Last month, we launched the Excelcare Rainbow Roads project, a group-wide scheme encouraging residents to get crafty and build their own snake-like rainbow trails made from pebbles.
The trend was initially spotted online, where lines of colourful pebbles had been created in communities around the UK and added to by local people to spread joy during the COVID-19 lockdown.
After seeing this, Bailey, the daughter of Excelcare’s Chief Operating Officer, Sam Manning, decided it would be a nice idea to recreate this at Excelcare and create our own ‘pebble snakes’ in each care home.
Putting her idea into action, Bailey quickly set about creating 33 beautifully decorated pebbles, one for each Excelcare home to start their colourful ‘rainbow snakes’, which we called ‘Excelcare’s Rainbow Roads’.
It has since been taken on board by homes across the group and helped to keep residents entertained during craft sessions, whilst brightening up their outdoor spaces.
The team at Westport Care Home have been working with the residents over the last couple of weeks to make their very own rainbow road.
The people living at Westport loved giving the once plain stones colourful makeovers using bright colours, with many creating eye-catching patterns.
Denise, the Home Manager, added her very own pebble to the rainbow road which had quite a touching story behind it. It had been in her possession for over 40 years and was originally painted by her father on a family holiday. The residents enjoyed hearing this touching tale and the pebble fitted right into the rainbow road.
Now, as well as a colourful addition to the home, they have a trail made of memories and happy moments where people can go to reflect and reminisce, as many also did these types of activities as children.
The rainbow road will be added to during future craft sessions at the home and we look forward to seeing how far it will stretch in the coming months.