May Highlights: Finding Joy Every Day
June 6, 2024
Our intent at our premier nursing home is to make every day an exciting experience filled with activities, appreciation for staff, and memorable events. Our residents had a blast participating in various activities and games throughout the weeks.
May started off with a bang with our 3rd Annual Cinco de Mayo Taco Eating Contest! The tacos were expertly crafted by our famous Chef Jeff and were absolutely massive. Eight of our staff members battled it out to be the king or queen of Cinco de Mayo. The residents cheered and laughed as Abby West and Kristie Lamp brought home the gold!
The week of May 6th we celebrated National Nurses Week. Where would we be without our dedicated incredible nurses? We appreciate them more than we could ever put into words! “As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the mind, soul, heart, and body of our patients. They may forget your name but they will never forget how you made them feel,” stated, Maya Angelou. We showered them with personalized gifts of gratitude and a catered meal each day of the week. We have truly been blessed with the best!
With a big congratulations, we took the time to highlight April’s Employee of the Month, Mary Willis! Mary is an STNA at Rockland Ridge and is the first-ever employee to earn Employee of the Month twice. Mary is hardworking, loyal, compassionate, and takes pride in her work. She is a top-notch employee and we cannot think of a more deserving person to be the first to receive this honor. Hats off to the fabulous Mary; she rocks!
Craft activities are such an integral part of keeping our residents happy and healthy. We started thinking: how can we support other seniors in our community who also need this type of therapeutic activity? We decided to donate a variety of supplies to our local Marietta O’Neill Senior Center to allow the community and members of the Senior Center to create their own crafts. Crafts are one of the best ways to combine cognitive function and physical dexterity to create personalized, beautiful works of art!
Mother’s Day was a special day to celebrate all of the mothers, both residents and staff, at Rockland Ridge. We made relaxation spa goodie bags for our staff members and had a tea party for our residents to share with their families. The residents had a delightful tea time with snacks, flowers, family pictures, and entertainment by singer Keith Ellison. We love and appreciate all of our mothers and we hope everyone had the best Mother's Day.
Moving along to the biggest week of the year, National Nursing Home Week! You can’t beat Rockland’s wild, weeklong celebration! The theme this year was all about music and memories, so we kicked things off on Monday by “glamming” it up! Taking us back to those memories of our glamour days and the glamour shots, Vivid River Photography did a fabulous photo shoot of our residents and staff. The residents enjoyed being pampered and each got a photocopy of their shots.
Tuesday, we celebrated the Golden Age of Radio. We chose the '50s decade and who better to make an appearance than the man himself, Elvis. Of course, we all had to dress to impress in our '50s attire so we could serve the residents “Dinner at the Diner.” Our diner served cheeseburgers, hot dogs, French fries, cherry coke, and root beer floats. Wednesday was Radio Music and Band Day. We dressed in our favorite music merchandise and listened to vintage vinyl. We also had our famous cook-out on Wednesday where Chef Jeff and his team prepared the residents and staff an incredible meal. We enjoyed Tropical Glazed Grill Shrimp, New York Strip Steak, Smoked White Mac & Cheese, Smoked
Candied Sweet Potatoes, Grilled Zucchini, and Strawberry Short Cake.
On Thursday, we continued our celebration with the Golden Age of Radio and decided to dress the part. We all came decked out in our best gold or yellow outfits. Residents and staff shined like the sun and our personalities glowed even brighter! To finish this crazy week, we closed out Friday by taking it way back, 100 years in fact! We kicked it old school by taking it back to the Roaring Rockland 1920s. We all went to the Speakeasy, where there were flappers, gangsters, and anyone who was the bees’ knees. Let’s just say we sure know how to “cut a rug!” We had an absolute blast all week long!
May also happens to be National Speech and Hearing Month and we wanted to recognize our incredible Speech Therapist, Kayla Bartmess. Kayla is kind, and caring and truly enjoys working with residents to improve their quality of life. We appreciate all you do, Kayla!
Wrapping up our month of May, we participated in the Memorial Day National Moment of Remembrance where we honored those service men and women who bravely sacrificed for our country.
You can view pictures, videos, and more of these special activities highlighted on our Facebook page. Don’t forget to give us a like! Rockland Ridge on Facebook