This session today was run by Eleanor one of my experienced volunteers.
The Rotary Club of Barnet visited today to pick up the rest of the round tables for the church. Victor Kaye one of the Rotarians stayed for most of the session so that he could observe.
Kevin one of our volunteers did his usual Family Fortunes quiz with the members and I also assisted. Members love having Kevin as they enjoy his jokes. The session then followed with Richard with his Chair Yoga exercises which everyone looks forward to and finally Eleanor did a music quiz.
We did 2 trips to Kew gardens on 29th November and 6th December. Barnet Community Transport organised the mini buses and everyone from Dementia Club UK enjoyed themselves even though it was very cold. The Kew Gardens staff were very helpful. See Kew Gardens website at https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/christmas-at-kew
Report from Gilda, session leader for Sha’arei Tsedek:
“Dementia Club UK held it’s monthly meeting at Sha’arei Tsedek last Monday 4th December. Approximately 40 people attended a very lively session.
Gilda leading a very lively session of about 40 members.
The session centred around the Jewish Festival of Lights (Chanukah) which occurs at this time of year. A small group of very young children came from the Kindergarten on site to sing Chanukah songs and recited poems to all the attendees and showed how a Chanukiah (eight branch candlestick) looks like when fully lit.
Children from the Kindergarten came to sing Chanukah songs and recited poems to Dementia Club UK Members
Following this our usual music session took place with the fabulous JamesLe Bec. He sang a variety of popular songs including a selection of Christmas songs appropriate to this season. As often happens a number of guests took to the floor and danced as well as participating in mass dances like the Hokey Cokey.
Members dancing the Hokey Cokey
The session finished with a talk by Stephen, one of the session leaders explaining the origins and practices of the Festival of Light (Chanukah). As part of Mitzvah (A good Deed) Day the children had prepared a small primula plant in a pot which was given to each pair of guests when they went home.”
It was lovely to see and hear from members today how much they really enjoyed their trip to Kew Gardens yesterday to see the Christmas lights.
I then gave members 2 quizzes to do one of which was a mathematical challenge. They still enjoyed it however and were nicely surprised when they were given the answer. This followed with another challenging quiz from James one of the carers who wanted to do his quiz about London Underground train stations.
It was then time for exercises which they all enjoyed and this followed with singing. The session ended with our social activities and everyone left with a smile.
It was a very busy session. I had no volunteers but as usual a few of the carers stepped in to help with the teas etc.
We first started with a birthday celebration. It was Panayiotis birthday yesterday (85 years old). Birthday was celebrated the usual way and Anna also brought lots of lovely doughnuts.
Panayiotis 85th birthday was celebrated the usual way with Anna.
James one of the carers did a quiz. Members had to guess which London Underground station James was referring to. This was a challenging quiz but fun. I then followed with a quick game of Bingo which everyone enjoyed and then James arrived to do Tai Chi with everyone. The session finished with various games activities.
It was a cold Saturday evening at St Andrews Church in Southgate where The Ionian Clarinet Choir gave their winter concert in aid of Dementia Club UK.
Ian Rogers conducting the Ionian Clarinet Choir at St Andrews Church, Southgate
The conductor Ian Rogers led the choir through out the evening. The first half was loosely based on dances and the second half on animals. We all enjoyed a rendition of ‘Billy Goat Gruff’ read by Janet Eggleden with the ICC playing musical accompaniment between the verses. It brought many of us back to our childhood and left us with a big smiles on our faces.
2017 Winter concert programme
We want to thank the Ionian Clarinet Choir for donating proceeds to Dementia Club UK which were gratefully received as this will keep the dementia clubs going to provide support for our members.
We had a full session as usual and also had 3 visitors today. Two visitors from Rotary Club of Barnet – John Michaelides and Malcolm Bye and also Andrew Mills from St John’s Church (United Reformed) which is on the corner of Somerset Road and Mowbray Road, New Barnet EN5 1RH.
Lisa introduced the visitors to members and informed them that the purpose of their visit was to observe our session with the view to hopefully setting up another similar dementia club in New Barnet in the New Year on the First Tuesday of every month. Members were delighted to hear this news.
The session then followed with Kevin one of the carers doing his usual quiz with members. Kevin is always a great hit with members as he makes it very enjoyable with lots of banter.
The session then followed with Egon our Tai Chi instructor – which again members always look forward to. The session ended with some singing and Lisa read some of her jokes which always makes members laugh.
One of the volunteers Melvyn also said a few words about his recent trip to India. He wanted to read a couple of poems but there was no time. We look forward to those next time.
Thank you to our volunteers, Eleanor and Melvyn for their continued support. Also thank you to those carers who bring some biscuits for the sessions – very much appreciated.
