I finally made it out to the Washington Home Happy Hour in northwest Washington, DC with the help and life saving GPS guided direction of one of my friends : ). Just in case you ever wondered, I usually research each place that I choose to volunteer at and include that information in each posting within my blog. I think it is important to give people a little info on the why behind the what so to speak just in case somebody wants to step out there and serve. The Washington Home and Community Hospices' serves the DC area's most vulnerable citizens: the elderly, chronically, and terminally ill. It helps individuals recuperate from illnesses and return to their homes, provides long-term care for individuals whose age and illness limit their independence and provides comfort to individuals in their final stages of living through hospice care. After getting a better idea of the target group that I would be serving, I was curious to know exactly what the happy hour entailed considering that senior citizens were involved, lol..... When I think of a "happy hour", I picture overworked men and women winding down from their 9 to 5 jobs at local watering wholes across the city. On a totally related and also not related note in previous posts, I blogged about a lack of volunteers showing up to different DC Cares lead activities an dbieng put on blast for snot showing up to one of them. The funny thing was that 99% of the volunteers showed up this time but the actual volunteer leader never did! I wonder is someone is gonna send that leader a snippy email (ha)!
It turns out that the happy hour was really a time for the residents to have snacks, something to drink (aka- water), chat up the other residents and take part in a social activity. The activity of choice this time was bowling. We set up the bowling pins and gathered the surprisingly light and flexible balls inside of the activity room. We had a bowling ramp that each resident used to roll the ball down on and hit the pins. The hardest part of the whole activity was gathering the residents to actually participate in the activity. We went to each floor asked each resident if they wanted to come bowl with the group. Most residents were so intent on watching the Whitney Houston funeral that they declined to join the activity. We had to promise turn the funeral on downstairs to get them to come downstairs. One guy, who I have dubbed the King (see pic below), wanted to know what kind of snacks they were serving because if they were not up to his standards (lol) he was not gonna come downstairs with the group. Overall the experience was great and I plan on going back. This might become one of my regular spots.
