Piano concert outing and Thanksgiving
As the weather gets colder, it's nice to be inside the warm home - or go to a concert!
Last Wednesday, some Good Life senior residents enjoyed a piano concert outing at the Chicago Cultural Center. From Debussy to Liszt, pianist Yehong Shi showed off his skills and gave the seniors and many other people from young to old a good time.
For Thanksgiving, one of the residents at Pat Crowley House invited his family for dinner. So at 3pm, we had in total 30-ish hungry people of all ages to feed. This would have not been possible without the help of the awesome volunteers we had coming.
from left to right: Jan, Anneli and Joanna; ignore the guy in the middle, he was only eating and drinking but snuck into the picture somehow
With a smile on their faces they helped finish up the food, serve it and clean up afterwards. Thank you for everything, your friendliness and caring made our seniors' day!
Over at Nathalie Salmon House, the seniors were indulged by a homemade meal prepared by Maxx, one of the RA's and Janet McCarron, her husband and their two daughters. Janet is a good and valuable friend of H.O.M.E.: for the past 10 years, she's been an instructor at Loyola's Nursing School. She supervised nursing students who came to Nathalie Salmon House in order to provide care to the residents as part of their education.
--Janet McCarron, former instructor at Loyola's Nursing School
At noon, the family arrived to put the turkey in the oven. The Thanksgiving dinner included mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes topped with melted marshmallows, gravy, rolls, cranberry sauce and bread stuffing. For dessert, the seniors had a choice of pumpkin or apple pie with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream - yummy! The table was set with special Thanksgiving napkins, candles and each resident had a small bag of chocolates at their table.
After-dinner coffee and some words of wisdom from resident Anastasia for her server Catherine following dinner with all the trimmings. Anastasia is a skilled craftswoman who made the kitty-kat centerpiece; and later showed both McCarrons girls a sampling of her beaded creations.
While eating, the residents and the McCarrons had some nice and interesting conversations, from Medicare to the Bears' miserable season. One of the seniors said it was the best Thanksgiving dinner she had eaten in years! Thanks a lot to all of the McCarrons for that wonderful dinner.
What about you? Do you want to help and have a nice time with seniors? Then go ahead and follow the link below. It's easy!
{{cta('14292f8d-6056-43bd-8b01-3eeb8d9c84c7')}}