The following report is from session leader Annette:
“The session began as usual with housekeeping. There were 37 members, one Trustee and four volunteers in attendance. I welcomed Joan and Lynn and passed on our condolences on the passing of Mc. I also thanked all members who were there to pay our last respects. They were specially delighted at the turn out by members.
The theme of the session was ‘Our World’. I dressed in traditional Nigerian outfit and invited a friend, Sudha who turned up in a beautiful Indian Sari. Different objects and pictures of people, places, food and objects were distributed to members. The volunteers were given printed information about these items to enable them discuss with members.
Members discussing “Our World” objects at Dementia Club UK
Thereafter, I had an open question and answer session about their impressions. Sudha showed them how the sari is tied and they had an interactive session with her about the outfit. Laurie was excited about the story on Thai silk manufacture and showed off his silk tie. He drew our attention to the fact that the members sitting next to him were from Hungary, Egypt and other places.
This part ended up with a short talk about how we can exercise our brains finding out about different cultures, faiths, and discovering new things about our world.
Our internet was disappointing and songs I prepared in line with the theme could not be played. However, Eleanor read out the wordings of ‘What A Beautiful World’ while members tried to sing along. Eleanor led us in a game of cards which was enjoyed by all.
I thanked everyone for coming along and announced the details for our next session i.e. 22.11.17. special thanks to the volunteers especially Guests, Sudha and Sarah.”
Thank you Annette for all your hard work in preparing and running the session and also Eleanor for her music and cards.
We are pleased to announce The Rotary Club of Elstree and Borehamwood Dementia Club will now be running autonomously sponsored by Dementia Club UK.
The following report is from Pat Strack session leader for Elstree and Borehamwood:
“We were pleased that we were joined by 5 new members yesterday. Pat Strack, Session leader, welcomed everyone and introduced the team Ann Goddard, Yvonne Harris Katie Murray, Marion Naylor, Eric Silver and Marijke Turner and the speaker of the session, Joy Watters. All were given a copy of the latest Town Crier magazine and we sold some BBC Band Concert tickets because of that.
After we all had enjoyed tea and cakes. Sara started her exercise session. This was very well received as usual Kind of underwater ethereal music in the ned we managed to add 6 sequences together. Just time for juice and water and finish the cakes before joy told us about help Carers can receive free of charge. She has the details for Hertfordshire but the same scheme operates country wide.
A new game was tried, Members were given a range of Victorian memorabilia the king of things they might have seen in grandparents and even parents homes in the past. A flt iron Stone hot water bottle, ink monitors bottle, Brownie camera, and a Victorian medicine bottle. Eric as a pharmacist and Ann intervened with their memories of blue ribbed glass bottles for poisons. we looked at some modern day equivalents Rubber hot water bottle Steam iron digital camera. Something to try again.
The Mayor, Eric had the joke book with some very corny jokes so bad that eventually Ann led the booing. We finished with some notices NSPCC Xmas Fayre 19/11/17 Ann Goddard is Chair of Barnet District branch. Our next session is 28/11/17 and the last session 12/11/17 will be our Christmas party. Everything was a little late as one of our members could not get into the car park. A huge lorry had blocked the way in 2 cars were parked in Tescos . Not a good start to the session. But a good time was had by all with plenty of volunteers to chat to members.”
It was a pleasure to welcome Linda Gilling again for a second time.
Before introducing to start her presentation, Lisa talked to members about how to protect themselves from scamming. One of the members Brian informed members about his recent telephone call he received at his house which was a scam. Lisa then informed members that she has invited someone from Trading Standards to come and talk at the next session about Call Blocking.
Members were delighted to see Linda who began to do her presentation explaining the importance of healthy eating and also the importance of drinking at least 2 litres of water a day. It was interesting to learn that in some areas tap water has a strong chlorine smell but if you leave the water in the glass to stand for 5 minutes, the chlorine smell would be gone. A lot of people buy bottle water because of this reason.
Linda also brought with her a display board which displayed various food samples and drink cans and explained the sugar content for each product. Members were surprised with some of the sugar content. Linda also brought in lots of packets of Gluten Free biscuits and crackers which had very low sugar. These were distributed to all the members to try as another good alternative.
During the whole time whilst Linda was talking, Risson was replenishing the jugs of water on each table so that members were continually hydrated. Linda’s talk was very informative and delivered with great passion. We may see her again in the New Year with further health tips.
The session then continued with Eleanor introducing a new way to play Bingo with playing cards which everyone enjoyed. The session then followed with some social activities.
Our thanks to Risson for keeping members hydrated. Our thanks to our Rotarian volunteers, Valerie, Jeff, Sue, Kuljit, Michael, Ian and David who came with his wife Judith. Thank you also to Eleanor for her Bingo playing card game which members really enjoyed.
