Residents at Fountains enjoyed an Easter flower arranging session with Sue which was our third zoom class in recent months.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed making daffodil pots for our Easter Sunday centre pieces.
Our residents have become quite skilled at flower arranging, thanks to Sue’s classes and this session saw residents using cocktail sticks to secure their daffodil stems and ribbon to decorate.
The pots would not have been complete without a few Easter chicks.
It was a lovely way to spend Maundy Thursday and we are extremely grateful to Sue for hosting these classes.
Sue retired in 2015 and took up floristry as a hobby and achieved level 1 & 2 in qualifications.
Sue’s mom was living with dementia in a care home in Southham at this time and she lived there from 2011 to 2018.
Sue started volunteering at the home and leading workshops for residents. It was a wonderful way for Sue to connect with her own mom and her new friends. Sue loved how the flowers and smells would evoke memories of weddings and other special occasions enjoyed.
It became so successful that Sue approached many supermarkets for out of date flowers and Marks & Spencer’s put Sue in touch with “neighbourly”. This is a link that companies contact if they have out of date supplies. Sue registered and started collecting weekly flower donations from Marks & Spencer’s and the workshops began to flourish.
However Covid arrived and everything slowed down so Sue started picking up, where charities had to stop and for over a year now Sue has been collecting flowers daily and distributing them to care homes and hospitals for everyone to enjoy.
After connecting with Fountains, following several deliveries Sue kindly agreed to try flower arranging by Zoom. It was a strange concept and no one was sure how it would work but we’re on zoom session 3 so we’ve all seen the benefit!
Sue is very much looking forward to when she can come into the home and carry out these wonderful sessions face to face and once again connect and interact with our residents. And we mirror this.
A huge thank you to Sue and all the other volunteers doing amazing work, from all the residents and staff team Fountains care home.
Happy Easter everyone!
