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Stockwood held its annual taster day on Wednesday 25th May at the South Bristol Sports Centre and it was a great success, with over 50 local residents attending and trying their hands (and feet!) at an exciting range of potential new activities.
The day started with a ‘Holiday French’ session, where attendants got a little bite of basic spoken French and had a chance to have little conversations within the group. Running alongside this was a ‘Creating with Clay’ session for people with an interest in pottery and the broad creativity that you can have playing with and moulding shapes out of clay. Several people even got a chance in the afternoon to get messy while having a go on a potter’s wheel!
While some were throwing pieces of clay upstairs, others were throwing rugby balls outside in the first ever (to our knowledge) ‘Walking Rugby’ session to take place in Bristol. The session was led by Bristol Rugby and the mixed group had a wonderful time reliving their past rugby playing days at a more suitable pace to their current years. Much like walking football, this version of rugby does not involve running or physical tacking and can be accessible to almost all older men and women regardless of disability. In testament to this we even had someone playing with his arm in a sling!
In the afternoon many enjoyed a game of ‘New Age Kurling’ which, for the uninitiated, is basically Kurling without the ice! Following this and finishing the day’s tasters, was a ‘Dance for Beginners’ session, which included learning steps from a line dance, a barn dance and some salsa to top it off.
As well as enjoying the taster sessions, all those who attended also got to visit stalls and chat to the representatives of St Monica Trust, Action on Sight Loss, Healthwatch, Well Aware, The Care Forum, The WI and the Alzheimer Societies Dementia Wellbeing Service. They also got to take part in a quiz put together to promote Stockwood’s monthly quiz at Bluebell Gardens on the last Friday of every month.
LinkAge would like to thank all that attended including the stall holders. Anyone who was unable to attend but likes the sound of any of the activities mentioned above please give LinkAge a call to register your interest on 0117 971 5873. We will be looking to start some of the new activities over the next few months.