Country Terrace team pulls together ensuring weather doesn’t stop BBQ
Home’s flagship summer event carries on despite pouring rain
Monday, July 28, 2014 — Deron Hamel
The weather outside may have been dull and grey, but inside Country Terrace the atmosphere was bright, cheerful and full of fun and laughter as the Komoka long-term care home celebrated its annual family barbecue.
Despite the change of plans to move the barbecue indoors, the July 19 event was a “huge success,” says life enrichment co-ordinator Christie Patterson, adding that nutritional carer manager Alex Achillini soldiered through the inclement weather by working the grill.
Staff members and volunteers quickly transformed the home’s chapel into an activity area. Each year the event has a different theme. This year had a carnival theme, with ring, balloon, ball tosses, musical entertainment and a pie-in-the-face fundraiser that rcollected more than $300 (more on that in an upcoming story).
Although the events had to be downscaled to accommodate an indoor event, the staff’s ingenuity ensured everyone had fun, Patterson says.
“We made it work — it was a little hairy, but we made it work and the families that came had an awesome time,” she says. “We made sure the kids, the residents and everyone else had a great time.”
Patterson says the event is an important part of the home’s culture because it allows residents to bring in as many of their family members and friends as they want, and the event is always “laidback and fun and has a family reunion atmosphere.”
“And it’s open to all generations — residents, their children and grandchildren,” she says. “(Before the event) I had not met a lot of the families, but they all showed up.”
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