Covid 19 coronavirus: Crafty ideas keep Northland resthome lockdown blues at bay

Radius Baycare resident Pat McIlwaine shows off a couple of her “towel teddies”. Photo / supplied

What do you do if you're locked in at a resthome and you can't have your preschool friends around to visit?

One answer to that dilemma is to spend your lockdown time making toy bunnies as presents for the next time you meet.

Pauline Ferris, activities manager at Radius Baycare in Haruru, near Paihia, said the resthome was under strict lockdown with no visitors allowed.

While the residents had staff and each other for company within their bubble, they were missing out on family visits and their monthly get-togethers with the youngsters of nearby Paihia Early Childhood Centre.

The resthome was organising Skype and Facetime calls to make sure residents still had visual contact with family members, but Ferris also wanted to keep up their connection with the preschool.

Then, when someone donated a giant box of brand-new face cloths and hand towels, she hit on the idea of turning them into toys, tweaking a tip she'd seen on the craft-sharing website Pinterest.

Dot Sowry with a pair of lockdown bunnies made for the children of Paihia Early Childhood Centre. Photo / supplied

On Friday the residents started transforming face cloths into bunnies. By Tuesday they hadn't lost any of their enthusiasm and were turning hand towels into teddy bears.

Peggy Adams, 87, said the towel teddies were destined for charity and Paihia preschool children.

''We've already done rabbits out of face cloths. They look quite good,'' she said.

''We're trying to be creative, otherwise we'd be bored stiff during lockdown."

Baycare resident Peggy Adams says she’d be ‘‘bored stiff” during lockdown if she couldn’t be creative. Photo / supplied

Ferris said the blokes who weren't quite so keen on making bunnies were instead building a robot from cardboard rolls.

Lockie the Robot would guard the front entrance with a notice reminding would-be visitors of the current Covid alert level.

In normal times Baycare residents and Paihia Early Childhood Centre children spend every first Thursday of the month together.

Baycare resident Scully George shows off some of the residents’ handiwork. Photo / supplied