Olympic-style event encourages camaraderie and friendly competition at Springdale

Many residents who normally don’t turn up for activities were participating each day

In April, Springdale Country Manor residents enjoyed their first-ever Springdale Spring Fling, an Olympic-style event that encouraged friendly competition and lots of fun and laughter among the Peterborough-area long-term care home’s residents.

The event consisted of daily competitive activities from Monday to Friday for two weeks. Events included discus throwing, paper airplane flying, bull’s-eye shooting, a beanbag toss and bowling.

For the discus throwing and plane flying, the objectives were to see how far residents could toss these objects. For the bull’s-eye shooting, there was a target set up and residents threw a Velcro ball to try to get the most points.

Each event had a first-, second- and third-place winner, explains life enrichment aide Nikki English, who says residents showed a strong spirit of camaraderie during the events.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement among the residents,” she tells The OMNIway. “They would each cheer each other on after each turn. … The residents really enjoyed the events and the excitement of seeing how well they could do.”

Life enrichment team members created a standings board that was hung in the home’s main dining room. Each event was posted with the top three winners that were added at the end of the event.

Medals were also handed out to the top overall resident who achieved the most standings as well as a medal for the resident who participated in the most events.

On the last day of events, residents celebrated their hard work during the previous two weeks. The residents in the top three places for each event received a gold, silver or bronze medal.

“Since there was so much enthusiasm from the residents, some of them won multiple medals,” Nikki says, adding many residents who normally don’t join in programming participated in the Spring Fling.

Nikki says the event was so successful she’s hoping to see it return next year, adding that a month later the Spring Fling is still top of mind for residents.

“Some of the residents to this day still wear their medal every day to show it off and be proud of what they accomplished,” she says.

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