On Saturday, October 19, 2024, from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM, the Roslyn Branch of AYLUS volunteered at a CP Nassau Group Home in Hicksville. CP Nassau (Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County) is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing quality services for children and adults with cerebral palsy. One of their programs is to provide residential life services to adults in a healthy, safe and secure home-like living environment. The group home that we volunteered at today has 4 residents present.
Today, 5 members of Roslyn Branch came up with fun activities for the patients. We started with baking. The residents were helped with making one tray of brownies, with Halloween – themed Oreos on the inside and outside. While we were waiting for the brownies to finish baking, we started playing uno. We played two games of uno, making sure each resident had their own turn to win. After the timer went off, we cut the brownies, and sat down with the residents and enjoyed the sweets with them. The final activity was the arts and crafts. We made collages with Halloween themed stickers. These activities were fun, physically challenging for the residents, and helped us get to know them better. One resident was not willing to participate as much as the others, but as she saw how much fun everyone was having, she slowly started to open up and join us. All of the residents continued to cheer her on, encouraging her to stay engaged in the activities.
One of the challenges was disinterest from residents. One resident was not interested in any of the activities. We tried to go hand over hand, but all she wanted was to relax and sleep, however, with enough brownies, we overcame that problem. Another problem was trying to help each resident win in uno. This was due to the fact that uno is mostly a luck-based game. However, the volunteers stepped in and played with the residents while making sacrifices for the residents in order for them to win. Overall, We overcame these obstacles and had a good time.
Members who participated include:
Angelika Jiang (3 hours), Haoyang Sun (3 hours), Kyle Shih (3 hours), Maggie Xiao (3 hours),Leo Zheng (3 hours)
Reporter: Leo Zheng
