Activities at Cheshire Grange Care Home
The activities team are constantly striving to meet the varied needs of everyone who lives in our home, offering a wide range of group and individual social events. There are regular visits from entertainers, along with craft activities, baking, games & puzzle days and pampering sessions, which fill the week. However, we can always find time for outings and just spending that little bit of special time with residents who enjoy the peace and quiet. We aim to bring the activities to the individual, whilst making it a whole home experience.
Jo Eland
After originally starting at Cheshire Grange in May 2015, I'm delighted to be back in the role of Activities Coordinator. It is a privilege to be in this role and spend time, getting to know our ladies and gentleman and their loved one, whilst doing all the fun things that can make such a difference to their days.
Activities and Events Partnerships
As part of our bespoke life-enrichment programmes, we host a number of live virtual events in the home on a regular basis through a number of partnerships with places of interest and world class performance companies
Life at Cheshire Grange Care Home
Animal Magic
Alpacas are herd animals and like the company of others, including llamas, goats, and very evidently residents at Cheshire Grange!
The Alpacas, from Woodlands Alpaca Farm, except for Bruce who was sulking that day, loved getting to know the ladies and gents, residents, families and staff were very happy to spend time indulging the special guests who enjoyed all the fuss.
It was amazing watching everyone's reactions to the visiting alpacas, many residents loving the feel of their coats, others laughing at their strange little noises, the overall opinion was how cute they were.
However, and this highlights one of the many benefits of animal therapy, a resident who had been a farmer all their life was back at a livestock sale, weighing up the benefits of adding an alpaca to their stock, how much they were willing to bid up to and seeing which one looked the best as they were walked round...
Wonderland Party
Staff, residents and relatives came together at Cheshire Grange Care Home in Lymm to enjoy a fun filled Alice in Wonderland Fun Day.
The Queen of Hearts, aka Dawn Holsgrove-Smith, General Manager, presided over the event keeping her court in order as The Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, The Cheshire Cat & Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum got everyone in the spirit playing games, including croquet on the lawn.
The event was staged to welcome the cyclists taking part in the fundraising Tour De Barchester. On the final day of their gruelling 225-mile ride supporting The Barchester Foundation, the Tour stopped to join the Tea Party, enjoying The Mad Hatters' refreshments!
Challenge cup fever
Our local rugby team, Warrington Wolves, were on the road to Wembley to compete in the Challenge Cup Final and the club mascot paid us a visit to thank us for our support.
The spirit of the Challenge Cup Final was in full swing! The entire home was decked out in wire colours from top to bottom, and the passion was truly infectious ahead of the big game at Wembley! Amongst our residents there were two truly remarkable individuals who had more reason than most to cheer on the Primrose and Blue…
Olive, whose grandfather-in-law was none other than Alf Boardman – a Wire legend who made history as the first Warrington player to reach 400 appearances. Alf played in the club’s very first four Challenge Cup finals, earned an England cap in 1905, and lifted the cup twice. A Hall of Famer, a trailblazer, and a forward who gave his all for the Wire.
And Graham Welborn, former Mayor of Warrington and lifelong Wire fan, who shared memories, stories, and some true Wire pride with Wolfie and the team. It was a day full of heritage, heart, and history. Thank you, Wolfie and your team, for finding the time to say hello and bringing lots of joy to our residents.
Our blessed radio, it gives us eyes and ears into the world.
This quote from Anne Frank's Diary serves to emphasise the importance of radio, especially in the bleak times of the war. This made the visit from 'Cheshire Mix 56' more poignant when they came to interview residents for a show looking at memories of VE Day and putting the world back together again.
Residents enjoyed sharing their memories with Ian from the station, especially Peggy, who will be celebrating her 105th birthday in June this year! She recounted being in the bath when Winston Churchill spoke on the radio about the end of the war in Europe!
Farm animal magic
We get lots of visitors at Cheshire Grange, but they don’t always turn up with nets of hay and in their own pens!
Kimzy from Mobile Farm, Cheshire, brought along her friends, Henry and Shaun the Black Nose Valais Sheep, Dave & Sidney the baby goats, Floppsy a French Lop Eared Rabbit and a pair of 3-week-old chicks.
Residents, staff and visitors were able to handle these beautiful animals and got to know a little bit more about their lives.
VE Day - hopes of peace
We had many celebrations over the week for VE Day, including singers, creative projects, poems and reminiscences. A very poignant part of our celebrations were the Hopes For Peace messages.
Lymm Parish Council invited us, along with other community groups, to share a ‘Message of Hope’, encouraging the local community to reflect on the importance of peace.
Cheshire Grange residents wrote their messages on brown tags similar to those worn by evacuees. These were then displayed in the Village Hall as part of the community celebrations.
We took these messages and duplicated them for our own sentiment tree in our reception area, where visitors could read and reflect on thoughts such as ‘My happiest memory was seeing the street lights coming on and peace and quiet from the sirens.', 'With peace, we can live without fear of violence and discrimination’ and ‘It's so important for a community to have hope, peace and unity to bring each other together and have support’.
