Nursing home residents and snowball fights are an unlikely combination, but residents at the Good Samaritan Society–Luverne became the exception to the rule thanks to a bit of creative thinking from staff.
Ten of the Luverne, MN, nursing home’s 43 residents lined up behind two tables decorated with cardboard fortifications and well-stocked with ‘snowballs’ made of stuffing and other soft materials. The teams threw the snowballs at each other while staff scrambled to keep up and restock the cushy ammunition.
The late-December snowball fight activity was just one of many ways the Luverne facility keeps its residents physically active without the intimidation or boredom that can come with traditional workouts. Marissa Nelson, activity director at Luverne, said the main goal was to get residents moving.
“The game was to use active range of motion,” Nelson told McKnight’s, “which then helps with independence, increases coordination and also helps reduce joint sickness.”
Nelson said the facility usually holds two or three similar events each week — trying to entice residents to join with fun seasonal themes, unusual activities and attention-grabbing titles.
“I make the workouts sound very interesting,” Nelson explained. “I think for Halloween I did ‘The Wheel of Death.’ [The residents] didn’t know what it was, but it was a workout.”
Despite being playfully tricked into a workout, the residents enjoyed themselves. Mary Anderson, a resident with a keen eye for puns, told Souixland Proud that she “had a ball.”
That sense of fun and social connection was just as important as the physical activity, Nelson said.
“When we get people to come down it is to get them out of the room and just to be a part of a group and see the other residents throughout the day,” she said.
Nelson was certain the facility’s residents will have another chance to battle in the snow in the future — though probably with a new, clever name to entice residents to join the fun workout activity.
