Category: Blog

Today was our first session at The Venue in Borehamwood. We had a few members and also a visit from 2 new members living locally who wanted to see what the session was like.

It was also a lovely surprise to see Cynthia Barker The President of Rotary Club Elstree & Borehamwood who joined in all the session activities and helped during the session.

Members enjoyed sitting and chatting and working on a word search quiz. They also enjoyed playing Jenga building blocks until it falls down.Karen then arrived to do some chair yoga with members which they all enjoyed especially using the colourful silk scarves.

It was then time for musical entertainment with Moshe and as always Moshe surprises everyone with his many languages. Cynthia took the microphone and sang a beautiful Philippine song then Danielle also sang a Bulgarian song, Alfonso joined in singing an Italian song and Mel and Monique joined together to sing a traditional Jewish song called Hallelujah.

It was a really fun afternoon enjoyed by all.

Annette took the session today.

Everyone had a great time. There was so much energy in the atmosphere and as usual it was joyful to see so many lightbulb moments on members faces.

The announcements were made as Lisa requested to start off the session and the register of attendees taken. Annette prepared photos for reminiscing today and also included a quiz and jokes; It was all centred on Cars.

The members enjoyed participating in the exercises which also prompted conversations around the theme. Members travelled down memory lane and shared stories highlighting treasured memories.

Moshe then arrived to entertain members with his music and took special requests from members. He included a Bollywood song for two of the members which they enjoyed. Happiness was on high level and most people were on their feet, dancing.

Everyone left with a smile. Thank you to Dr Angela and Melissa and Melvyn for their help today at the session.

This was our first session today and we had a small group of 6 people. Members who attended commented what a wonderful bright and large venue it is.

Lisa welcomed everyone and gave them a word search puzzle and some colouring to do which they found enjoyable whilst chatting and drinking their teas and coffees.

We were then joined by Richard who attended to do some chair yoga but one of the members was very keen to do more challenging exercises and therefore Richard ended up doing more standing up yoga. Everyone felt they really exercised well and it was nice to finish off with some deep breathing exercises with the eyes shut which was very relaxing.

The session then followed with Lisa playing some of the music favourites which everyone enjoyed singing and dancing to. Members also enjoyed some golf putting too. For a first session it was very successful.

Members always look forward to attending Stephen’s House & Gardens. Lisa welcomed everyone and gave some updates. We had 2 new members today.

Everyone then enjoyed chatting and doing a word search puzzle and some colouring which they enjoy. Risom was not helping with the teas today as he had other garden duties. We had a lady called Christine who was very helpful.

It was then time for some chair yoga and as Richard was away today, Karen Steadman attended to cover for Richard. Everyone enjoyed the exercises with Karen and most of all enjoyed throwing the bean bags across to each other.

The session then followed with Dennis who was able to get members up and dancing straight away. His choice of music is excellent and members really enjoy listening to Dennis.

Thank you to our volunteers today – Valerie (a Trustee and Rotarian), Ian and Michael from the Rotary Club and Mark (another Trustee). Everyone was so happy today and left with a smile.

Today we went to Monmouth Street in London to visit Hotel Chocolat. We learnt how chocolate was made then we had a tasting session in the basement. After this we bought some chocolate to take home. Everyone had a great time.

https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/chocolate-shops/london-covent-garden.html

A small group today. It was a lovely surprise to see the room set up beautifully today by Annalisa. It was very welcoming and members arriving thought it was good change.

Lisa welcomed everyone and gave out some word search puzzles and picture puzzles for everyone to do. This kept members very busy and enjoyed chatting amongst each other.

Jalpa also popped in to welcome everyone. Lisa then introduced a new game on the table called ‘Jenga’ which is a stacking blocks game. Mark stacked the blocks into a tower and the aim for each member was to try and pull out a single block without making it all collapse. This was quite challenging but very enjoyable. One of the Copthall staff Alex who was passing saw the game and couldn’t resist as he wanted to have a go too.

Annalisa then did some exercises with everyone and made them work hard. As James Le Bec the music entertainer was sick today, Lisa then brought out 2 fluffy balls and together with Annalisa introduced some ball catching games which members had great fun.

It was then time for some music and Lisa brought out a big dice and played a ‘Name that Tune’ game and each person who got the name of the song right then rolled the dice. Members then wanted to do some singing and dancing and therefore Lisa put on the music favourites and everyone got up in a circle and danced. It was a very enjoyable session.

Thank you to Annalisa for setting up and clearing away after. Thank you also to Stella one of the new volunteers who also came today to help and of course Mark who is always ready to help in every way.

Today was as usual a very busy session and a very fun and interesting session. Lisa welcomed everyone and announced various upcoming events. She then introduced some special visitors.

Everyone welcomed Mr Martin Russell – the Queen’s representative Deputy Lieutenant of Barnet. Lisa reminded members that the last time Martin attended to visit was on the 20th April 2016. Lisa invited Martin to say few words.

