Wild West Night

As the weather cools off, it is a great time of the year to get WILD! Yes, this could mean a lot of different things to a creative person such as yourself.... a wild safari party, a wild night in Havana party, or maybe a WILD WEST party!

The residents at my independent living retirement community love this theme. It is one of those that I can repeat every few years and they look forward to it being the same - GREAT! This is what we do at my community:

• Host the event outside. Usually by the pool where there is a large flat grass area right off of the sidewalks
• Rent a large tent for the residents to sit under to dine
• I found great balloon weights that I used on the tables for decorations. They were cowboy boots.
• Erect 3 sided booths that our maintenance department made for these occasions (they come apart for easy storage)
• Decorate the boots with western concepts....... the saloon, jail, post office, canteen, tack shop, etc. Make them personalized with your communities name in the titles if you can
• These booths will house the food for your event. 
• The balloon weights can also be used in front of the chaffing dish to hold the name of the food item inside
• Create Wanted Posters  of staff members of your management team, or anyone else that your residents will recognize easily. For this you will need a few props - cowboy hats, toy guns, bandannas, toy handcuffs, etc. You will also need to be cleaver and come up with creative crimes to list for your wanted posters. (This is fun to do!)  I hung these signs inside the building to help encourage residents to walk outside...... some residents had not been to that side of our campus before.....
• I brought in horses to have simply hang out. One year, we even found a woman who had a miniature that she uses in pet therapy! Residents were encouraged to come to the grazing area and have their pictures taken with the horse.
• Of course, encourage the residents and the staff to wear their best western wear.
• And if you or anyone you know has access to a western saddle or other tack, use it for decorations.
• Get hay bales and put them around the tent. I used them to make sure no one tripped on the stakes of the tent
• The organization I work for does not allow alcohol to be a party of any programs that we put on - but if yours does allow it... don't miss out on the Saloon. It could be a lot of fun.
• Also, you might include a hay ride at this event.  
• If you need more decoration ideas, please feel free to look at the Activities Director's Store I created on Amazon.

Well, there you have it Partner! "Happy Trails" to you and those you meet along the trails.

80-odd years of happy

Flamingo Fun Fosters Future Festivities!

The flamingo is a fun and interesting bird and one more reason to party!  Party you ask? Why not! It was about time that I hosted a dance in my retirement community and I usually create a theme for the dances in order to decorate and get the residents involved. Instead of doing the same old themes based around the holidays or seasons of the year, I created a Pink Flamingo Dance.

I asked the residents to dress in pink and almost everyone did! Of course, there was a man or two who declared that he did not own anything pink, but that was fine. I even suggested that they could dress like a flamingo if they wanted, which no one did, but a few people did wear their shirts with flamingos on them. 

I bought some great decorations through Amazon such as an inflatable 4ft flamingo to take photos with and pink flamingo floating coasters that I used as floats in our lobby's fountain. I put balloon weights and pink balloons in them for the reception that was held before dinner. I also use the floating beverage holders for the centerpieces of the tables at the dance.

In the picture above you will see me wearing a hat similar to one that I saw at Amazon. I happened to have been able to borrow mine from a resident who had some other pink flamingo items. This was actually one of the first programs where I had three different residents offer decor for the event. I really think that it helped having their items not only for the obvious reason of having more stuff to use, but because they were telling their friends that I was going to be using their stuff and it helped promote the event even more!

Sometimes my events are very elegant, sometimes they are really nice and sometimes they are more fun than they are stylish. This is one of those events where it is all about having fun. I could have gone crazy with all the pink things I saw at the store (cake serving stand, cups, etc.) but I made the focus really be on the flamingos. I also found flamingos in the garden section of Walmart. In order to make them stand up inside the Lobby, I went to the craft store and bought sheets of thick Styrofoam. I covered the Styrofoam with plastic that I found in the crafts store, which had a water print on it. 

I'm sure as activities directors, you can see that this activity can be modified for any kind of animal or trendy item. I have a resident who wants me to have a Rubber Ducky Party, and ask everyone to wear yellow and share their duckies. She happens to be a collector of rubbber duckies, but since I'm not sure that others have any, I've put it off - for now. What about doing something with Smilie Faces? Or a camouflage party during hunting season  (that one is for those of you who have that.... I'm in South Florida, and that is not a season we really recognize here.) Maybe frogs would be fun?  I think you understand where I'm going with this. It doesn't have to be about Flamingos. Pick what you see around you and take it to the next level by celebrating it in your own way. If it has never been done before, it makes it even better! I find that residents give a lot of credit for thinking outside the box and let you get away more if it is not perfect. Take a risk and try something new today. It will make you feel good and your residents will be thanking you.