Activities at Overslade House Care Home

Celebrations have been in full swing at Overslade House Care Home in Rugby, as one of its residents reaches her 104th birthday in style.

Eileen Holdstock was joined by staff, relatives, friends and other residents as she celebrated her landmark birthday. A Birthday party was held at the home and guests enjoyed a special birthday cake made by the home’s chef Corey Leake.

During the war Eileen worked for a company manufacturing aeroplane parts as a quality control inspector to check for imperfections.  Eileen was born in London and moved to Luton where she met her husband at a dance.  Eileen used to love cycling and enjoyed holidays in Eastbourne, Bournemouth and Clacton before coming to Overslade House, where Eileen is enjoying a new chapter of her life.

The birthday girl, said:” I like to keep my mind active with magazine puzzles and word searches, this is what keeps you going.”

Violeta Baesu, General Manager of Barchester Overslade House added: “We’re delighted to be celebrating a truly remarkable woman as she reaches this amazing milestone. Eileen is such a popular resident who always has an interesting tale to tell, and we look forward to hearing many more.”

Residents and staff at Overslade House care home in Rugby have been cheering on Team GB throughout the Paris Olympics.  The home has been decked out with flags and residents have been enjoying all the action over the past two weeks. 

Residents and staff have had a brilliant time getting together to watch all of the different sporting fixtures from rowing to cycling, gymnastics to boxing, show jumping to judo.

Overslade House Care home teamed up with sister homes in the Barchester Healthcare Group to design and craft each colour of the Olympic rings, depicting the Olympic values, Respect, Friendship and Excellence. The Paralympic values Inspiration, Determination, Courage and Equality and our Barchester values, Respect, Integrity, Passion, Empowerment and Responsibility.  On Friday 9th August, Overslade House and sister homes in the region joined together to bring all Olympic rings together in their own closing ceremony with a French themed party. We were entertained with singers, wonderful food and wonderful weather everybody looked fabulous in their French themed outfits. It was so lovely to see everybody.

Resident, Marjorie, commented: “I absolutely love watching the Olympics, it is so wonderful to be able to cheer on our team and watch people excel in so many different sports, I just wish it went on longer! We also had a wonderful time travelling to our other homes to craft our Olympic ring. Thank goodness we still have the Paralympics to go!”

A Very Happy birthday To Our Resident Dot.  Dot celebrated her 93rd birthday and enjoyed a dining experience  with her family at the home today.  Dot said she felt very special and everything was wonderful. Whilst chatting to Dot during the  morning it was interesting to find out she was a tailoress and worked from home altering clothing for a company.  Dot also made a lightweight suit for her husband to wear when they went dancing.  Dot described how she took out all of the interfacing to make it lighter. Dot also enjoyed cross stitching and in the pictures is one of her works of art.

In the afternoon Dot and her family joined us for a virtual trip to Poland followed by a quiz.  Dot’s son said how he enjoyed watching the virtual trip as they were planning to go to Poland soon and gave an insight as to where to visit. Everybody had  a taste of some Polish cakes, Sliwka and Sernik na Zimno, which went down very well.

Staff and residents celebrated Pride Month and they were on top form , painting all the rainbow coloured elements for this fabulous Creative Mojo Ltd Rainbow Beauty picture. Part of Barchester’s 7 domains of well-being are Identity, Autonomy, Joy and Growth that we promote daily . Everybody worked together as a team  and also enjoyed the colourful celebrations from around the world and residents  had a fantastic time experiencing the different parades and carnivals on offer.

Pride Month takes place from June 1 to June 30 each year as a way to recognise the influence LGBT people have around the world.

One of our residents John, commented: “ it has been wonderful to see all the different celebrations from around the world.  I just love the costumes and the parades, and one of my favourite pastimes is colouring and art,  Many thanks to Creative Mojo Ltd this picture is so dramatic and colourful and I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it’s creation and it is now proudly on display in the home for June's Pride month”.

Memory lane residents enjoyed a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party as it was on the 4th July 1862 that  Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice In Wonderland ,first told the story of Alice. There’s a white rabbit and Alice holding a flamingo immortalized in stained glass in the Christ Church College at Oxford, where Carroll spent most of his life.

Lewis Carroll had his productivity down to a science: he could write 20 words a minute, a page of 150 words in seven and a half minutes, and 12 pages in two and a half hours.

Our Memory Lane residents found the Activities Team outfits hilarious, they also blew our cover when asked who we were, we hadn’t fooled them !!

Head Chef Corey Leake made Jam tarts and heart shaped scones for our tea party. Residents then watched the Alice in Wonderland Movie starring Johnny Depp.

Our varied life enrichment programme keeps residents active, and provides a daily choice of engaging physical, mental and spiritual activities tailored to residents’ interests and abilities.

We had a blast celebrating Friendship Day. There were smiles all round as residents reminisced with students from Rugby Free Secondary School about their friends and some of the wonderful times they had shared over the years and also talking about history and reading old newspapers about historical events.

Friendship Day falls on the 30th July, however the students wanted to meet our residents before their summer break. Staff and residents made some new friends today with Rugby Free Secondary school who can’t wait to come back and talk to the residents again

Maureen, a resident at the home, commented: "We’ve had such a lovely day. It has been wonderful to make new friends and talk to the students who were so enthusiastic and brightened up everybody’s day."

Today, Friendship Day is celebrated in many countries across the globe and is a special occasion that encourages the local community to celebrate their friendships – old and new – by spending time with their friends and loved ones and making new friends.