You are here: / / 2023

Message from Berenice Groves – Merry Christmas from us all

Dear all

As Christmas approaches, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for your unwavering support of The Charlotte Straker Project. This year we have provided care and support to more than 60 wonderful members of the community, and their families, in need of nursing and/or residential care. We have also provided support through our day care service to those who need short term daily assistance. We continue to work very closely with the local community, and I have been privileged enough to meet many families and individuals who have been cared for at Charlotte Straker House.

Your donations have enabled us to provide exceptional care for our residents, ensuring that they have the resources and support they need to live comfortably and with dignity.

Our volunteers have brought joy and companionship to our residents, enriching their lives in countless ways.

Your kindness and generosity have made a profound impact on the lives of our residents, and we are incredibly grateful for your continued commitment.
On behalf of our residents, staff, and Board of Trustees, I’d like to wish you a joyous and peaceful Christmas.

With best wishes
Berenice Groves
Chair of the Trustees

What have our residents been up to in 2023?

Happy New Year from The Charlotte Straker Project!
Click below to see exactly what our lovely residents have been up to in 2023 🤩
We wish everyone a Happy New Year and look forward to seeing you in 2024.

Gingerbread Bakeoff with Corbridge Pupils

We held our own version of a Christmas Bakeoff at Charlotte Straker House, with our residents competing for the title of Best Decorated Gingerbread House. We were helped by Corbridge Middle School pupils: Ava Greer (aged 10); Lucas Penny (aged 13); Lochie McVeigh (aged 10); and Beatrice Cleeve (aged 11) and Head Teacher Mrs Brown. They spent a happy afternoon up to their elbows in icing sugar, helping and chatting with our residents, whilst decorating the most amazing houses with lots of different sweets!

Our residents were delighted to see them, Arthur said “My helper Lucas was a very charming young gentleman. He was a very good house designer. He might be an architect when he’s older!” Nancy said “I enjoyed that very much. Ava and I were a good team.” Muriel said “Lochie is teaching me, I’m just watching and following along. He’s very good.” Margaret added “It’s lovely to see the children. My helper Beatrice was very precise and so polite.”

Mrs Brown, Head Teacher of Corbridge Middle School said “Lochie, Ava, Lucas and Beatrice were chosen to visit Charlotte Straker House as they’ve consistently upheld the values of our school through 2023. They thoroughly enjoyed their visit and I was so proud of their behaviour. Thank you to everyone at Charlotte Straker House for hosting us, the residents for being so welcoming and for the sweets and gingerbread house kits! We can’t wait to visit you again in 2023”.

Berenice Groves, our Chair of the Trustees judged the houses, and said “After a lot of deliberation I chose Lochie and Muriel’s design as the winner. I loved the delicate piping and careful placement of the sweets. Thank you so much to the children for visiting. Our residents love meeting children from local schools and I know everyone had an enormous amount of fun.”

Delicious Christmas Lunches at The Angel of Corbridge

Thank you to Kevin and his team at The Angel of Corbridge for hosting our residents’ outing for Christmas. Volunteers and residents popped along to enjoy three-course meals with all the Christmas trimmings. Colin said “I ate every little bit. It was lovely. The food was very tasty.” Margaret S added, “it felt like a proper Christmas treat.” Pam Crawley, Registered Manager, said “Kevin and his team always look after us and this time there was no exception! Thank you to him and his team for a delicious meals plus all the volunteers and staff who helped our residents at The Angel.”

Burn’s Night Ceilidh on Saturday 3rd February 2024

Experience the Magic of Burns Night: Join Us for an Evening of Scottish Tradition and Celebration.
Join us on Saturday 3rd February at Corbridge Parish Hall to enjoy an evening of Burns Night celebrations, including ceilidh dancing to the famous Northern Lights Ceilidh Band!
Only £12 per person, with all proceeds towards The Charlotte Straker Project and the Chrysalis Club, the ticket includes home made pie and peas, a licensed bar plus the traditional address to the haggis!
To book your tickets please contact Bill Cunningham on william.cunningham@charlottestraker.org.uk or 07890998827, or email Gina/Mel on info@chrysalisclub.org.uk

QUIZ OF THE YEAR 25th January 2024. Play online or at The Angel of Corbridge

Save the date! The Angel of Corbridge’s QUIZ OF THE YEAR is back on Thursday 25th January from 7 pm with two ways to play and some amazing prizes.
Beat the Winter blues, raise money for The Charlotte Straker Project and win either a £200 voucher to spend at the Angel or a weekend at the Angel Apartment.
You can either play online (which costs £10 per team) or at The Angel of Corbridge (£10 per person to include a burger and chips supper [vegetarian options available])
To book your place at the Angel call 01434 632119 and to book your spot online email sally.urwin@charlottestraker.org.uk – please hurry as places book up fast!

