Videos of care home residents dancing to Dolly Parton and Sia have received almost 6 million views around the world.
Staff and residents at Ashworth Grange care home in Dewsbury have been filling their afternoons with fun and laughter by creating a series of entertaining videos on social media app Tik Tok, which has seen them rise to global fame.
Since launching their account just two weeks ago, residents at the 64-bed care home have amassed over 58,000 followers, receiving a combined total of over 982,000 likes across their videos. Residents were overwhelmed to find one of their TikToks, dancing to hit song ‘Cheap Thrills’ by Sia, has received over 4 million views, 620,000 likes and 16,000 positive comments, whilst another video recreating Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ racked up an impressive 1.8 million views.
The videos have been a great morale booster for the whole home and staff cannot believe how much the residents are enjoying creating the fun videos.
TikTok ambassador at Ashworth Grange, Amy Fairest, who organises, films, edits and features in many of the viral videos alongside residents, said: “Creating the TikToks with our residents has been brilliant. Everyone wants to get involved and I have new content ideas suggested to me every day, they just cannot wait to film the next one! It is excellent to see all the support we have had from the online community- it was completely unexpected! Our residents have been overwhelmed to see the likes and views going up and up and into the millions. Each time we upload a new video, our residents are aiming to beat their previous records!”
Alongside recreating music videos, the Ashworth Grange residents have also taken part in many ‘TikTok trends’, such as the ‘Wipe it Down’ challenge, as well as recreating clips to well-known chart songs.
Everyone was really excited to discover just how far their videos have reached, after seeing comments from Australia, the USA, Norway, Russia, and even Brazil.
Resident Theresa Thornton, 94, who has lived at Ashworth Grange since 2015, said: “Filming the videos has become a real highlight of my week! I feel really relaxed in front of the camera and love to give the team suggestions for what we can do next!”
Another resident, Peter Burton, said: “I think it is unbelievable just how many people have watched our videos – I always try to imagine how a crowd of 6 million people would look, and that is how many people who have seen us! It is so hard to pick which video is my favourite, but I do love to re-watch the Dolly Parton music video as it was so fun to create!”
Home Manager Paul Rowson said: “The Tik Tok videos have been great, our residents love creating them, and I think they help to give an insight into the fun and upbeat atmosphere we have here at Ashworth Grange. To think that it all started as a bit of fun, we never expected to get so many likes and followers, but the support has been amazing!”
You can view a compilation of the videos here.
To follow on Tik Tok, search @Ashworthgrange.
