A 2020 Review of Activities!

This has been a challenging pandemic year, but we've managed to fit in a lot of fun for the people we support at ACR!  Changes in routines as well as restrictions on many favorite outings, activities and community events due to the pandemic caused us to get creative!

We are doing our best to make the holiday season special this year as well. We’ve started contests for all of our homes to participate in such as decorating their house for the holiday, creating gingerbread houses, and cookie decorating. We are also holding virtual holiday music sing-a-longs and sharing ideas for holiday light shows and other holiday events residents might enjoy. Zoom Santa will be interacting with residents next week!

In addition to our holiday activities, we’ve been able to facilitate a variety of new activities and events all year long for all the residents of ACR Homes to enjoy, including the following:

• A variety of fun virtual events throughout the year including sing-a-longs, music bingo, talent shows, virtual visits from pets, painting classes and adaptive dance classes
• 30 weeks of virtual art therapy sessions for interested residents led by a certified art therapist and former ACR supervisor which will continue weekly through the end of 2020
• Stay-at-Home-Coming 2020--our annual Homecoming festivities turned virtual with a week full of dress up days, competitions, and fun
• An Easter Bunny “window performance” during the Easter season where residents could experience the exciting visitor from the comfort (and safety) of their living room
• A competition for the most eco-friendly activity on Earth Day
• May Day baskets delivered to all homes loaded with at-home friendly activities such as seeds to plant, baking kits, bubbles and more
• A challenge for residents and staff to create “lifebooks” documenting the life of the resident as a keepsake for them and future staff
• A 5-day Virtual State Fair where residents participated in butter carving, eating fair foods of the day, dress-up days, and virtual activities such as the “Talent Show at the MN Virtual Grandstands”, Fair Bingo, and Bake-Off!
• “October Palooza”, encouraging staff and residents to enjoy all things fall--pumpkin carving, cider and Halloween movies, fall bake-off and a virtual Halloween dance party with costumes

Facilitating resident activities and experiences is a priority at ACR, and this challenging year has enabled us to be more creative than ever when so many favorite outings and life events have been put on hold.

Thank you to the direct care staff whose smiling faces show even beneath their masks as they made these events happen and facilitated joy through layers of PPE. They are our frontline heroes, and we are very grateful!

We wish we could share photos of every smiling face, but please enjoy a few photos of activities from throughout 2020!