Making Christmas Wreaths with Perfect Petals

We had a crafty afternoon last week making Christmas wreaths with Debbie Clarke from Perfect Petals. Debbie provided wire circles wrapped in damp moss, plus armfuls of green fir branches and holly sprigs, pinecones, dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks. Our residents pushed the fir branches into the circle, carefully fixed their choice of material and secured a bright bow to make beautiful christmassy wreaths! Nancy said “I’m making this to hang on my daughter’s door – I think it looks really festive.” Birgit said “Megan and I have made a simple design and it’s very effective” whilst Claire said “I love the smell of the different branches – especially the fir tree.” Thank you to Debbie for leading the session and helping us make some lovely hand made gifts.

Mowden Hall Choir Sing Carols at Christmas

Thank you so much to Mowden Hall School’s Senior Choir who visited us last week to sing a selection of Christmas carols to our residents.

Accompanied on the piano by music teacher Mr Smith, the children sang some lovely traditional carols including “Away in a Manger”, a beautiful version of “Oh Holy Night” plus “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

Our residents adored the carols, many of them singing along or beating time on their knees.

Colin said, “The choir must have been practising a long time, as they were beautiful singers. I thought the uniform they were wearing was very smart”. Muriel added “The Mowden children were very polite. The carols were lovely and I enjoyed singing along”. Nancy said, “I loved the Holy Night carol, and Hark the Herald Angels sing”. Claire added, “I could hear it all and it was beautiful”.

Pam Crawley, Registered Manager said “our residents thoroughly enjoyed the visit by the Mowden Hall School choir. They not only loved the singing but really enjoyed meeting the children and teachers and chatting about music and the carols. Thank you very much to Mr Smith and his choir, and we hope they will return in 2024.”

Christmas Trees at St Andrew’s Church

Have you visited the Corbridge Christmas Tree Festival? We hope you saw the Charlotte Straker entry! Our residents love joining in our regular crafting sessions and this year everyone decided to make their very own handmade “soap on a rope” to decorate our tree.
Our care assistant/inhouse therapist Jodie MacDonald used a method to blend and add fragrances to melted soap (which contain no toxins, parabens, or chemicals). Everyone had great fun making their own shapes and designs. The soaps on this tree will be gifted to residents at Charlotte Straker House after the Christmas Tree Festival.
St Andrew’s Church invited our residents down for a special preview of the festival, giving them all time to inspect all the different entries and enjoy carol singing and a mince pie.
Nancy said “These are beautiful trees, and it’s nice to come out with other residents and families.” Margaret said “My favourite is the Sycamore Tree – it’s very effective. I like how they have a book so we can add a message about the tree.” Birgit added, “We never had anything like this in Denmark when I was young. It’s amazing to see all the trees together.”
Thank you to St Andrew’s Church – it was such a privilege to have a special preview so our residents could go round at their own pace. Thank you also to our volunteers, Activities Coordinator and Jodie for working so hard to make this such a special entry and outing.

Our New Sensory Garden

Our new Sensory Garden has been created by our handyman/gardener Paul. Some of our residents have sight impairments and he wanted to create something that meant that they could enjoy the garden by using different plant textures and fragrance. The waist-high flower bed was built so that residents in wheelchairs could reach the different plants themselves. Paul planted herbs such as rosemary, thyme and lavender, alongside different heather and flowering bulbs and covered the soil with different size and colours of quartz pebbles. He also included a small water feature lined with bright white stones – which makes it much easier to see for those with poor vision.

Our resident Claire was the first to experience the garden and she crushed some of the leaves between her fingers so she could smell which plant she’d touched. “I recognise this one” she said when she found the rosemary “The smell reminds me of sitting in the garden in the summer.” Claire could also see the bright white of the pebbles and the sharp pinks and purples of the heather.

Berenice Groves, Chair of the Trustees said “I am so impressed with the initiative Paul has shown developing the new garden – it’s a super idea and will be a great benefit to many of our residents.”

Kate, Claire’s daughter added “A big thankyou to Paul for his sensory garden. I know how much thought and time he put into it with mum in mind. We often take mum around the garden and talk about the plants with her so it will definitely bring some joy especially as the seasons change. It was very observant and caring of Paul to have noticed us in the garden and then to have acted on it was incredibly thoughtful.”