HCMC LTCU
By LORI SMITHHART
HCMC Correspondent
We had a wonderful, fun-filled week here at the long term care unit.
At exercise and singing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the residents played circle kickball, parachute, and sang some of their favorite songs.
Monday started with music with John Ratzlaff. He is loved by many of our residents and he plays the piano wonderfully. He plays about an hour for the residents and then goes to our special care unit to play for the residents there. In the afternoon the word search club members got together and had coffee, juice, or water and did three word searches. This was a good time to socialize and they worked together to find the words.
Tuesday our card players, along with our CEO Mike Ryan, played pitch in our TV room. They look forward to this time every week and talk about how many times they win. Before lunch we played Jingo.
We had one big sundae ice cream social in the afternoon with staff and residents. We had a big turnout. Wendy McCarty, Brenda Brown, Dwight Johnson, Joyce Weinbrenner, and I made a seven-foot ice cream sundae with vanilla ice cream, bananas, brownies, walnuts, M&Ms, and other toppings. Dwight Johnson made the seven foot container for the sundae out of ring guttering and the holder was made of wood that he painted blue. The residents couldn't believe the size of the sundae and they commented that we should do that again.
Wednesday started out with buddy bingo. We are having this activity once a month and it seems to be a favorite. The residents have a team member, two to a team, and if one wins they both do.
At 3 p.m. we had the sewing club. The women are working on their lap blankets and we visit about when we started sewing and quilting. We have a lot of fun during these couple of hours, reminiscing and talking about the past quilts that we have done.
Thursday we had Hawaiian day limbo and I handed out lais to staff and residents who attended. Some staff who helped with the activity were Dana Riling, Eleetra Meierhoff, Barb McMinn, Belinda Baxter, Bonnie Hamm, Heather Crocker, Judy Hollingshead, Liz Markham, Nikki Rivera, and staff dogs Wiggles, Bogie, and Babe even participated.
After that the men came in for men's bingo club. Our club consists of Ernie Unruh, Spud Pschigoda, Richard Noone, Bob Bruner, Harold Jost, Ed Winter, Leland Kaiser, Marvin Rediker, John Remple, and Gordon Eager. We play bingo twice a month for an hour. In the afternoon we played the game Outburst.
On Friday we had a movie about zoo animals after breakfast. Later in the day the HCMC staff and residents got together for a comedy/variety/game hour.
