Staff and residents celebrate in style in care home’s grounds

There was a full carnival atmosphere this week at Birchwood House, the Tunbridge Wells-based care home, as staff and residents spent the day celebrating in style as it hosted its very own carnival-themed summer event.

Complete with fun and accessible fairground games, food and live music, the stunning former manor house was again transformed with brightly coloured decorations and gave residents a chance to enjoy all the fun of the fair.

The residents are at the heart of all planning for Birchwood House’s events, one of which is held every season. The beautiful, landscaped gardens were transformed with brightly coloured balloons, bunting and decorations while staff embraced the day by dressing in traditional carnival-themed outfits for a completely immersive experience.

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Residents tried their hand at classic fairground games, made accessible for all, including hook-a-duck, high striker, hoopla and a coconut shy.  Background music set the carnival scene and had the residents up and dancing.

Summer is the season for outdoor fun and so all who attended also dined on a carnival-themed ‘banquet’ which included home-cooked burgers, hot dogs and ice creams – all of which were prepared by the care home’s in-house chef, Elia. The banquet table was dressed with jars of sweets and of clown noses were on offer and allowed the residents to ‘clown around’. The home hired a popcorn, candy floss and doughnut stand to really set the scene.

Each resident was handed a ‘ticket of admission’ before accessing the carnival themed event and prizes on offer included ‘fake’ goldfish in bags, harking back to the old carnival days.

Birchwood House hosts a number of events annually and continued to do so successfully throughout the pandemic, including a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and, most recently, a 1940s Tea Dance with the theme completely chosen by the residents.

Claire Tye, deputy manager of Birchwood House, comments: “Here at Birchwood House, we’re always planning our events to ensure the residents enjoy fun and exciting seasonal activities that allow them to stay active and socialise. We have some extremely competitive residents and staff here, so we all enjoyed putting our skills to the test during the fairground games! It was also a perfect excuse to get our dancing shoes on and dance the afternoon away.”

She added, “We love to celebrate our events here at Birchwood House and are enormously proud to have again pulled out all the stops for this year’s summer carnival-themed event. It’s lovely to see the residents having such fun and being able to socialise again after the pandemic – it was a thoroughly enjoyable day for the residents. The carnival event may be finished but the memories will last forever.”

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