Community Christmas dinner for local residents

Community Christmas dinner for local residents

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Turkey with all the trimmings, Christmas pudding, and a healthy serving of The Nativity performed by students, helped 70 elderly residents to share in the festive cheer this Christmas.  Age UK also added to the community spirit with a chocolate hamper raffle prize to raise money for the charity.

Darren Gelder, Principal of Grace Academy who regularly collects elderly residents for community events in the school, said:

“Our school is in the heart of the community, so we believe we have a duty of care as one of the largest organisations in the area.  It’s quite an ageing community, with not a lot going on for some residents, so we have a moral duty to help people get connected.

“We do this through a vast range of community events such as our Queen’s 90th Birthday Tea Party, our Christmas meal and school productions such as ‘The Nativity’.  The feedback from these events has been phenomenal and, as a school, it is great to see the different generations coming through.

“On the educational side, our recent Remembrance Day event helped students to find out more about the war from elderly survivors, learning more, first hand, about the things people suffered such as rationing, and experiences we can’t recreate in school like people being forced to be in air raid shelters while bombs were dropping.

“These events also have the added benefit of bridging generational gaps and, in this tech-savvy world, students have a real interest in the older generation’s life and experiences which is great. We also encourage students to engage with the local community by giving support to those less fortunate than themselves by, for example, collecting tins for the Helping Hands Food Bank, or litter-picking in the area.

“It’s all about making our students aware of the world around them, and the challenges other people have to live with in our diverse society.  Having food on the table is not the norm for everyone.  We want to be at the point where people look to us as a community facility and asset, and the numbers of students offering to help with our activities is a testament to parents and carers, as well as showing the school cares about people around them.”

Student helper, Daniel Smith, Year 10, said, “It’s good to help out the community and a good experience to know how the older generation’s life has been. Being a helper makes you get out of your comfort zone and make other people feel relaxed.”

One of the residents, Beryl Keating, aged 83, said, “We’ve been looking forward to this for weeks.  Lots of them are on their own and Grace Academy are so good to us pensioners. No one else bothers with us.”

Margaret Thompson, aged 70, said, “I used to work here and it’s a lovely school.  My granddaughter comes here and it’s really nice what they do for the area.  It’s very nice to get together here and some of the ladies are by themselves.”

Laura Wadley, Youth and Community Coordinator who organised the event, said:

“Christmas can be a lonely time for some people who may not have family close by, so this is our way of offering some Christmas cheer to our local community.”