Games and activities kept the residents and employees at Atmore Nursing Center busy this week, as National Nursing Home Week was celebrated.

The week-long celebration began Monday, following Mother’s Day, and involved different activities each day at the nursing center.

Throughout the week, the interaction was a fun way for the residents and employees to enjoy each other, Atmore Nursing Center Administrator Cindy Lee said.

“National Nursing Home Week is always celebrated the week after Mother’s Day, “ she said. “There’s usually a national theme, but we didn’t follow a theme this year. Basically, we had special activities to involve our residents and our staff together. A couple things we did were resident and employee bingo; we also did resident and employee musical chairs and had a cookout Thursday and ice cream on

Friday. It’s just a way to have our employees interact with our residents and celebrate what we do.”

The impact of the week is another positive result of National Nursing Home Week.

Getting to have that time together helps bring the staff and residents closer, Lee said.

“It’s a time to do special things, so it’s nice to have some special interaction between our residents and staff,” she said. “We have so many activities that our residents and staff do separately, so this is special when we bring it all together.”

Thursday turned into a special day for the residents when the group Lorena’s Hope came out to give residents quilts.

The unique quilts were handed to more than 70 residents at the center with the work on the quilts having started at the beginning of the year, Lee said.

“They made a lap quilt for each resident, which came to about 80 quilts,” she said. “The residents were just thrilled to get them. Everybody that I saw wanted to show me their quilts. They were all colorful and unique.”

Lorena’s Hope has been handmaking quilts for nursing home residents for three years now at their home base in Baldwin County.

Members of the group, including a 95-year-old members, said they make the quilts to help residents be more comfortable and so they have something made by hand especially for them..