About a dozen residents of St. Joseph's Bluffs nursing facility made magnetic butterflies Wednesday afternoon to welcome summer's imminent arrival in Jefferson City.

Members of the Bittersweet Garden Club worked with seniors to created small and colorful foam insects as part of the club's Garden Therapy program. Club members make regular stops at area nursing homes to engage residents in activities and raise spirits.

The activities oftentimes challenge residents to concentrate, work on small projects or communicate with volunteers and staff members.

The seniors on Wednesday layered colored foam on the cutout butterflies' wings and bent small, multi- colored pipe cleaners into loops to represent the butterflies' antennae.

Seniors might squint and dip their heads closer to the work occasionally, to get a better look at what they were doing, but would soon smile at the outcome.

Charlie Beavers, a 77-year-old resident from Jefferson City, talked as he worked.

"Now that's a butterfly," he exclaimed as he finished his project.

Beavers said he is an auto mechanic. He's worked on everything -- but his favorite make of vehicles is Chevrolet.

"If I had nuts and bolts, I could make it run," Beavers said.

He said he continued working on cars into the age when computers became integral to their operation. That slowed him down a little, Beavers said.

"My car was a '65 Chevrolet. I had a '69 before that," he said, smiling.

At one time, he drove a four-wheel-drive, he added.

Frank Javersak, a 94-year-old man from South Dakota who recently moved into the facility, reminisced about years he spent as a firefighter in places like South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. He said he spent some time in California and Oregon, too.

While in Oregon, he liked going fishing and gaffing (using a gaff hook to land a fish) in small rivers with friends. The amigos would fly fish together. Javersak said he would tie his own flies (and suggested somehow connecting a hook to the butterfly he had just finished creating).

"It was the best fishing in the country," he said.

Print Headline: ‘Butterfly magnets’ brighten seniors’ days

Copyright © 2022, News Tribune Publishing

This document may not be reprinted without the express written permission of News Tribune Publishing.