Eager for the carnival to start later this week, residents pose in front of a kiosk with candy floss and popcorn. On the left is Donna Taplette and on the right Connie Schrock with Masterpiece Southland Meadows resident therapy dog, Cooper, in the middle.--NEWS PHOTO GILLIAN SLADE
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
There is nothing like a carnival to generate a Stampede spirit in a seniors’ residence after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted a little.
Masterpiece Southland Meadows rolled out a week of festivities Monday with a newly created onsite museum.
“If they can’t leave why can’t we bring it to them,” said Michelle Klimosko, recreation co-ordinator for Masterpiece.
It started with an idea and a posting on Facebook asking for exhibits and emerged into a five-room display plus a gallery in the hallway.
Residents Berta and Fred Gardner were taking it all in with their daughter Judy Hill, who was enjoying a visit with them.
“It’s wonderful to see. I think it must have been a lot of work (to arrange),” said Berta.
Klimosko says the museum had to be very visual with little need to touch anything so that health guidelines during COVID-19 could be easily adhered to.
The entrance boasts an attractive wall display of posters depicting significant moments in history. There is a Western room with plenty about cowboys and Medicine Hat Stampede, some artifacts that will have residents walking down memory lane when they look at ancient irons and a spinning wheel. There are vintage dresses and hats, a portrait dating to 1876 and an old typewriter.
Together with an old school desk there is a hardcover textbook: The Canadian Speller, Book one for Grades three to six.
Klimosko says many residents made personal collections available, including a rock and fossil collection and an attractive piece of old driftwood.
The Titanic Room, with many of the items kindly provided by Medicine Hat Musical Theatre, was a favourite of the Gardners. Berta commented on the life jackets that have pockets holding squares of Styrofoam to facilitate flotation.
For those with a British heritage the English room was attracting attention on Monday. Personal scrapbooks going back to the 1950s display clippings of the Royal family. A set of fine china with a flurry of pink roses and a canteen of cutlery hearken back to a time when special dinners were almost always served on the best china.
The museum will remain in place for one month and from time to time documentaries will be shown on wall mounted TVs in each of the rooms. Klimosko says this will allow for small gatherings.
In another area of the building it looks like a carnival is about to begin with stalls boating candyfloss and popcorn.
