Poole Care Home Celebrates a Month of Kindness

World Kindness Day is an international holiday that was formed in 1998, to promote kindness throughout the world and is observed annually on 13th November as part of the World Kindness Movement. Team members and residents from Care South’s Dorset House care home in Poole have gone one step further and celebrated a whole month of kindness with many acts of generosity.

Throughout the month of November, team members and residents walked 14km to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s Society – a vital source of support for anyone living with dementia. Residents and staff at Dorset House have also recently celebrated the change of season by taking part in their very own Autumn Food Festival with various activities, including creating a delicious autumnal fruit pie as part of a Care South wide competition. After celebrating lots of seasonal food, the home donated to Poole Food bank which was followed by a church service in the home. The service was based around being thankful and the vicar, Tess thanked all residents for their support towards the food bank collection.

Team members and residents then went onto knit small mice as cat nip toys and gathered donations for Margaret Green Animal Rescue. The home received many donations which included dog beds, food, toys and blankets. This was followed by a minibus trip to Margaret Green Animal Rescue where staff and residents from Dorset House gave the donations in person and had a personal tour of the centre which was organised by Lucy Hooper, Fundraising and Communications Manager at Margaret Green Animal Rescue.

Not satisfied with all the wonderful things that they had already done, Dorset House went onto gathering more donations to make eight shoe boxes for the Samaritans Purse Christmas Child Operation. Residents took pleasure in wrapping the boxes and deciding which items to pack in each box. The home got into the festive spirit as they donned their best Christmas outfits so that they could include a picture and a personal message to let the children receiving the shoe boxes know who is thinking of them.

Activities Lead at Dorset House, Sam Baker said:
“This month has really allowed us to reflect upon kindness. It has been lovely to be able to give back to those in need and to demonstrate the amount of kindness there is here at Dorset House. We have a kindness tree within the home, and we have added some of our thoughts onto this, as well as adding the photos of all our acts of kindness which has brought lots of smiles. All our donations were supplied by family, friends and staff at the home and we were overwhelmed with everybody’s generosity.”