Three Scenic Valley Handweavers Guild members attended the Art for the Heart event at the Morningside of Cleveland, Assisted Living Center. We had been asked through my wife Anne who is the Food Services Manager there. She and the Activities Director were doing a combined event to both entertain the residents and also any other guests/potential residents from the community. We were happy to volunteer and also had the prospect of getting a little publicity for the Guild as there was likely to be newspaper coverage.
We spent a couple of hours moving around and showing residents various aspects of spinning and weaving. Everyone appreciated the up close demonstrations and samples – everyone loved feeling how soft the alpaca roving was. Several residents had weaving or spinning connections with parents or grandparents.
An added bonus for the event was the custom snacks prepared by Anne and her staff. As something special for the residents (and me) Anne made vegemite sandwiches* and potato savories – both favorites from my childhood in New Zealand and something she quickly learned how to prepare when she worked at the early childhood center in Wellington when we lived there.
The Cleveland Banner turned up as promised and our photo’s appeared in the newspaper last night. The link is: http://clevelandbanner.com/stories/arts-for-your-heart,94835?fbclid=IwAR1_uw0J-5oNxLJq1cU3zvg2_o9E0Phm-NZ3m4EZ3GbRSZXFVExNKgS3Z_Q (I am the third photo) and along with the lead article on Anne’s cooking career a couple of days before, I think we helped Morningside of Cleveland marketing considerably.
*Almost certainly I ate the most!
This is such a wonderful thing to do for the folks at Morningside. Touch is such an important sense, and I feel that many elderly people don’t get enough of it. Of course, there’s a big difference in the touch of another person holding your hand or rubbing your feet, and the touch of a super soft alpaca roving. All kinds of touching and feeling are so important. I hope you return periodically!