Friday Night Cookie Prep!

Friday, December 20th 2024

By: Charlotte Hendrey

After school, I went and bought all the materials for a fun weekend of cookie decorating at the senior homes! Usually, I bake all of the cookies myself, but today, I came accross undecorated cookies at the grocery store, and they came in so many fun shapes that the guests will love! I got gingerbread man, Christmas tree, star, and bell shaped cookies.

Tomorrow, on Saturday, I am hosting the first Holiday Cookie Decorating of the weekend at WindChimes Memory Care. At this home, the guests have more severe dementia than at Bello Gardens. This means that they have a harder time following direction, and often get confused. So instead of telling them "don't double dip!" or "don't lick the tips of the piping bags!", I prefer to accommodate them and personalize the experience to their needs. To ensure the activity stays sanitary, I give each guest their own cup of frosting, and a popsicle stick, which they can use as a spreading stick. This way, they can lick their spreading sticks and double dip all they want, because they all have their own separate frosting!

This Sunday, at Bello Gardens, I have around nine volunteers who are coming. I am super excited to be able to give the guests the fun experience of seeing and interacting with this many friendly faces. They love having fun with kids. Also, bringing in volunteers from school with allow me to train them in person on how to interact with the guests who have dementia, which is important if they want to be able to volunteer without me in the future.

First of all, the new volunteers will need to learn that the guests often mirror the behavior that they see. If you walk in to the room confidently and smiling, then the guests will reciprocate. Just like how if you want them to interact with you, you first have to make the first move and interact with them. Volunteers can do this by introducing themselves and telling the guests about themselves, then asking questions to get to know the guests.

Examples of conversation starters:

"I go to Archie Williams High School! Do you remember which high school you went to?"

"I had soccer practice yesterday, and we won our game last week! Did you used to play sports? What is your favorite sport?"