These Boots...

photos by Eileen Melton

I'm absolutely exhausted...Today was the final performance of the Avenidas SDHC Follies. It's been quite a build up to the last 2 days.

We are very fortunate at Avenidas Senior Day Health Center to have several Foothill College classes offered to our participants. Some of these classes include Exercise, Social Change, Music Appreciation, and Creative Expression through Art. These classes are provided throughout the calendar year except for holiday breaks and a 3 week break in September. This break gives our activity staff the opportunity to put on a variety/talent show.  It is truly the event of the season!

The majority of the acts are performed by the participants but lead by our activity aides. Our participants sang, danced (mostly in chairs), acted, told jokes and generally charmed the audience. We also encouraged the staff to be part of the show as well. One of our nurses and even our director of social services agreed to be in the show and did a wonderful job. I couldn't very well ask others to be in the show if I wasn't willing to put myself out there as well....

So, I had a brilliant idea - let's do a group dance number to the old Nancy Sinatra song "These Boots are Made for Walkin'." The activity staff was all for it! Then I thought wouldn't it be funny if we danced it in rain boots?! Once thing led to another and before we knew it we were were wearing rain ponchos and plastics hats while stomping around in rain boots and twirling umbrellas. Granted, it had NOTHING to do with the text of the song, but we wanted to be silly and memorable. Our rehearsal time was limited - 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there - I think the most we ever rehearsed was 15 minutes. I would have liked to say that the performances came off without a hitch...maybe if we'd had just one more 10 minute rehearsal.  The Thursday performance was better than the performance today, but all in all it went well. We got a hearty round of applause both days.

I am very proud of my staff and our participants. None of us are ever going to be rich or famous (especially working in the non-profit sector) , but we each gave our best and had fun doing it. Every time we give of ourselves, we have the opportunity to bring a little joy into the lives of the participants. They love to see us behave with unabashed silliness and since I love to make them happy....

How did I do?