It is with pleasure that I’d like to give you a progress report on Memory Café. It started in July of this year with 4 participants. It then moved up to 12 members. Now going into November there are 19 members.
Memory Café meets once a month on the first Monday of each month, usually from 1:00 – 3:00 in the afternoon at Saint Mark Church. It is a place where family caregivers and their loved ones with beginning to intermediate stages of dementia can come together to learn, laugh, cry and meet others in a similar circumstance.
Sometimes we sit and discuss concerns, do some easy and fun aerobics, have a snack and plan for the next meeting. Other times we go on field trips. We have had two outstanding field trips. The first, in September was a pontoon ride on Lake Keowee. We had enough people to fill two boats. What I noticed was the faces. Both caregivers and loved ones with dementia relaxed. There were smiles instead of tension. There was laughter instead of frustration. You could see couples holding hands conversing with others in the group. They loved it so much that they wanted to plan another boat ride in the Spring.
In the beginning of October, we went to Denver Downs. Everyone was able to go on the hayride. While on the hayride we stopped at a field where pumpkins grew. Each participant chose
a pumpkin, finished the ride and then went off to pet the animals, mostly friendly goats. Both trips ended with snacking and eating picnic style where we found out interesting facts about each participant.
In November we are making decorations to cover a 7-foot tall Duke Power Christmas tree. December will be a party that will conclude by visiting Duke Power to admire our tree.
Please come join us. We’d love to have you. For more information call Bonnie Holmes at 864-916-9204