Activities at Hafan-Y-Coed Care Home
We understand that the people we support have passions and interests that could be difficult to pursue after moving into a care home – but that doesn’t mean we don’t encourage them to try! Some hobbies can define a person, so our Activities Coordinators are dedicated to ensuring that everyone we support is able to do what makes them happy to the best of their abilities. Social events are organised with individual tastes in mind and with the idea that residents have the opportunity to try new and exciting things.
Marie Spires
I'm Marie, the lead activities coordinator for Hafan Y Coed. I have been the activities coordinator for nearly three years and am passionate about encouraging the wellbeing of our residents. Ensuring all abilities are catered for in a bespoke schedule is paramount to their individual wellbeing needs. I am joined by Clare and Sue who also help to create a life enrichment program suitable for all communities.
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 Hafan-Y-Coed Care Home
Let's go fly a kite
We have enjoyed our ''Get Barchester Moving' week with various activities to get everyone more active within our home.
During the week residents have enjoyed colourful chair exercise classes, dancethons, dog walking, car washing and today flying kites down at the beach. We jumped on the bus and ventured to our lovely local beach in Llanelli, where residents soaked up the sun and sea air. Getting our move minutes in with various beach themed activities was our aim and flying the kites were the most fun! Gloria said "thankfully it's a windy day or the kite wouldn't get very far. I really enjoyed my ice cream and the company".
Tour De Barchester - Barchester Foundation Fundraiser
Some wonderful employees of Barchester Healthcare have been raising funds for the Barchester Foundation by cycling from Carmarthen to Oxford. This charity helps support older people and adults with disabilities to connect and re-connect with others in their local community.
A whopping 200 miles were cycled, stopping at many of our care homes along the way. Hafan Y Coed pulled out all the stops in providing the best welcome to the amazing cyclists. We were joined by two local schools, Stebonheath and Ysgol Y Strade who made their own welcome flags and cheered them en route.
During the day everyone was treated to an ice-cream from the van, a BBQ and cocktail bar were also on offer whilst various fund raising activities, such as a cake sale and name the bear took place.
We have made a tremendous amount of money for the charity and would like to thank all who took part in our event.
Father's Day Celebrations
To mark this special day we decided upon something a little different this year.
Families were welcomed with a drink from the bar ahead of having their professional photos taken in our photo booth area. One of our residents daughters said "I was in tears having a photo with my Dad, It meant so much to enjoy the moment and day together".
The afternoon saw the amazing Leroy perform a rendition of many Motown classics which had everyone up dancing and singing. Alongside the entertainment, our residents, families and friends were treated with a Father’s day ploughman's lunch box which included cheese and biscuits, pork pies and homemade sausage rolls and sandwiches, followed by a tipple of choice.
We hope you all enjoyed the experience and Happy Father's Day to all.
A Gentleman's trip to local brewery
A lovely trip was organised this month for some of our beer enthusiasts! We hoped on the minibus for the short trip to the Gower in Swansea and were greeted by our host.
The Gower Brewery has been brewing outstanding ales in the heart of the Gower since 2011 and now sells to many national supermarkets with its multi award winning supplies.
The gents were given the choice of tasting various ales and sipped upon each whilst chatting away. After their first taster we were given the opportunity to have a tour around the Brewery to see how the Ales were made. They all found it very interesting. Ed said "This is a really good pint, can I have another?" We ended the day looking in the shop at what was on offer before having our last beer before heading home... albeit a little tipsy. A great day was had by all.
Trip down memory lane on Local bus tour
A wonderful was had by all three of our communities, with three bus trips for some of our residents to various locations.
Our first trip was to the local garden centre to pick up some flowers to plant at our gardening club. The residents picked their favourites for their garden.
Our second trip before the rain came was a trip for an ice cream on the beach! We even treated a few of the cars parked next to us which made their day!
Our final trip was a trip down memory lane on the bus around Llanelli, pointing out the sites of well-known landmarks around the centre. It was lovely to reminisce and this group also enjoyed a final ice cream at the beach to end the day!
Pudding Club
Another successful pudding club was held this month. Our challenge was, who could make the best traditional Victoria sponge. Volunteers and residents prepared their recipe's in teams and got together to discuss the best method to create the best result. These baking sessions provide great reminiscing benefits about favourite cooking memories and also great for socialising and nutritional benefits during the tasting!
We also held a demonstration baking session where our newest volunteer explained how to make the perfect sponge. One of our residents said "I used to be a cook in a school and I used to make hundreds of sponges each week, I still enjoy cooking now".
Another resident said "I like to watch the baking and enjoy the eating part!"
Our winner was a young boy called Rogan, who was thrilled to score a fabulous 10/10, scored by our residents and awarded with a prize and Hafan Y Coed bake off champion. Well done to all involved .
