Sunday 1 March 2015

❂ Alzheimers ❂




Alzheimer's Service


This month was spent recruiting some Grade 10 students for our service group. I was happy to see that we got  5 people signed up, 4 boys and one girl. A nice thing I noted was that one of the guys (Amit) that signed up was in Alzheimer's last year as well so it was good to see a returning face. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of input the newbies put into the meetings, in fact, they had some great ideas for the things we could do at food and fun fair. This included a memory match up game for kids, an idea made in response to the question how to raise funds to buy basic materials for the Alzheimer's patients.

We also had out monthly visit to the Alzheimer's Center which I unfortunately missed due to some work that needed to be done for English class. I'm starting to find that as a Senior, it's incredibly hard to find time to do things, specially with finals looming on the horizon. However, I did get to participate by making 40 mini cupcakes for the patients to decorate as previously planned and now initiated on the Tuesday night before the visit :)

I thought I did a good job on the cupcakes because not only are they colourful and cheerful looking, but I kept in mind that some of the patients needed healthy food and so used a 50/50 mix of wholemeal and white flour, considering the ethical implications of feeding old people unhealthy food. Unfortunately the cupcakes were a bit too sweet, specially with the amount of icing they put on but it was a good effort nonetheless.

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And although I didn't go, I heard that this visit was one of the very best we've had. Apparently the noob 10th graders did an excellent job in dancing with the patients, undertaking a new challenge since a lot of them were shy. As well as this, they showed that they could work collaboratively with the patients and the people who run the Alzheimer's association. The new kids are shaping up to be pretty cool actually, I'm really proud of them. I've managed to get some pictures of how the visit went, courtesy of Anjleen our great and mighty leader.



The mighty Anjleen (pictured above) made waaay too much icing for too little cupcakes XD
                    Carla, one of our trusty grade 11's, (left) can be spotted with her usual smile :)
                            And Yannis, another grade 11 proves to be a hit with the ladies ;)




 
Need I explain the wonder that is sprinkles?




And here are the awesome little Grade 10's getting some quality time with the patients. They've actually surprised me by staying committed to the service, arriving on time and contributing useful ideas to the group. They're also learning new people skills and learning to be better conversationalists with the patients, a skill I'm sure they'll need in the future.


Khartikiya                                      
Khallis
                                                                                                 
Shloak                                                 
Ika

                                                                                                   




This is a special picture of Amit, also from Grade 10, since I don't have an individual one of him. If you look closely you can spot him dancing in the background :D And also, our supervisor Ms. Ramberg is lurking around in the picture, let's see who can spot her...
                                                                                                                                  






And finally, the full Alzheimer's Service team excluding me :)

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