In the weeks leading up to World Occupational Therapy Day (27 October 2015), Curtin Occupational Therapy students participated in a number of challenges designed to get students thinking about World OT Day and to engage with others via the School’s Facebook page.
Challenges included guessing what a handmade assistive device from the 1940s would be used for in OT practice (it turned out to be a leather cuff worn around the hand/wrist with a slot for a pen/pencil to be placed – the cuff was used by returning WWII servicemen who had lost both hands in combat); how many balls were in the ball pit in the paediatrics laboratory (there were 2589, with the closest guess being 2587); and a final cupcake challenge requiring an OT theme to the decoration.
Backrow: Staff organisers – Associate Professor Marina Ciccarelli, Emma Ashcroft and Stuart Youngson); Seated: Students -Katie Beros; Tara Durkan; Nicaela Doyle; Kate Snelling; Natalie Stefanovski; Annika Helenius
Students sold the decorated cupcakes on the University campus to raise awareness of World OT Day and to raise funds for the World Federation of Occupational Therapists to sponsor the professional development activities of OTs working in developing countries. The students raised a total of $223.70.
