Summit View Senior Community is holding its first online auction to help raise funds for the Sunshine Club, a group providing stimulation for dementia patients that the community offers free of charge to residents.
Back from rom left, Diana Walters, who holds a Doctorate of Sociology, chaplain Amie Beth Kennedy and music leader Chris Casbarro lead the Sunshine Group for dementia patients at Summit View Senior Community. Summit View is holding an online auction through May 15 in order to continue to offer the program free of charge to residents."It's a very hands-on, one-on-one program that stimulates them cognitively," said Kendra Coulter, community relations coordinator at Summit View.
The club is separated into four or five groups of no more than six patients, with each group meeting three times a day, five days a week. She said activities may include listening to songs from the past or word recognition exercises.
"They are a lot more talkative and can pull things from their memory better," said Coulter of participants in the program, which started at Summit View six months ago. "It was adopted from a program in Australia to fit the needs of our residents."
Though the program is free for participants, it costs Summit View $60,000 a year to pay the staff necessary to keep the program's two-to-one ratio of patients to staff members, said Coulter. The Sunshine Club staff includes a doctor of sociology, a musical therapist and a chaplain, she said.
The online auction found at www.vintageisbeautiful.net is open for bidding until May 15 and includes items ranging from a vintage Coach bag to a training session and dinner with an Ultimate Fighting Champion to a charcoal portrait of the bidder that is worth $2,500.
Shipping is included in each item's cost. Items can be purchased through a Paypal account, said Coulter. Bidders will be notified of the items they will receive after May 15.