse from The Royal Parks London.

Rachel examined our long history with this bird and the importance of common species to our lives. Our residents had the opportunity to find out more about the great murmuration and why we need to pay special attention to these beauties before it's too late.

The virtual experience was truly enjoyed by all.

Staff and residents across our services were treated to a virtual tour of The Donkey Sanctuary Manchester, hosted by Centre Manager, Melanie McComb.

Residents joined Melanie live from Manchester to get an inside look into the daily care for the herd of donkeys that live at the Sanctuary and meet some of the fantastic characters there; namely Henry and his friend Tiny Tim. They learned how the Donkey Sanctuary was first created by Dr Elisabeth Svendsen MBE back in 1969 and the first donkey that started off all of her important work and how her legacy continues today.

Melanie says: “It was wonderful to be able to show the Barchester residents around the Donkey Sanctuary here in Manchester and to share the work we do.  We were so happy to be able to show the residents our wonderful donkeys and talk about how we rescue and care for them.”

Minibus trips are now taking place again and on the 11th June some of our residents went on a trip to Birmingham Hippodrome to watch a performance of ‘Singing in the Rain.’ The show was amazing from the costumes to the dancing; the set and music. Our residents were particularly impressed by how the performers kept dancing when the stage was soaking wet from all the ‘rain’ that they poured onto the stage. We had a fantastic time and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We can’t wait to go back again for another show.

It was Cherry Trees Easter fete on Saturday and everyone had a ‘eggceptionally’ good time. Residents and their families got to enjoy our fantastic tombola and exciting raffle. We were also joined by the wonderful Melissa Hollick - Session Singer & Composer who entertained us with some vintage hits and local business such as the delicious Sweet Delights - Alcester, the very talented Foxy Faces Face Painting and the amazingly crafty crafter Dani Worm joined us for a lovely afternoon. Residents and their families had a lovely time and even the sun came out.