Residents of a Harpenden care home have been getting crafty this month, contributing to the community’s collaborative project.
Field House Care Home was invited to join ‘Bloom Club’, a community project organised by charity Wholehearted Childhood, to keep residents entertained and enable them to be part of the community while in lockdown.
Funded by the coronavirus community support fund, Bloom Club is a nature-based, arts community project. It is working with other inter-generational groups across Hertfordshire to bring everyone together, including foster families, schoolchildren and the elderly.
Field House was gifted with a craft kit and plants and used the petals to create a yellow dye which then coloured the material and enabled each resident to sew together a small felt flower.
The decorative flowers will be shared with the Bloom Club to be assembled together with flowers created by other community groups for a unified piece of floral art, with each flower having been made by a different person from the area.
Helen Nistala, director at Wholehearted Childhood, said: “It’s wonderful to be working with Field House and to see different generations connected through a shared creative endeavour. The flower garland is going to be a lovely symbol of how communities pull together through difficult times.”
The garland will go on display at Highfield Oval, Harpenden – where flowers for dyeing, drying and arranging will be grown to enable more nature-based, community crafts to take place in the future. It will also take a tour of Hertfordshire, visiting the care homes and schools of those involved, with a stint at Field House in December.
Home manager at Field House April Parrott-Carter, added: “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed being part of Bloom Club. It’s been a fun and engaging project for our residents to be involved in and allowed them to stay connected to the community, of which most have been heavily involved in for most of their lives.
“We’re particularly excited to proudly display the finished garland here at the home in December and will be interested to see if the residents can spot which flower is theirs.”For more information on the community project, visit Wholehearted Childhood’s website.
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