The Ionian Clarinet Choir gave a fabulous concert in aid of Dementia Club UK on Saturday 7th May at St Andrew’s Church in Southgate. Many of our Dementia Club UK members were in the audience and I could see that everyone was immersed and enjoying the music. Thank you to the ICC and for everybody who contributed to the charity and to Father Ed and his church who hosted the evening.
Unfortunately I had no volunteers today so I had no time to take a picture. Luckily some of the members were able to help with teas and coffees which was great as we had over 50 members today. A big thank you to those who helped. We played Bingo which everyone really enjoyed. It got to the point where 2 tables were after the same number and the prize had to be shared in the end as both shouted “Bingo” at the same time.
We did singing and chair exercises. I then distributed red boiled Easter eggs to each table and showed them how they needed to be held. The aim of this game is to try and break your opponents egg with your egg. One egg is tapped against another until one of them cracks. Eventually 2 eggs were declared winners and their owners had a final battle, James was the winner.
Today we had a challenging quiz after a long chat where everyone was getting to know each other better. Exercises followed then lots of games and social activities. Everybody enjoyed the afternoon.
Introduced for the first time Bingo which everyone really enjoyed, then some poetry reading, exercises which led to the dancing. Finally various activities such as ‘Putting Golf’ and even more dancing by everyone.
At the Dementia Club today at Finchley Memorial I invited Martin Russell the Deputy Lieutenant of Barnet who presented a slide show to all the members explaining his role as the Queens representative and showing different events he attended. He then cut the cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to the Queen followed by 3 cheers.
The session then followed with a sing along by Jonathan Fenton and his wife Carole accompanied by Caroline the pianist. Everyone enjoyed singing various familiar songs. This was a great birthday celebration. Our Best Wishes to HM The Queen for her 90th birthday.
Arts Depot kindly hosted a lunch for 22 members of Dementia Club UK. We had a light lunch and we were shown around an exhibition which we all found interesting. It was also Marina’s birthday so we all celebrated as she brought 2 large chocolate cakes. Our thanks go to our hosts Estelle, Tim and Antonia for looking after us.
Today we had Lucy Whitman who came to present her book “People with Dementia Speak Out”. Lucy came with Andy Bellisario and her mum Dizi Conti, step dad Derek Norman and Lucy’s cousin Jo Farley. Also attended was Jane Moore. Jane read a story about the life of her mother, Lorna, which was very moving and in some parts funny. Lucy Whitman summarized to say that people with dementia is not the end, you can still have quality of life. This prompted one of the members of the group who got up to speak and say that she did not feel that dementia has reduced her quality of life.
The book reading session was followed by dancer Tija Hubej who studied Dance and Music at Ljubljana in Slovenia, She has been dancing since the age of 3 years old. Members were able to learn various dance steps from Italy, Hungary and Spain and also famous ballet dances. This inspired all the members to continue dancing to further Greek Music led by one of the members who knew the Zorba dance.
Zoe Garbett from Barnet Council and Sadie from Visbuzz came to show us a new communication device called Visbuzz. This is a one touch technology on a tablet. Visbuzz aims to connect people who don’t have social contact by providing them with a simple tablet which only allows video calls to family, friends, practice nurses etc. For more information visit:
Barnet Council are commissioning 100 of the devices for a pilot to residents who fit the criteria. See Barnet’s web site:
http://barnet.gov.uk/citizen-home/search.html?keywords=visbuzz
Sgt John Hourihan, from Brunswick Park and Totteridge Neighbourhood Policing gave a talk about Community Safety providing tips for avoiding ‘scams’. He spoke about ‘smart water’ to mark and trace your goods if they are ever stolen. He had various safety products for doors and windows. Everybody was very interested and a lot of questions were asked on various policing matters.
We are delighted to announce that we celebrated today not only the fact that this is our 4th Dementia Club in the Borough of Barnet but also this is the first dementia café opening in a Synagogue open to all faiths. This is a new partnership with Sha’arei Tsedek and a new Interfaith venture. As we live in a society which is so multicultural, we believe it is important that we work together to combat the challenges in life. Dementia hits us all.
We had a special guest – Lady Poppy Cooksey who is the Master of the Guild of Freemen of the City of London. She selected the Dementia Club UK as one of her beneficiaries from her year as Master. Lady Cooksey presented a cheque to the Dementia Club UK. Lady Cooksey spoke about her year as Master and the fact that she is the 7th lady to be Master. This is a great achievement and everyone congratulated her. This followed with some questions and answers as people wanted to know what the Guild of the City of London was about and also about the various Liveries and great City Halls. Everyone was also fascinated by her impressive chain and badge representing the Guild of Freemen of the City of London. Other guests included;
Rabbi Judith Levitt
Rabbi James Baaden
Father Gregory Platten – All Saints Church in Whetstone next to the Synagogue
Richard Woolf – Chair of Sha’arei Tsedek
Rabbi James Baaden wanted to say a few words to express how delighted he was with our new partnership and to commend our new Interfaith venture. We then had exercise and dance to music which everyone enjoyed.
