Location: The Imperial Nursing Home
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2014; 2:30-3:30 pm
Wilson and I arrived at Imperial
and after parking he said that we needed to get some snacks for the
seniors. So we went to 'Walgreen's' and
picked up some cookies as well as fig treats, which I hear are quite
popular. It was bitter cold as
we carried it inside, along with a 4-sided speaker that looked like a ‘Borg Cube’. Today’s trivia was audio based and Wilson had
come prepared with his tablet and the speaker.
We came upstairs to the 5th floor community room and saw that
several seniors had already started to assemble, though most of them were
probably there involuntarily, being brought by the caregivers. While Wilson set up the technology, I got out
the whiteboard to keep score. Other
volunteers arrived, including Fran and an Aunt and a Niece pair. Wilson asked the volunteers to go around and
introduce themselves to the seniors and one newcomer took it so seriously, that
she actually woke up a senior to introduce herself. Boy, talk about following instructions to the
T!
 |
| Wilson's speaker |
One resident came in wearing a
headphone and was listening to classical music.
He said that one of his fellow resident women played a piano and she was
as good as the music on his headphones…I assumed of course that he liked what
he was listening to. Well, at least
someone was well equipped to play the trivia today! One of the residents was in a grumpy mood and
asked if we were there to teach them something and I said that in all honesty,
there was more to learn from them than anything that we could teach. We
divided the room into 3 teams, with ‘Team
A’ near the right side window and accompanied by 2 volunteers, ‘Team B’ in front of us with 2 other
volunteers and ‘Team C’ on the left
with 2 others. Wilson would be in charge
of playing the songs and I was the scorekeeper.
Wilson started the proceedings by
playing on his tablet the piano version of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ theme.
Nobody in the room got the answer and we told him to stick to musical
pieces with lyrics. We were going to
cycle through the decades, and so began with the 50's. To my surprise, teams were actually able
to answer most of the questions. One of
the residents was so enthusiastic about the game that despite being on Team C,
she wanted to answer all the questions.
We moved to 60's and 70's and now the songs were starting to sound familiar,
with great songs such as ‘American Pie’
and others by groups such as ‘The Beatles’,
‘The Monkees’, ‘The Doors’ and ‘Simon & Garfunkel’. Some of the residents and caregivers were
enjoying themselves now, including a gentleman on Team B who was competing with
the enthusiastic lady on Team C. One of
the caregivers was so much in to this quiz that she started swaying to the
music, clearly enjoying herself with the classic rock. It looked like this session was already a
success.
 |
| The final scores |
Wilson was handing out points for
either the name of the artists or name of the songs. The lady on Team C was playing it smart by
listening to lyrics, picking up on the song's title through them, and then repeating it. She was extremely competitive, getting upset
when Fran - who was with Team A - would say that they knew the answer if Team C
wanted to pass. She would glare and say,
“It’s our turn!” Wow, feisty!
We played for 10 rounds and when it was all over, the scores read, “Team A with 10 points, Team B with 11
points and Team C with 9 points.”
The people on Team C booed me, including the feisty lady. The perks of being a scorekeeper!
It had been a wonderful session
and other than a few, most of the residents had been engaged, which was the
idea. Plus, this is one of the few
programs where the staff has a good time as well. Even though Team B had finished ahead on
points, everyone was a winner, and we distributed the sweets to all of
them. As they left happy, Fran and I
discussed other projects, including her asking me about Make-A-Wish as usual. Wilson and I took our supplies and left for
our next project. Today was another
example of something that I have said before – Music therapy really helps and
is a definite need for Chicago Cares to address.
No comments:
Post a Comment