{"id":2483,"date":"2025-04-29T17:21:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T17:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/?p=2483"},"modified":"2025-06-12T18:33:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:33:03","slug":"national-volunteer-week-celebrating-the-waves-of-compassion-at-caressant-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/2025\/04\/national-volunteer-week-celebrating-the-waves-of-compassion-at-caressant-care\/","title":{"rendered":"National Volunteer Week: Celebrating The Waves Of Compassion At Caressant Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-size:18px\">When weekends feel a little too quiet, Pauline Howard brings colour, conversation, and connection to the halls of <a href=\"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/cobden-home\/\">Caressant Care Cobden Retirement Home<\/a>. With her craft class on the weekend and a warm smile on her face, Pauline turns a simple weekend into something special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">This <a href=\"https:\/\/volunteer.ca\/national-volunteer-week\/\">National Volunteer Week<\/a>, we\u2019re proud to highlight volunteers like Pauline, whose small gestures create lasting memories. The 2025 theme, \u2018<em>Volunteers Make Waves<\/em>,\u2019 celebrates the power of volunteerism to inspire, uplift and connect. Every act of kindness ripples outward, shaping a stronger, more caring community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Pauline\u2019s connection to Caressant Care runs deep. Her mother has been a resident for almost ten years, and through regular visits, Pauline saw a chance to do more. \u201cI enjoy the chats\u2026 I just enjoy the people. I\u2019m a people person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Wanting to brighten up quiet weekends, she began leading Saturday morning craft sessions for residents. \u201cI usually arrive at 9:30 to set up, and we always have treats after the craft. I like to give everyone time to relax and enjoy their morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Pauline\u2019s thoughtfulness shines through in her approach to crafting. When she plans her craft sessions, she always considers the residents&#8217; abilities, making sure the projects are accessible to everyone, even those who may have limited mobility or dexterity. &#8220;You don\u2019t always think about that when you\u2019re putting crafts together, that they might not have the mobility or dexterity in their hands,&#8221; she shared. \u201cSo, if I\u2019m looking at one, I always make sure it\u2019s something that they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">When asked what volunteering means to her, she said, \u201cSometimes all you need to do is smile at someone, and they\u2019ll smile back. That\u2019s enough. I always leave with a good heart. It feeds my soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Clip1_Pauline_CC_National-Volunteer-Week.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">She is one of many individuals at Caressant Care who give their time to brighten someone\u2019s day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Another familiar face is Diane Bulmer, now in her late 80s, who has been volunteering at Caressant Care for nearly 20 years. A former kindergarten teacher at Cobden Public School, Diane shares her gift for music by playing the piano for residents. Despite having limited eyesight, she jokes with a smile that it \u2018doesn\u2019t affect her fingers.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Each week, Diane\u2019s music fills the house with warmth. Even after losing much of her eyesight to macular degeneration, Diane continues to play entirely from memory, creating monthly themed song sets that residents can sing along to. \u201cThey know the old songs,\u201d Diane says with a smile. \u201cOnce you get them started, they just keep going. They love it.\u201d Residents gather around the piano, singing and chatting as they enjoy the familiar melodies. \u201cI love that it brings smiles to the residents,\u201d Diane says. \u201cYou can see the little toes tapping sometimes \u2026 because it&#8217;s bringing back happy memories.\u201d Diane\u2019s performances are a highlight at Caressant Care Cobden. As Doris, the home\u2019s Activity Coordinator, shared, &#8220;If you hear Diane play, it\u2019s like none other. She just makes that piano talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">Diane credits the leadership of Doris, Cobden&#8217;s Activity Director, and Laurie, the home\u2019s Retirement Manager, for the success of the volunteer program at Caressant Care Cobden. As she explains, \u201cBut without the leaders that we have here, Doris, and Laurie, it wouldn\u2019t work the same,\u201d adding, \u201cCaressant Care Cobden is in wonderful, caring, loving hands. I wanted to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\"><br>Her advice to others thinking about volunteering?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\">\u201cWhen you help someone, you get that good feeling. I\u2019d tell anyone thinking about volunteering to just try it. You\u2019ll learn to love it and get to know the residents. Sometimes, all they want is someone to talk to. And if you can be a good listener, that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Clip2_Diane_CC_National-Volunteer-Week.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:18px\"><br>This National Volunteer Week, Caressant Care Homes would like to send a big thank you to all of our incredible volunteers, activity directors and everyone who takes the time to visit and connect with our residents. Your kindness makes such a difference \u2014 one craft, one song and one smile at a time.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When weekends feel a little too quiet, Pauline Howard brings colour, conversation, and connection to the halls of Caressant Care Cobden Retirement Home. With her craft class on the weekend and a warm smile on her face, Pauline turns a simple weekend into something special. This National Volunteer Week, we\u2019re proud to highlight volunteers like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15,35,36,31,32,33,19,34],"class_list":["post-2483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-caressant-care-activities","tag-caressant-care-retirement-homes","tag-cobden","tag-national-volunteer-week","tag-nvw2025","tag-retirement-homes","tag-retirement-ontario","tag-seniors-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2486,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483\/revisions\/2486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caressantcare.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}