Volunteers Bring Fun and Games to Blue Valley

Volunteers from all over Nebraska came last weekend to the Hebron Blue Valley care facilities to assist with activities such as putting on a carnival for nursing home residents, gardening at the care home and making blankets with assisted living residents.

Twenty-one women of Saved to Serve, which is part of the Women of Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, began their weekend by making tie quilts with assisted living residents Friday evening. The team completed 16 blankets that will be donated to Lutheran World Relief then be distributed overseas to needy people.

The group began Saturday at 6 a.m.  gardening at the care home.

Saturday afternoon, from 1-3 p.m., they set up and facilitated carnival games such as fish pond, pluck a duck, the cupcake walk, the drop zone, bowling and a Mt. Rushmore photo-op.

Volunteers and residents wrapped up the afternoon with root beer floats and popcorn.

“It’s good to stay busy and help people,” said Susan Watson, of Superior, a Saved to Serve volunteer. “It’s very rewarding for me.”

Watson has been with the group since its birth in 1998. Though she is not an official leader, she helps with a lot of administrative work.

The group travels 2-3 times a year to locations all around the state to volunteer.

“We just do whatever they ask us to,” said Watson. “Each one is unique with interesting things that happen.”

She recalled the last time they volunteered at Blue Valley. That weekend was more manual labor focused.

When describing the work they were doing in Hebron, she said the project was more about building relationships.

“It has educated us on how to relate to people in care centers,” said Watson.