Residents enjoy balloon turkey shoot

Armed with Nerf guns, the seniors set their sights on the target -- balloons with turkeys drawn on them.

Sometimes they would hit one and other times they would miss, but the goal was always the same: to shoot as many turkeys as possible before running out out ammo.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Mission at Castle Rock Rehabilitation Center residents kicked off Thanksgiving with a turkey shoot.

CRRC activities director and volunteer coordinator said she got the idea from Pinterest, which is where she gets a lot of her ideas for activities.

The object of the game was to shoot as many turkeys as possible. Each turkey had a different point value. Whoever got the most points won a candy bar of their choice.

"They loved it," Schuh said. "They were laughing and some of them actually got very competitive."

But that's not all the game is good for.

"It's a great range of motion and dexterity activity," Schuh said. "It's good for exercising some of their fine motor skills. We want to keep our residents as agile and independent for as long as we can. What better way than through healthy competition?"

About 20 residents attended the turkey hunt. Schuh said shooting Nerf guns is something most of the residents enjoy doing.

"They love shooting the Nerf guns," she said. "We try to do a Nerf gun activity every couple months."

Each participant had 10 shots to try and get as many points as they could. Surprisingly, the group did pretty well.

"Nerf guns aren't the easiest to hit accurate targets, especially for our residents, but they rocked it," Schuh said.

Plus, Schuh noticed the residents also had a lot of conversations and socializing throughout the program.

"We will definitely do this activity again," she said.