Our Manchester, NH, Adult Day Program recently held its annual Holiday Craft Fair and Bake Sale, giving the folks in our Auburn Street office a head start on holiday shopping and decorating.
Adult Day participants and staff contributed a variety of handmade crafts and holiday baked goods to sell. Plenty of homemade sweet treats were available, and everything from wooden crafts like birdhouses and nutcrackers to artwork, signs, and handcrafted decorations and ornaments adorned the Adult Day hallway.
“We’ve been painting and painting for several days,” shared Sooz, an Adult Day participant.
Sooz, a talented artist and graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, lent her painting skills to many of the crafts. She explained that program staff provide participants with bare wood items, such as signs and nutcrackers, to paint as they wish. Participants build other items, like the birdhouses, themselves.
“I had such a good time doing it,” Sooz added. “It’s a real blessing being here.”
Like most of the Adult Day Program’s activities, crafting encourages the use of fine motor skills and creativity. Displaying and selling handcrafted items also instills a sense of accomplishment and pride in the participants who create them.
“It’s fun, we’ve been doing this for many, many years, and it’s really grown. We needed to find something that’s always age-appropriate and purposeful—we don’t want to do it just for the sake of doing it,” noted Senior Services Director Laurie Duff. “They find pride in it.”
The proceeds from the Holiday Craft Fair and Bake Sale—roughly $3,000 annually—go back into the program to purchase supplies for the following year’s sale. This revenue ensures a continuous creative outlet for Adult Day Program participants, who will soon begin making crafts for next year’s fair.