Country Terrace fundraising, encouraging healthy lifestyles
Home hosts event in honour of Heart Month
February is Heart Month, and the team at Country Terrace dedicated Feb. 12 to promoting healthy eating while raising money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada.
The event was organized by activity director Veronica Couto and the home’s life enrichment team. Life enrichment staff members made fruit smoothies with berries, yogurt and crushed ice and handed them out to co-workers, residents and visitors for every $2 donation.
Staff members also encouraged each other to participate in a series of activities, such as doing jumping jacks and skipping rope, to inspire healthy exercise.
“It was also something social, and the residents really enjoyed seeing us jumping around,” says life enrichment worker Amanda Guthrie of the day’s exercise segment.
Fun aside, Guthrie notes that dedicating a day to promoting heart and stroke awareness hits home for many residents and staff members who have themselves or known someone affected by heart attack and stroke.
“The people who have had heart attacks and strokes get really involved as well because they’re thankful to still be here,” she says.
Residents, staff members and visitors are encouraged to make donations throughout Heart Month, says Guthrie.
At the time of this writing, just under $100 has been raised.
To encourage participation among staff members and residents in the exercise segment, life enrichment staff members handed out “heart savvy” gift baskets as prizes that were raffled.
Residents were also encouraged to do their own exercises with the help of physiotherapy assistant Claudia Villegas.
“We got everybody’s heart rate going and that was great — the managers all participated, which was really nice,” says Couto.
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