Activities at South Chowdene Care Home

2020 started with bubbles and balloons and residents singing all the old favourites at the top of their voices. This continued as we celebrated Elvis’s birthday on January 8th, not only listening to all his hits but by having the man himself in to sing for us.

He saw all residents in the lounge personally and everyone also received a flower and we loved the light up tambourines to shake along as well as singing along. Looking forward to having him back.

The festive season got started early here at South Chowdene with the Christmas Fair and Oliver’ the Panto from North East Producers both in late November.

Both gave rise to much singing along and audience participation with residents, staff and visitors really getting into the spirit.

Over the Christmas period a fair few residents got out on trips  to Gateshead Library to make Christingles and Christmas Cards as well as getting along to see Fenwick window as well as the Newcastle Christmas market. These visits bought to light a few creative and artistic talents and sparked much discussion around Fenwick window displays over the years.

We also very much enjoyed the Christmas tea dance at the sound rooms with some delicious afternoon tea, fantastic singalong entertainment and a chance to watch ‘White Christmas’ again.

Over the last 6 months, the South Chowdene ‘Barchie bunny’ has been out and about joining residents on trips and staff on holidays and weekends away.

Residents are always keen to find out what Barchie has been up to over a weekend or when he has been ‘missing’ for a week or two. He sometimes sends a postcard to let us know how and what he is doing and is excellent and keeping us updated through facebook.

For residents who don’t access Facebook, pictures are printed off and shown round at breakfast time and then put up on the ‘notice’ wall so that everyone can see how he is doing.

Residents have also taken Barchie out on trips with them over the summer – he has visited Whitley Bay, Seaham and South Shields (we never did persuade him to go on any of the rides but he liked the train in the park).

We are hoping that Barchie will be joining us on the autumn/ winter trips to Fenwicks window, Christmas light shows and Christmas socials.

At the beginning of October two South Chowdene staff members completed two different memory walks in the North East Area raising over £250 for dementia between them.

Tony completed 7 km and Bev skipped along her miles with family members including her baby grandaughter. Well done to both for raising money for a cause we work with every day.

We are hoping to get some residents along to next year’s walks – watch this space!

Staff and residents at South Chowdene Care Home in Low Fell held a charity coffee morning on Thursday 19th September to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. South Chowdene Care Home’s coffee morning was a big success – they managed to raise £150.29 and, most importantly, everyone had a lot of fun doing it!

Staff, residents, relatives and the local community came together at South Chowdene Care Home to enjoy an Autumn Fair that was held in the home’s grounds which became full of animal mischief on Saturday 7th September when a group of alpacas came to visit the home.

South Chowdene Care Home hosted a variety of activities throughout the day, including raffle, tombola stall, home bake stall and excellent live entertainment but residents and visitors were pleasantly surprised to see their new furry friends roaming around their garden as North Star Alpacas paid a visit.

General Manager Katie Searle said: “Our residents have really enjoyed their unusual visitors today. We knew that having the farm here would be a bit of fun for residents and guests alike.  We are always looking for new activities for the residents and today we have seen the seen the enjoyment and the therapeutic influence animals can have on people.”

Staff at South Chowdene Care Home made everyone feel welcome and were delighted to see different generations having fun together. Visitors enjoyed plenty of refreshments, prepared by the catering team, who were hard at work making sure that a great time was had by all.