Activities at Hickathrift House Care Home

Mother’s Day is a day to show love, gratitude and appreciation to all the wonderful mums and caregivers everywhere.
Residents and staff were spoilt with beautiful charms from volunteer Aidan and his mum in the morning. Residents reminisced about their roles as mothers and what their favourite part about being a mum is while receiving these lovely gifts. We can't thank them enough for their kindness and for bringing so much joy to our home.

Many loved ones joined their mums for a scrumptious Mothering Sunday Roast Lunch and then spent the afternoon singing, laughing and dancing away to the residents' favourite musical entertainers KJ & the Catt. 

WOW what a page-turner of a day. In the morning we had the pleasure of visiting Wisbech Library and loved exploring the stories available. At Hickathrift, staff dressed up as their favourite book characters including Willy Wonka, Oompa Loompas, Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, Ariel and Mary Poppins which filled the home with laughter and joy. Our monthly book trolley launched and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland handed out an assortment of books from romance to history. We were then busy making personal bookmarks and taking part in a famous novels quiz, which we successfully scored an impressive 12 out of 15. 

Resident Brian told us his favourite genre of book is historic adventures and we found the perfect audiobook for him at the library that he can't wait to start!

As part of our International Women’s Day celebrations, Residents from across our services were thrilled to join tour guide, Mandy Morrow, for an exciting talk about some Legendary London Ladies.

Mandy shared the fascinating stories of eight ladies with us, from the one of the richest heiresses in the world to the original 'Roaring Girl'.

Everyone who participated truly enjoyed the experience and were delighted to take a walk down memory lane.

Staff and residents joined fellow keen dabbers from over 250 Barchester care homes and hospitals across the whole of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Wight, to compete in the biggest game of bingo Barchester has ever seen!

General Manager, Paula Colman said: “We’ve got some real bingo fanatics at our home, we are very competitive - our residents love taking part in anything where winning is involved, you could hear a pin drop in here when we were all playing.”

Here at Hickathrift House residents and staff demonstrate they strongly support the right to be who you are with a range of events that raise awareness, understanding and support for the LGBTQ+ community. This month we have been providing information from the resident's chosen charity, Opening Doors. Opening Doors helps to connect LGBTQ+ people over 50 with activities, events, support and information. We themed our monthly dementia cafe with rainbow paintings and crafts and residents and staff wore colours to make up the rainbow. Additionally, we've been learning about prominent icons of the LGBTQ+ community with a memory-matching game and quizzes. Val, a resident at Hickathrift House was sharing her thoughts on Christine Jorgensen, the first trans woman, and said, "Oh she's so pretty. It's what she wants to be. As long as people are kind to each other that's all that matters".

What a wonderful time we've had celebrating Valentine's Day and all things about love and kindness with our local Primary School. We have to start off by saying a gigantic thank you to pupils in the Beech Class from Marshland St James VC Primary School and Nursery for their absolutely stunning and adorable cards. There were enough that every single resident received one. The beautiful comments inside made us all smile, some of our favourites were, "You're the best" and "I hope you have a great day, as you're great". Such kindness from these lovely children brought the residents and staff so much happiness. We proudly pinned up their lovely sign for all to see this February in reception. We can’t wait to visit them next month with some of our Easter-themed celebrations.