Cookie Decorating for Senior Residents!

Saturday, March 22nd 2025

By: Charlotte Hendrey

This may not have been my first cookie decorating party, but it was my first one with the residents at Cogir Assisted Living. Instead of bringing in the cookies and frosting like usual, the facility supplies the material which was a first for me. One volunteer signed up to come today on the website but unfortunately could not make it because her schedule changed.

When I arrived I started by reintroducing myself like I always do to remind the guests who I am, which is important since they have dementia. One guest, Kay -- who I always love talking with -- wasn't sitting with the rest of the group. So I went up to her and made sure to include her in the activity. She did not feel like decorating a cookie, so I just talked with her. We talked about the Charlie Brown movies, since she was wearing a Snoopy shirt, and her face lit up when I mentioned it.

We used chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry frosting to decorate the cookies and the guests had so much fun. One lady repeatedly praised me, saying "You are amazing!" and "You're wonderful! I'm so glad you're here". It made me so glad to know how much joy I brought to the guests today.

After decorating cookies, we cleaned up and I started to tell the guests about how I moved to Marin from San Francisco. Everybody gathered around and listened to me talk about how we adopted our dog, Sunny. I told them funny stories about how he was best friends with our hamster, and they were all smiling and laughing. Many added on that they also had childhood pets. Our conversation went really well and we all talked for around twenty minutes. I wound up losing track of time and stayed for longer than I planned to!

Overall, today was a success. I will definitely be planning more fun activities for the residents at Cogir soon.