ISEH ākonga organise memorable event for rest home

Two ākonga in the first year of the Bachelor of Applied Science degree at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health have been doing some great work in our community helping local rest home residents to create some special memories.

As part of the Community Project 1 course, lecturer, Shannon Booth, encouraged her students to come up with a project that would fill a need in the community – something that the students felt would make a real difference in the lives of those involved, and that “would pull on your heart strings”. Sienna O'Shannessey and Matheson Colquhoun embraced this brief and created a project that would achieve all that, and more!

Having spent some time completing placement hours in various rest homes during the first semester as part of their Intro to Health course, Sienna and Matheson recalled the conversations the residents would have with them about the things they used to do, the things they missed, and what they wish they could still do now. One particular conversation stuck with them when one of the female residents shared how she missed the opportunity to dress up in her best clothes and have an important event to look forward to, like the dances they used to attend in their younger years. This sparked the idea for Sienna and Matheson to create an event for the residents that did exactly that – gave them something to look forward to and let them dress up in their best clothes for a special occasion.

When the idea was shared with the activities coordinator and Manager at Highview Rest Home, they were 100% on board and the planning began for a formal lunch to be held on Friday the 8^th of September.

Sienna and Matheson liaised with the rest home’s kitchen staff to create a special menu for the occasion. Posters were placed on the rest home walls to advertise the upcoming event, and to help create even more excitement and anticipation for the big day, an invitation was extended to students and staff from both Otago Polytechnic’s Beauty Therapy and Hairdressing salons to help the residents ‘prepare’ for their special event with a day of pampering via manicures, pedicures, hand/arm massages and hairstyling. Residents enjoyed the treatments and commented on how much they loved the bright coloured nail polishes on offer. 

On the day, classmates joined in to help decorate the tables with balloons and floral arrangements and then took on the role of photographers and scribes during the team quiz and bingo rounds that they also ran as part of the entertainment and fun. The residents enjoyed this very much and were very grateful for all the prizes kindly sponsored by Sienna’s uncle at Robert Mark Homewares.

Sienna and Matheson were really happy with how the event ran, and called it a great success and a fantastic learning opportunity. They say their highlight from running the event was seeing the residents with such big smiles on their faces and watching them join in all of the activities, both in the lead up and on the day. They also appreciated all the positive feedback they got after the event that helped them to feel they had achieved what they set out to. 

Matheson and Sienna would like to say a huge thank you to the Beauty Therapy and Hairdressing staff and students - these two departments really added to the event by helping the residents to feel pampered and ready for their big day. And they would also like to thank Lee and Shayla from the Highview Rest Home as they helped make the students’ vision come to life.