Scoops of happiness

Thanks to Bunnings Warehouse in Mindarie, residents at Karri and Tuart Lodge, as well as Jasmine House, at RAAFA’s Merriwa estate are taking trips down memory lane while they enjoy their favourite ice creams.

This very cool initiative is the brainchild of Occupational Therapist Alison Alty, who was keen to provide seniors with a meaningful and purposeful activity that would help residents to reminisce during the summer months.

“After researching what we were keen for it to look like, I wrote a letter to Bunnings Activities Coordinator, Julie Otremba, who agreed to assist in organising their staff to make the cart for us. Well a lovely gentleman called Frank was essentially the person who made it,” she explains.

“And once he had built it the paint team took over to make it look like the real thing,” adds Alison, who says that the ice cream cart proved to be so popular as it was being built at Bunnings, that several customers offered to buy it.

“We’ve now purchased the ice cream and are hooking up a speaker so we can play the authentic music, and we’ll be treating residents to their favourite ice creams every week during summer.

“We’ll also be doing this hand-in-hand with a number of different activities, for example by using some sensory stimuli such as sand and sea shells, we can have conversations about residents taking trips to the beach in their younger years.”

The ice cream cart will feature all kinds of flavours, including various toppings such as chocolate sauce or caramel!

Congratulations to Alison and the team on this very sweet initiative, and a huge thanks to Frank and the paint team at Bunnings in Mindarie for helping it become a reality.