Fun day off for care home volunteers

Kindhearted residents and staff from a Dorset care home brewed up teas, baked cakes and hosted a community gettogether at a nearby church to give volunteers a day off.

St Mary’s in West Moors holds a monthly quiz afternoon for locals which is only made possible through the efforts of a team of volunteers from the village.

Among the regular attenders are residents from Colten Care’s Brook View care home who tend to come along on a minibus trip.

Sarah Moule, Brook View’s companionship team leader, said: “We thought it would be a lovely idea to take over for an afternoon so the volunteers could have a well-earned break and, if they wanted, join in the quiz as participants.”

The offer was enthusiastically taken up by the volunteers who decided to form their own team while Sarah and colleagues devised a set of questions based on picture cards and general knowledge.

Details of the afternoon were highlighted in advance in a Sunday Service at St Mary’s which Sarah said ended up boosting the attendance.

She added: “We initially catered for 30 but there were definitely more people there than usual.

“There was lots of laughter and banter going on between teams.”

The volunteers’ table, named ‘Mary’s Little Helpers’, triumphed in the quiz, just beating the Brook View residents’ team, The Brookies, by half a point.

Cakes baked by Brook View chef Jack Wood were served by home manager Kerry Maison and customer advisor Charlotte Dean, both of whom stayed to do the washing up afterwards.

Brook View resident Pamela Clark said she always looks forward to the monthly quiz. Praising the volunteers, she said: “It’s always very warm and welcoming and we are made to feel special.”

Health & Wellbeing