Activities at Kings Park Care Home

Recently, there was a very exciting day for one of our residents here at Kings Park, after his visit to see our friends over at Ferndown First School...

Eric, who was also accompanied by our Home Services Advisor, Rebekah, was invited across to see the children in a special school assembly, to let them all know about Eric's Epic Walk and rally the children to join forces and get them excited about taking part.

The last time Eric was in a school assembly of any kind was apparently 1948 and he was excited to see how things had changed since he was last in school!

Winning the children over, Eric had everyone chanting his motto for the walk: 'Stop talking, start walking!' much to his delight.

Following the assembly, Eric inspected the walking track outside ready for the children's involvement next week, before stopping off to see some of the children in their individual classrooms, checking that they had remembered his motto!

Eric was also very impressed with the fantastic school facilities (much different from when he was of school age!) and especially with the children's model of the Titantic that they had made for a project.

Thank you Ferndown First School for supporting this cause and we truly hope that our two chosen charities: Julia's House Children's Hospice & Lewis-Manning Hospice Care will be also thankful for all your efforts too. We know Eric is thrilled with your support so far!

So in Eric's words: 'STOP TALKING, START WALKING!'

If you wish to donate to Eric's walk, please do so here:  https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ericsepicwalk

We were very excited to see some beautiful birds of prey recently, courtesy of our new friends from Sharandys Birds of Prey...

Our residents were delighted to get up close to these stunning creatures and learn all about them.

Thank you for joining us for the afternoon, your visit will be remembered and enjoyed for a long time to come.

We do hope to have you back and see us again very soon.

Our residents were back in action recently as they enjoyed a spot of flower arranging...

Coming together in our cafe area, we had a lovely group of ladies who all came together to be part of the proceedings.

Some came to watch as well as smell the beautiful flowers, some came for a chat and some came to get stuck in!

What was really beautiful to see was the way that the residents all took charge and really helped and encouraged each other throughout the afternoon.

These lovely ladies (and gents if they fancy it in future...) will be in charge of all of our reception flowers here in the home in future. So if you wonder who created the masterpieces you will see there, now you know!

The Kings Kids were back again recently, much to the delight of some of our residents...

The sessions are really growing in popularity and the children are getting more and more confident as they spend time here at Kings Park, with lots of beautiful interaction with our residents.

We have now moved these sessions up to our top floor lounge, where there is more space and even somewhere that is safe for the little ones to play outside on our balcony.

Eric was also on hand to recruit the Kings Kids for a spot of walking for his upcoming charity walk (don't forget you can learn more and donate here: -

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ericsepicwalk) and encouraged them to get involved!

Thank you to all who come to these, so many of our residents smile so much following your visits.

Some of our residents experienced a lot of laughs and smiles recently as they embarked on an experimental session of Laughter Yoga...

Using the link that Barchester Healthcare have with Oomph, they utilised one of their on-demand sessions in order to see what the residents thought.

Despite a little scepticism at first, they were soon fully joining in and there were belly laughs all around!

It was a truly wonderful session that could be heard all down the corridor!

Eric is a 91 year old resident here at Kings Park who can often be seen by staff walking up and down in the home's gorgeous garden in a bid to stay fit and able. Staff asked Eric if he wanted to walk not just for fitness, but for a purpose, in order to help others.

He immediately agreed and thus, Eric's Epic Walk was born!

Eric will be spearheading our campaign to get everyone out and walking together, boosting our physical and mental health and also donating whatever you can afford to two local charities: -

Lewis-Manning Hospice Care & Julia's House Children's Hospice

The latter, being Eric's late wife, Grace's favourite charity.

We are asking that anyone who is able, to get out of the house and walk with friends, families, dogs, workmates, crewmates, church groups, clubs, societies etc. and walk one mile together (or more if you fancy it). This can be done whenever it suits, day or night, but in doing so, give a little (or whatever you can afford), to Eric's Epic Walk fund, so that we can spilt the proceeds between the two charities.

We want to keep tabs of the number of miles walked and see where the equivalent miles would take us all on the map, so do let us know how many people have joined in so we can keep track. (Our first target equivalent is 100 miles - or from Ferndown to Buckingham Palace, but we are sure we can smash that...)

The walking week will take place: -

Monday 10th July - Friday 14th July

So rally those around you and GET INVOLVED!

You can donate by clicking on the link below: -

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ericsepicwalk

PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH ALL YOUR FRIENDS!

If you would like to learn more about Eric's Epic Walk, or know more about life at Kings Park Care Home or to book a tour, then please give our friendly team a call on: -

01202 863 630