Lisa then introduced Cllr David Longstaff and reminded everyone that David was the Mayor of the Borough of Barnet in May 2016/2017 and he chose Dementia Club UK as one of his charities during his Mayoral year. Lisa informed everyone further that David is the Honorary Patron of Dementia Club UK. Lisa invited David to say a few words.

Lisa then introduced Neil Aitken (General Manager Operations) and Trent Simpson (Co-founder Head of Production) from The Wayback who came to do a presentation about their product. The Wayback is Virtual Reality series, designed to help persons living with dementia connect with their carers and loved ones. Neil and Trent explained the product to everyone and then passed round a Wayback box on each table for each person to view. The film was set at the time of The Queen’s Coronation and members were able to see for example a street party during that time period. Members found it very interesting and this triggered some memories and conversations.

The web address of The Wayback is https://thewaybackvr.com/

The session then continued with Lisa reading some jokes which everyone really enjoys and then the Tovertafel was set up. Some new games have recently been installed and the game that was enjoyed the most was football as members enjoyed the challenge of scoring goals.

For the last part of the session, Lisa played some of the music favourites and this as always gets members to start singing and dancing. Everyone had such a great time and left with plenty of smiles. My thanks to my volunteers Melvyn, Dr Angela, Melissa, Marina and Mark for all their help.

Today’s session was led by Danielle and Helen, starting with colouring-in art sheets, over cups of tea, coffee and delicious cakes and biscuits organised by Mollie and June. Helen then ran two quizzes, themed food/drink and general knowledge, in which all our visitors and carers enjoyed participating, by calling out the answers. Lucille’s popular bingo then followed which members enjoyed.

Lisa then announced to members about various upcoming events one of which included the launch party of the new Dementia Club with Rotary Club of Hendon on Thursday 25th April at Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs NW4 4AX. Lisa also announced that as the Alzheimer’s Society are no longer running their dementia cafes, Lisa has taken them over and will be running under the Dementia Club UK model – well done Lisa.

Richard then arrived to do chair yoga and decided to surprise members today by doing an alternative ‘hokey cokey’ version which meant sitting in their chairs and instead of singing ‘hokey cokey’ they would sing as ‘oh happy happy Tuesday’. It was great fun and everyone enjoyed it.

It was then time for James Le Bec to entertain us with his singing helped by his lovely assistant Joy who always helps to get everyone up and dancing. Mollie’s Charleston was most professional and in the music quiz when James gets members to throw the dice, we beat the last club by 1 point, with 112 points. There was time before the end for some games too.

The putting golf was out and the magnetic darts. One of the members Alfonso enjoyed playing several games of “Golf” He had fun counting the number of balls he got in – 6 in total. He was very happy and pleased with his score. Thanks to Suresh for washing up after tea, as well as Dr Nandini for being on hand to answer medical queries.

Thank you to Mollie, June and Lucille for their help during the session and of course thank you to Lisa and Mark for their continued support. As from the 2nd July we have decided to change the times at this venue to 2pm to 4pm so that they are in line with the other clubs.

Our monthly Dementia Club UK session was held on the 1st April at Sha’arei Tsedek Synagogue in Whetstone.

Justine welcomed everyone and informed them of future events. Our members were served tea, coffee and lovely biscuits and cake at the start of our session and were happy chatting to each other.

The fabulous Eon did some fun exercises with our members which got everyone moving!

This was followed by a fun session of entertainment provided by the very talented James LeBec. James sang a variety of popular songs to which many of the members and helpers danced. As there was a wedding anniversary to celebrate, James played a special slow dance for our 2 members Marina and Andreas who were celebrating 57 years today. Many congratulations to them. James then also did a music quiz and our members had to guess the name of the song! It was great fun! The atmosphere was fantastic!

After James left, the members continued to chat and there was also table tennis & darts for those that wanted to play! 25 members and carers attended the session with the assistance of four helpers from the synagogue who were:- Justine, Caroline, Stephen and Dot. Also thanks to Mark and Lisa the Chairman

Today’s session was led by Eugenia and Charlyn from the Rotary Club of Hendon:

Today was another thrilling day at the Dementia Club UK session at the Hendon Town Hall. Members arrived feeling the spring in the air. Refreshments were served.

Eugenia first gave a warm welcome to  everyone, Charlyn our volunteer from Rotary Club of Hendon was at hand to lead as the Bingo caller. Members, Carers and Volunteers all enjoyed the Bingo session; this was followed by an exercise session led by the enigmatic Eon who took us all through our paces.

For the first time we welcomed Dennis a seasoned musician to Dementia Club UK- Hendon Town Hall. Dennis performed different genre of music to delight members, carers and volunteers who also danced, and sang along with so much pleasure.

A special thanks goes out to volunteers from Rotary Club of Hendon, Charlyn, Eugenia, Alex and Francesca and of course our thanks to Lisa and Mark for their continued support.