Excitement is building at Royal Oak Village in Lacombe's north end as seniors suffering from dementia will have access to a new outdoor courtyard this summer.

(President of the Lacombe Rotary Club Mark Kenney & Fran Kimmel from the Memory Care Cottage at Royal Oak Village - photo courtesy Lacombe Rotary Club)

The Memory Care Cottage at Royal Oak provides a locked door setting to 22 seniors with dementia, and with safety and wandering concerns, outdoor access for these residents is often limited.

Family Council Chair Fran Kimmel says sunshine and fresh air however just have such a positive impact on their residents.

“The research shows that there are tremendous benefits for being outdoors for people, it helps with all kinds of psychological issues, it just brings a feeling of well-being, and particularly if people can come and go as they choose, so it allows more independence.   We have a number of people who I think will be quite interested in gardening and doing many of the things they used to do when they were younger”.

Work started on the project last summer with fencing a green space on the west side of Royal Oak Village.

Now it's all coming together thanks to some generous donations, as they get set to install a sidewalk soon according to Kimmel.

“The Rotary Club has been so generous and they provided us with a cheque for $6,000, which is going to pay for the installation of the sidewalk.  D&M Concrete is donating all of the concrete, and the County of Lacombe is pitching in with gravel to help with the underlay and they are also going to pull away our sod.  We’re so fortunate, we’re thrilled”.

Christenson Communities and the Lacombe Legion contributed to the fencing of the green space last year, a grant from the City of Lacombe is helping with the purchase of recreation equipment and benches and the families have also donated to the project.