Events & Entertainment | Posted on October 9th, 2025 | return to news

Care homes spread good cheer on World Smile Day

Celebrated on the first Friday of October every year, World Smile Day produced giggles and good cheer at care homes in Dorset and Hampshire.

Residents and staff at Colten Care homes chose a host of positive ways to have fun during the annual celebration – to perform simple acts of kindness to spread goodwill and make others happy – there were both individual acts and initiatives by entire home teams.

At Fernhill, a dementia care home in Longham near Bournemouth, the grins and laughter centred around a fancy dress parade, a photobooth, pizza making and pulling funny faces.

Resident Kiki Tormey said: “It was a day full of fun that brought my friends and I all together.”

At Bourne View in Poole, residents provided answers to a question posed by staff: ‘What makes you smile?’

In response, Irene Whyment wrote on a whiteboard: ‘Physical activities and getting my hair done.’

In the New Forest, residents and staff at Woodpeckers home in Brockenhurst tried out 19 different smiles for themselves, took a host of selfies and enjoyed an exercise class to music.

June Farrow and Edna Brien were among those laughing with Companionship Team Leader Jane Bunker who was dressed in a monkey outfit.

Smile Day was invented by the late American commercial artist Harvey Ball, creator of the original and iconic smiley face graphic in 1963.

The annual occasion is organised and promoted by the World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust Harvey founded in 1999 to support children’s causes.