Live Life Loud 2020 Winners
Thank you all who have embraced the Live Life Loud Music to Move initiative. The videos were indeed fantastic and watching them all arrive was very exciting. This has been especially a great experience for me at Aged Care Lifestyle Consulting to work together on this project with Dr. Kate Riegle van West from SpinPoi. Promoting lifestyle in aged care and poi as a proven program with many benefits to our elders has been very close to my heart. Congratulations to all the winners, and wishing you all the best during a particularly difficult year.
– Janine Warne, Aged Care Lifestyle Consulting
Northbridge Lifecare Trust (1st Place Award)
“The video competition attracted my attention because Poi have become such a fun part of our exercise programme. Exercise and strengthening joints is the focus in our seated exercises classes and spinning one poi is the key to having our rest home and hospital residents engaged and joining in the fun. We are all over the moon having been announced the Winners.”
– Fiona Rubie, Registered Diversional Therapist, Team Leader
Northbridge Lifecare Trust. Auckland, New Zealand
The video developed into a project where my new found career as film maker took many hours learning how to edit with some help from my whanau during lockdown, both at home and over the phone. As the video keep evolving… I would ask my nearest and dearest – what do you think??! My mother is my best critic because every time it made her cry, so I thought it must be good. My husband was very patient with the Love is in the Air song played over possibly hundreds of times in our lounge as I checked and rechecked my editing. I learnt there were quicker ways of checking rather than playing it all through from the entire beginning! I watched the buffering circle go round more than was necessary…
With the final, final, final video done and dusted the residents enjoyed seeing themselves on our Smart Board TV and everyone has loved seeing our beautiful Gingernut starring in the movie. He and his brother Peanut are resident cats in our Memory Care Centre.
We are all over the moon having been announced the Winners. The prize Poi will be much appreciated and add to the momentum of what we are about and is personally especially encouraging.
Runner-Up Awards
Lyndale Care
Music and movement are an integral part of Lyndale’s daily programme; we try and combine several different ways to incorporate them into our daily exercise classes to stimulate the mind and stay active. We had a lot of fun making our video and quite a few takes trying to get everyone engaged and coordinated, the laughter was therapeutic too, also a bit of bribery went a long way by suggesting they could get famous and go viral!
Barbara Caffell, Registered Diversional Therapist
Lyndale Care. Masterton, New Zealand
Somerfield Rest Home
Somerfield is a small Dementia Resthome of 40 residents. We are currently in the process of putting in place a Music therapy action plan and reviewing how music improves the quality of dementia residents lives, both as a induvial and as part of a group. Included in this plan is the use of poi’s and remembering Maori activities during our residents school years. Often it is difficult to get residents engaged in activities, but I hope from the attached video you will see the fun and enjoyment shining in our resident’s faces. Hopefully you can also hear all the other resident singing along as well. We are also luckily to our staff member Dunhill and John Hore (Grenell) as part of our resident family who continue to share their musically talents with others.
Sue and the Somerfield Team
Somerfield Rest Home. Christchurch, New Zealand
Wimbledon Villa
In our video we included the Youth Aid Officer of Feilding, John Samuela, who amongst a number of community projects has organised several Blue Light Disco’s for the Elderly community of Feilding. He came in and played the guitar for us while we sang Tutira Mai Nga Iwi and the residents sung and swung the poi. The Poi themselves were made from wool spun and dyed from one of our residents. John had the idea of heading down to Manchester St School and asking if we could film some of the children singing Tutira Mai for us. Not only did the Matua Dicey and the kids in room J agree to sing they also agreed to part of the video by doing poi themselves. And that is how our video was made.
Latasha Tai and the Wimbledon Family
Wimbledon Villa. Palmerston North, New Zealand
Greek Orthodox Community Home for the Aged
Our residents absolutely loved the concept of SpinPoi which was introduced to them as a new fun activity with the added bonus of being Covid safe. We made a Poi for each individual resident and they loved the freedom of this gentle therapeutic exercise. They loved the colours of their socks and matched them to the ties. We laughed, we sang, we frolicked and we encouraged everyone to play SpinPoi. Feedback from our residents….
“How wonderful to stretch our arms, play and be free. We need to do this more often.”
“My arms, shoulders and hands feel great. Now find something like this for my legs.”
“Thank you for coming all together and having so much fun with us and with something new too.”
Diana Rizos
Greek Orthodox Community Home for the Aged. NSW, Australia
Thank you to our sponsors Aged Care Life Style Consulting, SpinPoi, the New Zealand Society of Diversional Recreational Therapists Inc., and Diversional & Recreational Therapy Australia.
For information on next year’s competition, follow Aged Care Life Style Consulting and keep an eye out for announcements on Live Life Loud 2021!