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Westmount Gardens car wash makes a splash
Wheelchair and walker wash is followed by mocktails, music and a water fight
10/14/2026
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Deron Hamel
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A drive-through “car wash” for residents to clean their wheelchairs and walkers is one of the latest creative ideas the Westmount Gardens life enrichment team has come up with.
Held in the London, Ont. long-term care community's large courtyard, the event had all the trappings of a real car wash, including streamers to clean those hard-to-reach spots, as well as “Welcome to the Car Wash” and “Proceed with Caution” signs.
Residents took their wheelchairs and walkers through the decorated route, where they were cleaned before making a half-circle back to the seating area, where they could socialize with their friends over mocktails and alcohol-free beer while music played, explains Adnan Resh, Westmount Gardens' life enrichment manager.
Adnan says the car-wash program was not a spur-of-the-moment idea. Life enrichment team members wanted to ensure that this would be a fun and engaging event, and it took several weeks of planning, so all the details had to be worked out, from the decorations to the cleaning supplies needed, he adds.
The fun continued after the last wheelchair went through the wash, when team members brought out water guns for a water fight that had originally been planned in summer but was cancelled because of a heat wave.
What began with team members soaking each other soon escalated to residents getting involved in the fun.
“The water fight encouraged the residents to join in, as they could see how much fun it was, so a few residents got the water guns and started getting us, including me, so, of course, I got the resident back – I sprayed their feet and they just laughed and kept spraying me and the others,” Adnan tells S&R Today.
“Some staff ran away to avoid getting sprayed – that was really fun to see.”
Life enrichment team member Li Boone told Adnan the event brought out her “child side” and that she had “so much fun.”
“And I could see that; she was having a blast,” Adnan says.
Towards the end of the event, it started to rain, so the timing had been perfect, Adnan says.
“Overall, this was such a fun program, and I got to see a lot of laughing and engagement,” he says.
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