ADOPT-A-NURSING HOME

Long Term Service Project:
The Adopt-a-Nursing Home program promotes coordinated Girl Scout volunteer involvement with Texas long term care facilities to strengthen and enhance the quality of their residents lives. As part of the program, the troop and the facility adopted agree to participate in the program for one year, with a minimum of four visits and may renew this agreement in one year increments. It is encouraged for troops to continue serving the same facility each year but this is not required. To participate in this program, complete the form below. Adopt-a-Nursing Home Agreement After completing the visits or service performed for your adopted facility for the year, please complete this report and send in as soon as possible.

Patch Program:
The Girl Scouts of Tejas Council, in partnership with other councils across Texas and the Texas Department of Disability Services, offer a Patch Program for troops. For more information, see TIPS or download the form below.

Suggestions
If you just want to do a one time visit or decided to adopt a nursing home, listed below are just some of the ideas that have been successful. To discover what the needs are of the facility your troop will visit, be sure to check with the Activities Director for current needs.

1. Spend time one-on-one with residents
2. Help decorate for holidays & special occasions
3. Deliver hugs and smiles
4. Assist or lead Texercise classes
5. Lead a sing-along
6. Perform skits
7. Play board games
8. Put puzzles together
9. Decorate resident's doors
10. Send hand-made birthday cards
11. Plant flowers or butterfly gardens outside resident's windows
12. Help serve meals
13. Start a quilting or knitting group
14. Record resident's histories with audio or written formats
15. Hold hands
16. Have a dance
17. Throw birthday parties
18. Stage a fashion show then and now
19. Read to residents
20. Help write letters to family members
21. Let the residents teach you a craft or song
22. Christmas Caroling in the hallways or lobby
23. Make Welcome gifts for new residents
24. Celebrate Arbor Day by hosting a tree planting ceremony
25. Design and decorate a bulletin board at the nursing home (maybe a Girl Scout board with pictures of the girls)
26. Hold hands!
27. Find out which female residents (and staff) were Girl Scouts and write down their experiences. Share stories through a resident's newsletter or facility bulletin board.
28. Make bone-shaped pillows to help support necks, backs or knees.
29. Host an old-fashioned ice cream sundae (be sure to offer sugar free treats)
30. Make or decorate picture frames for residents to display favorite pictures
31. Take along a camera for great shots of girls with residents present them as gifts in picture frames made by the girls
32. Plan and perform a puppet play for the residents
33. Hold a bridging ceremony at the nursing home
34. Make door wreaths for residents doors at Christmas
35. Make lap blankets
36. Have a manicure day with the girls painting the nails of the residents
37. Read aloud stories or poems
38. Create or maintain resident's libraries
39. Sew buttons on clothes missing buttons
40. Call bingo games
41. Read the Bible out loud
42. Have a wheel chair wash
43. Assist residents to dance, even those in wheelchairs
44. Be a hugger!