Invite residents to participate in community service events in your facility on the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on January 18th. Here are a few ideas from notjustbingo.com:
Make Blankets – Take a trip to your local fabric store to purchase fleece and other supplies for residents to make a variety of no-sew blankets that can be donated to a local charity.
Host a Coat Drive – Invite residents to assist you with decorating cardboard boxes to use as collection bins during a facility-wide coat drive. Encourage residents, staff members, and visiting family members to drop off their unused coats to be donated to a local homeless shelter.
Assemble Care Packages – Gather small bins for residents to fill with toiletries, like toothpaste, deodorant, and soap to create care packages for our troops overseas. Don’t forget to add in a few puzzle books like Sudoku and crossword puzzles too.
Stuff Teddy Bears – Organize a group of residents to help you stuff teddy bears that can be donated to a local children’s hospital.
Write Letters – Supply residents with blank note cards to write letters of support and encouragement to members of our armed services. In addition, if a local service unit is nearby, contact them to see if your residents can write letters of encouragement to their family members.
Bake Cookies – Invite your facility’s Baking Club to bake cookies for your local police and fire departments.
Make Toys – Use everyday household items to make toys for cats and dogs that can be donated to a local animal shelter. You can also have residents decorate bandanas to donate.
Read to Other Residents – Borrow a few library books for residents to use to read to your bedridden residents.
Tell us how your facility is making a difference in the community for Martin Luther King Jr. Day!
About notjustbingo.com
notjustbingo.com is an online resource of fun, senior activity ideas for activity professionals of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. They have been providing fun activity ideas online since 2009, and we continue to assist activity professionals across the country by creating meaningful and engaging activity ideas for their residents that go “beyond bingo.” Don’t get them wrong – bingo is fun, but we want to spread the word that there is more to life than just bingo. Overall, notjustbingo.com feels privilege to help activity directors better the living experiences of their residents while demonstrating that a senior’s quality of life can actually improve when they move to a nursing facility.
