Coronavirus has hit many of us hard. And for care home residents, it’s been even more difficult and lonely as they can’t have any visitors.
But some care homes have found brilliant ways to deal with the situation, like a massive game of Hungry Hippos which most of us now want to try out.
And taking inspiration from that, another home has come up with a giant Kerplunk game to lift their spirits in isolation.
Staff at Fir Villa Residential Home in Somerset made the game from garden netting, a cardboard box, bamboo canes and balls.
Video and pictures posted on Facebook show residents smiling and laughing as they carefully pull out the sticks.
Eight of the residents at the home, which cares for 22 people aged over 65 including those with dementia, took part in the giant game.
And they all had a blast.
Laura McAllister, activities coordinator at Fir Villa, said she had been inspired after seeing the life-sized version of Hungry Hippos.
‘We played our own game of Hungry Hippos here and I was thinking what else we could do,’ she said.
‘I was using the netting in the garden and thought if I rolled it up, I could make it into a Kerplunk game.
‘I put it together when I came into work with a cardboard box that we had and I cut bamboo sticks in half with tape at the end to make sure it was safe.’
The first match featured eight players but soon others wanted to join.
One of the women staying at the home had been contacting her relatives through Skype when she saw the game and decided to hang up to play it one-on-one.
Laura adds that a bit of fun is something that’s needed right now, to take residents’ minds off the fact that they can’t see their family face-to-face.
‘We’re doing different activities to help with the isolation of not having visitors coming in.’
We hope the games did exactly that.
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