Care South’s Dorset House care home is full of kind people.

Instead of just marking 13 November as World Kindness Day, they celebrated a whole month of thinking of others.

Team members and residents walked 14km to raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s Society. They have also recently celebrated the change of season by taking part in their very own Autumn Food Festival with various activities, including creating a delicious autumnal fruit pie as part of a Care South wide competition. After celebrating lots of seasonal food, the home donated to Poole Food bank which was followed by a church service in the home. The service was based around being thankful and the vicar, Tess, thanked all residents for their support towards the food bank collection.

Team members and residents then went onto knit small mice as cat nip toys and gathered donations for Margaret Green Animal Rescue. The home received many donations which included dog beds, food, toys and blankets. This was followed by a minibus trip to Margaret Green Animal Rescue where staff and residents from Dorset House gave the donations in person and had a personal tour of the centre which was organised by Lucy Hooper, fundraising and communications manager at Margaret Green Animal Rescue.

Not satisfied with all the wonderful things that they had already done, Dorset House gathered more donations to make eight shoeboxes for the Samaritans Purse Christmas Child Operation. Residents took pleasure in wrapping the boxes and deciding which items to pack in each box. The home got into the festive spirit as they donned their best Christmas outfits so that they could include a picture and a personal message to let the children receiving the shoeboxes know who is thinking of them.

Activities lead at Dorset House, Sam Baker, said: “This month has really allowed us to reflect upon kindness. It has been lovely to be able to give back to those in need and to demonstrate the amount of kindness there is here at Dorset House. We have a kindness tree within the home, and we have added some of our thoughts onto this, as well as adding the photos of all our acts of kindness which has brought lots of smiles. All our donations were supplied by family, friends and staff at the home and we were overwhelmed with everybody’s generosity.”