Senior Inclusion Program Carroll County Government

07/08/2016

Our busy days continue to keep us away from Facebook. These photos show what retirement is like in the Senior Inclusion Program. It's no wonder everyone goes home ready for a late afternoon nap! Our days have been filled with music (thank you, Laura Gibson, who is so much more than a harpist!), abstract art, sewing classes, exercise, a chocolate fountain (a chocolate fountain!!!??), and a lot of camaraderie and laughter.

06/21/2016

Not only was today a special outing for lunch at the Greene Turtle, but can you tell how we celebrated National Selfie Day?

06/17/2016

It's time to play catch up since we've been so busy the past 10 days that we haven't had a chance to get on Facebook! June has been filled with a whirlwind of activities. Check out our new Wednesday Weather Watchers club! Everybody loves talking about the weather, checking out the weather, and waiting for the weather to change, so we decided to start a weather club.

With the changing of the seasons, we needed to change the bulletin board. So, of course, everyone voted on a beach theme. Here you can see Bruce painting the sand castle with glue, which was then covered with sand, of course! Next, everyone made their own personalized beach ball. Be sure to stop in and check out the SIP bulletin board when you are in the senior center.

We decided to pass on lunch in the senior center one day and learn to make our own healthy pizzas. We discovered that you can put just about anything on pizza! We experimented with quite a variety of vegetables and absolutely every style and version got a thumbs up! And in the process we learned a lot about working together in teams.

Check out the rest of the photos to see all of the other fun activities we've been up to! Hopefully we won't be off Facebook for another 10 days!

06/07/2016

After missing last year's Therapeutic Rec Day at the Farm Museum due to rain, we made up for it this year by enjoying the beautiful weather, delicious food, Orioles mascot, feathered friends from Hashawa, and music and dancing. And it was fun to see many friends from CHANGE, Inc, The Arc of Carroll County, Service Coordination, Inc., and Rec and Parks. As we were loading up the buses to leave, the rain blew in. What more could we ask? It was a perfect day!

06/01/2016

This photo sums up what the Senior Inclusion Program is all about: friendship and a sense of community in our home in the Westminster Senior Center.

05/26/2016

Today was a day of "firsts" for some of our folks. . .expanding sewing skills and learning how to make decorative pillows, trying billiards, and an experiment with growing herbs in a hanging wall pocket. We're excited that Betty Wagner, who has been making ornaments for our members every Christmas and has donated tons of craft supplies to us, worked with some of the ladies today to teach them how to make pillows. Thanks, Betty, for sharing your love of sewing with the ladies. We can't wait for your next project!

05/25/2016

Our Wednesday was filled with a wide variety of activities from ouds to hermit crabs. What's an oud you ask? We learned about ouds and a host of other instruments this morning in another wonderful program by Laura Gibson. You can see her holding an oud in the first picture. Laura took us around the world with an interactive concert with exotic instruments. There were even opportunities to learn ethnic dances. It was a great morning filled with beautiful music and lots of fun.

Our afternoon felt a little creepy crawly to some of us as Program Aide Christina Green showed off her hermit crabs. We all learned a lot as we got up close and personal with Fluffy, Felicia, and Frisky (or was it Fedora, Fluffy, and Fiona?). They were a far cry from Christina's therapy dog, Sammi, that she has shared with us. Hmmm, I wonder what she will bring in next?

05/20/2016

It was all things Preakness today as the ladies showed off their Preakness hats and the festivities began. Diane Moore-Cook led the morning's activities. We learned all about horse racing as Diane passed around her own horse's bridle, and past races were shown on the big screen. Everyone drew numbers to see if their horse was going to win. Then folks tried their hand at designing their own racing silks as they learned about Maryland's own Sagamore Horse Farm. And, of course, no Preakness Party would be complete without a "champagne" toast! Happy Preakness weekend!

05/20/2016

05/18/2016

The senior center celebrated Older Americans Month in style with a delicious crabcake lunch (thank you Esther Baldwin, Assistant Center Manager!) followed by entertainment provided by "Rearview Window." And, of course, that led to dancing! After the delicious and fun festivities, we decided to exercise our brains with an activity focusing on Rainbow Cabbage. We learned all about capillary action and can't wait to see how the cabbage leaves change due to the work of xylem (look that one up for your next trivia game!).

05/12/2016

Once a month we head to Greenmount Bowl in Hampstead where we spend the day trying for spares and strikes and enjoying bowling alley fare. (The rest of the month we eat a nutritious hot meal at the senior center, but who doesn't like to deviate from those federal healthy food guidelines every now and then?) The jury is out as to whether the highlight of these monthly outings is the actual bowling or the food!

05/11/2016

With all of this rainy weather we haven't been able to get back to working in our raised planting beds or doing any other outside activities. But as we like to say in the Senior Inclusion Program, sometimes we have to make our own sunshine. We like to think outside the box and experiment with different media (remember the ink we made out of soaking black walnuts?). Our latest experiment was painting and stamping on styrofoam. What a great way to turn packaging material that might have ended up in a landfill into something creative!

Besides just having fun, as everyone wants to do in retirement, everyday activities can also serve a purpose. Here you will see that Vic tried his hand at being the bingo caller. We play many types of bingo, and it often serves a purpose: number recognition, object recognition in themed bingos, encouraging verbalization and leadership, following directions, and reinforcing what we learn in educational classes like sign language bingo.

We have also been ramping up our patriotic crafts in preparation for Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Our fabric wreaths have been flying out of our showcase!