{"id":1757,"date":"2015-10-12T15:31:06","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T19:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2025-10-22T17:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T21:04:19","slug":"activities-to-honor-our-veteran-vips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/activities-to-honor-our-veteran-vips\/","title":{"rendered":"Activities to Honor Veterans at Your Senior Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"veteran's<\/a><\/p>\n

Honor the veterans of your senior facility on Veterans Day on Tuesday, November 11th<\/sup> by hosting several fun activities that pay tribute to their service in our country\u2019s military branches.\u00a0Also, these are great ideas activities to consider if you are honoring Veterans at your school or center that day.<\/p>\n

Here are a few ideas to add to your November activity calendars:<\/p>\n

1) Plan a Flag-Raising Ceremony.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If your facility has a flagpole in the yard, schedule a flag-raising ceremony outdoors to raise the American flag<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0If possible, record and play the bugle call melody To the Colors<\/em> as the flag is being raised.<\/p>\n

2) Play an Army-Navy Game (or even an Air Force-Marines Game).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pick a favorite floor game, like shuffleboard<\/a><\/strong> or bowling<\/a><\/strong>, and invite the different military branch veterans to compete against one another. Be sure to award bragging rights to the winning branch of service.<\/p>\n

3) Form a Veterans Story Circle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Organize a reminiscing activity for your veterans to share their military stories. Seat residents in a large circle and encourage each one to talk about their time in the military. If you have a large amount of participants, limit the discussion by focusing the story circle on just one topic, like when the veterans were drafted or the day they returned to U.S. soil. You can even create a Veteran themed Toss and Talk About Ball with this Create Your Own Ball<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

4) Schedule a Veterans Day Parade.<\/strong> Host a parade in your facility featuring your veterans. Beforehand, decorate the parade route with\u00a0lots of red white and blue balloons<\/b><\/span><\/a>\u00a0or these patriotic star shaped balloons<\/strong><\/a>. During the parade, stop each veteran along their march to quickly introduce themselves and share a little about their time in service. Provide the spectators along the parade route with small flags<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to wave as they cheer on their veterans.<\/p>\n

5) Assemble Poppy Boutonnieres & Corsages<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make these paper poppies<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>to use as boutonnieres for the men and as corsages for the ladies.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

6) Make Thank You Cards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Use paper and markers (link to: to create thank you cards<\/a><\/strong> to give to all the veterans (including staff members) in your facility.<\/p>\n

7) Arrange for a Fly Over<\/strong><\/p>\n

Invite your residents to participate in a fun airplane contest to see which patriotic glider<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0flies the farthest. For the activity, provide each participant with a plane and seat two residents at a time on one side of the room to see which of the two gliders goes farthest to the other side of the room. Have the winners of each match-up play one another until there is only one winner left.<\/p>\n

8) Host a Medal Ceremony<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahead of time, supply residents with safety pins to string on a combination of metallic mini pony beads<\/a><\/strong> and flag beads<\/a><\/strong> to create fun \u201cmedals\u201d to pin onto your facility\u2019s veterans. During the ceremony, recognize each veteran and ask them to share a brief story about their time in the military. Then pin a medal onto their lapel before taking a picture with them. Encourage your veterans to wear their medals throughout the day so that passersby can honor and thank them for their service.<\/p>\n

9) Strike Up the Military Band<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pass out musical instruments<\/a><\/strong> for residents to play as they sing patriotic songs<\/a><\/strong> during a fun gathering.<\/p>\n

10) Decorate the Officers\u2019 Club<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turn your Activity Room into a military Officers\u2019 Club, in which your facility\u2019s veterans can come in and socialize with one another. Beforehand, decorate the space with patriotic\u00a0hanging fans<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0crepe streamers<\/a><\/strong>, and balloons<\/a><\/strong>. During the activity, pass out (root beer) and\u00a0bags of popcorn<\/a><\/strong> residents to enjoy. Then go around the room, and encourage residents to share stories of their time in boot camp or overseas.<\/p>\n

11) Set Up the Tattoo Parlor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turn a common area in your facility into a fun tattoo parlor, in which you encourage passersby to stop in to get their patriotic tattoos<\/a><\/strong>. For the activity, invite residents to roll up their sleeves and pick out which \u201cmilitary\u201d tattoo they want to get.<\/p>\n

12) Organize a Care-Package Party<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recruit veterans to assist with assembling care packages for troops overseas. Ahead of time, take a trip to your local dollar store to pick up supplies to be assembled and packed up during the care-package party.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"veterans<\/p>\n

Find more ideas from Notjustbingo\u00a0on the S&S blog here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

About Not Just Bingo:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"notjustbingo<\/p>\n

Not Just Bingo<\/a>\u00a0is 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 continue to assist activity professionals across the country by creating meaningful and engaging activity ideas for their residents that go \u201cbeyond bingo.\u201d Not Just Bingo feels\u00a0privileged to help activity directors better the living experiences of their residents while demonstrating that a senior\u2019s quality of life can actually\u00a0improve<\/i>\u00a0when they move to a nursing facility!<\/p>\n

Want even more ideas each month? Sign up for the\u00a0Notjustbingo Membership<\/a>\u00a0to receive specialized activity ideas to keep your residents and staff engaged, active, and having fun!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honor the veterans of your senior facility on Veterans Day on Tuesday, November 11th by hosting several fun activities that pay tribute to their service in our country\u2019s military branches.\u00a0Also, these are great ideas activities to consider if you are … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[457,224],"tags":[243,329,291,225,290,255,226,1166,97,289],"yoast_head":"\nActivities to Honor our Veteran VIPs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ssww.com\/blog\/activities-to-honor-our-veteran-vips\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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