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A donation from Tynedale Lions

Stephen Prandle, Chairman of the Lions of Tynedale visited Charlotte Straker House last week to meet with Angela Jones (Chair of the Fundraising Committee) to present our charity with a cheque for £250.

The Lions have always been a staunch supporter of the Charlotte Straker Project and we’re delighted with this recent donation, which will be put towards essential new furnishings in our Respite Care Room.

Our Respite Care Room costs £52,885 per annum and is completely funded through charitable grants and donations. It is in almost constant use as it offers free of charge short term respite care to those who need 24 hour nursing care.

Stephen commented, “We are really pleased that the Tynedale Lions are able to help Charlotte Straker, especially as their respite care is an important core service in the local community.”

Angela Jones added, “Thank you again to Stephen and the Lions – their cheque will be put to very good use, and we are very grateful for their continuing support.”

Our rolling refurbishment continues…

We are busily working our way through our refurbishment program and have recently finished one of our upstairs rooms.
We chose the gold, taupe and amber colour scheme to give the room a cheerful and sunny aspect and to make the most of the views over Corbridge. All the throws, cushions and other soft furnishings were chosen to tone into the decor and make the room as comfortable as possible.
We have a small team who are responsible for choosing the design and decoration of our other rooms – watch this space to see more of our newly refurbished spaces over the next few months.

The Weekly Shop Trolley

Our wonderful volunteer Debbie Thick has been a staunch support and as part of her duties, has been recently managing the weekly Shop Trolley.
 
The Trolley sells a variety of sweets, toiletries and other goodies and Debbie asks each resident to come out to the corridor to see what they would like to choose. She provides a cheerful presence each week and our residents really enjoy her visits.
 
We can’t wait to welcome back our other volunteers, who have been patiently waiting until Covid regulations allow them to visit Charlotte Straker House – thank you to Debbie and all those who give their time in many different ways to support our home and charity.

Are you running the Great North Run in 2021?

Our Trustee Maureen Gordon and Chair of the Trustees Berenice Groves have signed up to run this year’s Great North Run. The run is being held in September and is already at capacity but if anyone already has a place this year and is still deciding which charity to support, we’re would be very grateful if you picked the Charlotte Straker Project! We need to raise £30,000 to keep our essential respite care service open for the next 12 months and individual fundraising will definitely help us achieve this total. Our marketing coordinator can help with promoting your fundraising page – please email sally.urwin@charlottestraker.org.uk for more information on how we can support your Great North Run challenge.

Fundraising at the Corbridge Car Boot Sale

Thankfully the rain stayed away and the recent Car Boot sale went ahead at the Tynedale Rugby Club.

Our Crafty Women sold their beautiful hand made items and managed to raise a fabulous £90 to go towards the refurbishment program at Charlotte Straker House.

The Car Boot team allowed our volunteers to hold a bucket collection and they raised an amazing £68.77 for our Respite Care Service.

Thank you to the Crafty Women and our dedicated fundraising team for their hard work – they will be back at the Corbridge Car Boot on June 23rd 2021.

Many Happy Returns to Muriel

Muriel recently celebrated her 87th birthday with a delicious home made chocolate cake that had been decorated with strawberries. She enjoyed opening her birthday presents and had a lovely day – happy birthday from the Charlotte Straker team. 🎂 🎂 🎁 🎈 🎊 🎉

Latest News from our Chair of Trustees

Sunshine and Singing at Charlotte Straker House

Summer is finally here and the glorious weather has meant that our residents can now meet outside for a chat and enjoy the warm sunshine.

Our new visiting arrangements for families of residents have been confirmed which has been a huge boost and I would like to thank everyone for their patience whilst we confirmed the new policies which are in line with the latest government guidance. We are still working to Infection Control Guidance and respecting social distancing. Therefore it is important that no visitors to the home goes directly up to any residents but checks in with the office who will update with any required instructions to keep everyone safe. We are really lucky to provide our service from such a lovely building, however given its age it provides us with many logistical challenges, and we therefore will continue to use the outside decking area and visitor pod to support visiting.

Our latest activities have all had an “outside focus” to make the most of the good weather, including flower arranging, bird box making and a delivery of fish and chips (and a few sherries!) in the sunshine. We also arranged for a visit from Ruth Boyd, a talented singer who stood on the steps of our summer house and serenaded us all with a medley of well-known songs. Everyone loved sitting on the decking, eating a strawberry cornetto and singing and clapping along. Alan said “I love the music, I don’t know all the words but I’m singing along anyway”, Muriel said “I’m dancing along” and Stuart commented “She’s a really good singer!”.

Our vegetables, shrubs and flowers are now planted (courtesy of a few sessions of outdoor gardening) and the pots and containers really brighten up the front of Charlotte Straker House. Our kitchen team organised a home-made cream tea with prosecco one afternoon and it has been lovely to see individual residents making a few leisurely laps of our garden, pointing out the new flowers and enjoying the sound of the fountain underneath the pear tree. Muriel said “I like to see the flowers and plants and watch the birds when Jayne (our Activities Coordinator) takes me for a walk”.

The refurbishment inside Charlotte Straker House is continuing apace and we are busily choosing new colour schemes for rooms and communal areas. All this activity has had a wonderful energising effect and our residents are busily inspecting the new colour schemes, commenting on proposals for new signage and letting us know their opinions on possible furnishings, floorings and curtains.

I hope this small update gives you an impression of the atmosphere of activity, purpose and cheerfulness that is currently widespread among the staff and residents at Charlotte Straker House.

As ever, thank you for your continuing support and we will keep you updated with more news in the future


Berenice Groves
Chair of the Trustees