Stand up Gardening

BHV holds many gardening events but most require the ability to kneel or lift. Members with mobility issues were missing the opportunity to dig in the dirt.  To try and address this, BHV rented a stand up garden table from the Montgomery County Department of  Parks. This table allows people to do stand up gardening. Montgomery County has fourteen community gardens with a variety of different sized plots. Each Community Garden has several garden tables available.  A garden table is a raised garden bed that is around 200 square feet. With a garden table you can stand up and lean on a walker or cane and garden. For the 2024 growing season it cost $35 to rent a garden table from Montgomery County.  For most of the community garden plots there is a multi-year wait list; however, the County reserves several standup garden tables for those with disabilities.  Consequently BHV was able to rent a standup table for the 2024 growing season.  When a growing table or plot is rented for the season, you must commit to providing 8 hours of volunteer services such as weeding during the season.  The person from BHV who rented the garden table on behalf of BHV, and is serving as the coordinator, does not have limited mobility.  He committed to performing the required 8 hours of volunteer chores.  

BHV advertised the standup garden table and recruited several members who have mobility issues and want to garden.  They have met, selected what they want to plant, purchased seeds and plan to purchase a few plants later in the season.  Since the gardening table is elevated, it requires frequent watering.  The gardeners are collaborating to work out a watering schedule. 

Learning to Use Virtual Reality Goggles

During the winter months BHV offered training on how to use Virtual Reality (VR) headsets as a way for people with mobility issues to be outdoors. A group of BHV members learned how to use VR headsets and provided feedback about whether the experience brought them closer to nature and reduced feelings of social isolation. 

BHV partnered with the Montgomery County Office of Broadband to provide the headsets, AARP Senior Planet to provide the training, and a nearby hospital to provide the training site and WIFI access. The County’s Office of Broadband made six VR Oculus headsets available. The BHV VR training program consisted of five one-hour classes. This was the first-time the County and Senior Planet had conducted this class, so they made the training available to BHV members at no cost since BHV was willing to serve as a test site.  Using the BHV website, newsletter, and word of mouth marketing, eight BHV members were recruited to participate in the class. None of the participants had ever tried VR goggles before.

At the first session, the group became familiarized with the headsets. At subsequent sessions, each person proceeded at their own pace.  The instructions covered: set-up of the headsets, how to use the controls, safety guidelines, comfort settings, and troubleshooting. Virtual Reality experiences available during the sessions included a tour of Baltimore and Washington, DC, watching a bumble bee, a virtual visit to a German beer garden, playing ping pong and going fishing.

Class participants were very enthusiastic about having the opportunity to try something that was new. They provided positive feedback in the class; however, they were somewhat disappointed that they did not have access to a wider variety of VR experiences. 

Considerable time was initially spent on equipment issues: charging the devices, connecting with WIFI, adjusting the headsets, establishing a boundary, and learning how to use the controllers. There were some initial issues with having enough consistent and fast enough WIFI to support the devices. By the end of the program all the participants could put on and adjust their headsets, some with help, and locate and manipulate the available VR experiences.

At the conclusion of the five sessions a survey was conducted to obtain qualitative comments from the participants. The findings were as follows:

• All the participants said the goggles were comfortable after adjusting.

• More than half the participants said that the WIFI connection was an issue and caused interruptions.

• At the end of the class 20% of the participants reported they didn’t like the experience, 20% liked it right away, 60% got used to VR goggles. 

• 75% of the participants said they would do a VR class again.

• Many of the participants said the nature experiences would have to be of a higher quality to be a substitute for being outside. 

• Based on the experiences available, the participants reported nature is best experienced out of doors.

• Participants said they would like to be able to use VR to “travel” to places that were exotic such as national parks or to go on a safari.

• The general comments as to whether VR would help with loneliness were that using the goggles was somewhat isolating but being a part of a weekly class and helping each other during the class was satisfying and reduced loneliness. 

Drives in the Neighborhood

A simple event that got top ratings was providing car rides to beautiful neighborhood settings for those who no longer drive and have difficulty walking.  BHV provided several 30-minute car rides through a nearby neighborhood that has spectacular cherry blossom trees in the beginning of Spring. We picked a beautiful spring day at an early afternoon time when there would be very light traffic. We took a circuitous route making several zigs and zags to enjoy the gorgeous blooms and blossoms.  One of the participants said: “ Thank you so much for today's drive.  It meant a lot to me.  I love the cherry blossoms, and seeing them gives me deep pleasure.  You mapped out the drive.  I think you showed us every impressive cherry tree in our area.”