Activities at North Park Care Home

North Park care home in Darlington recently presented The Well on North Road with bags of tinned goods, biscuits, travel mugs with tea and coffee sachets, water bottles with cold infusions, toiletries and gift sets and activity packages.  

Staff at North Park care home had been collecting items for the previous three weeks in the hope they could repay the community for the kindness shown to them during the recent lockdowns where local community have rallied around to make their lives easier.

Staff and residents donned their finest ‘Pink’ clobber to show their support for Breast Cancer Awareness. Tea, Coffee and delicious strawberry, cherry and raspberry cakes and buns, topped with pink icing, were available throughout the morning. Residents enjoyed having a chat and laugh with friends in their social bubbles while staff served them the tempting treats. Mick who is new to North Park said he’d had a wonderful time and is looking forward to many more.

To celebrate World Food day residents of North Park reminisced about their favourite meals, snacks and drinks. Residents recalled their own family favourite recipes with both Mrs Kaur and Kathleen passing these over to our head chef for him to serve up for tea.

Mrs Kaur enjoyed her starters with the samosas  and onion bargees, her own recipe being her firm favourite whilst Resident, Kathleen tucked into giant American style meatballs and spaghetti commenting they were “just as lovely as she remembered”  We wonder what the chef will be serving up next?.    

North Park Resident, Billy enjoyed his 80th birthday with a super party attended by his friends and staff from North Park. Billy who was an avid pigeon fancier, and won lots of races when he flew from East End Club, enjoyed an afternoon of music, dancing and singing and enjoyed blowing the candles out on his cake decorated as a pigeon carrier with three pigeons peeking out.

Billy was over the moon when his cake was handed round and everyone in attendance toasted him and sang for he’s a jolly good fellow. Pictures were forwarded to Billy’s family who were able to join some of the celebrations via video call.

Residents, Rita and Maureen regularly help the laundry assistants with their duties, Rita loves sorting and pairing the socks whilst Maureen is a dab hand at folding anything from scarfs to bed bedsheets. Both ladies look forward to these daily tasks as Maureen said “it is good to feel productive and to know we are able to help around the home

Residents at North Park Care Home, in Darlington are enjoying Sunday afternoon story time with 10 year old Chloe Chapman, who treats the Residents to two hours of interactive storytelling and chat. Chloe is a pupil at Mount Pleasant Primary School and started the sessions five weeks ago and they have meant such a lot to the residents as their families are unable to visit the home at this time due to local lock-downs.

Lisa Frame, acting General Manager at North Park Care Home said: “In these unprecedented times, ensuring residents feel engaged and connected within our local community is more important than ever. Our residents really enjoy engaging with and listening to Chloe’s stories. We provide a wide range of physical, mental and spiritual activities at North Park Care Home as part of the life enrichment programme for residents, and this one proving very popular! We have also adapted ways to keep residents active, whilst ensuring that the group activities are smaller, adhering to social distancing advice”