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Singing with “Baldy Holly”!

We had such a lovely afternoon with the singer “Baldy Holly” (otherwise known as Jamie)! Jamie is a singer from Longbenton in Newcastle and often tours with his band in Las Vegas and Chicago.
The dining room was full, with 14 residents, some of their family members and 2 bungalow residents. Everyone was offered a glass of wine or beer, and started joining in the singing and dancing, helped by our volunteer Avril, and the staff team. Jamie sang songs from Roy Orbison, Cliff Richard, Buddy Holly, Drifters, Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, and the Everly Brothers – everyone knew the words and music and danced as much as they could – Bruce, Stuart and Mick thought it was a great afternoon and Alan was dancing with his arms and singing along with his niece.
Everyone went away with high spirits – Joan, a bungalow resident, said “I enjoyed my glass of wine and have now put the doom and gloom of January out of the way and I’m looking forward to joining in the house activities over the next few months.”
Margaret G, another resident said “I’ve had such an enjoyable afternoon and it was nice to see the staff taking part and enjoying themselves. I really liked sitting next to ladies I used to know when I was a bungalow resident and we shared some memories about being neighbours.”
Thank you to all the staff who joined in, our volunteer Avril, and of course “Baldy Holly”! The general consensus was that it was a happy and uplifting afternoon and we can’t wait for Jamie to come back and sing for us all again.

Thank you to Karen, a “vital part” of Charlotte Straker House

Karen Dover, a Senior Care Assistant, was presented with a bouquet of flowers, as a token of our appreciation for her absolute dedication to Charlotte Straker.  Karen has worked at Charlotte Straker for many years and is a truly committed team member, being a great support to residents and the team alike.  In recent weeks over the Christmas and New Year period, Karen made herself available to support the service in any way that she could. Such is her commitment that Karen was prepared to forgo her own plans at such a special time, prioritising our team instead. We are so lucky to have Karen as such a vital part of Charlotte Straker, we simply would not be the same service without her. We’d like to thank her from the bottom of our hearts

Chinese New Year

Charlotte Straker House rang in the new Chinese Year last week with help from a special visitor! Our Chinese Dragon (actually staff members Christian at the head of the dragon, Luke in the middle and Judith at the tail) danced into the dining room to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. Everyone was clapping and laughing as the Dragon danced in and out of the tables to Chinese music.

The dining room was decorated in the “lucky” New Year colours of red and gold and the kitchen team served a delicious Chinese banquet including a variety of tasty dishes such as twice cooked pork, crispy beef, soya and honey chicken and duck spring rolls.

Chinese food is always a favourite with our residents. Margaret said “I’ve always loved a Chinese dishes and this was lovely, especially the pork.” The delicacies were clearly a firm favourite amongst the residents and at the end of the banquet, there were lots of empty plates. Thank you to our staff for being such a brilliant dragon and the kitchen team for their delicious menu.

100th Birthday Celebrations

We were all delighted to help one of our residents celebrate their 100th birthday this month. Our resident received a birthday card from King Charles III and the Queen Consort as well as a special 100th balloon and over 40 cards from staff, relatives and well-wishers. Just before Christmas, pupils from Corbridge First School visited our home to present a hand made 100th birthday card and sung a lovely rendition of “Happy Birthday” outside her room. Thank you to everyone who helped our resident celebrate their special day!

Closure of our Charity Community Respite Care Bed – Message from the Chair of the Trustees

We are devastated to announce that we must close our free of charge respite care bed service at the end of March 2023. The cost-of-living crisis means that, like many charities, we have experienced a severe reduction in the amount of funding and donations that previously supported this facility. This has been exacerbated by the rise in the cost of actual care, Covid precautions and a sharp increase in recruitment costs. The respite care bed costs £57,000 per year alone and raising that income is unfortunately unattainable in the current economic climate.

We are hoping that this is a temporary closure and depending on future support, we are committed to opening our respite care facility at a future date.

At the moment, we will continue to concentrate on our core mission – of helping the elderly and frail with residential and nursing care.

As a not-for-profit care home, any surplus income is reinvested for the benefit of our residents. So, instead of a free respite care room, we will continue to concentrate on helping residents stay in Charlotte Straker House by funding local authority fee shortfalls. Many of our residents have lived and worked in the area all their lives and want to live near their family but are unable to afford care home fees without charitable support.

We have been embedded into the Corbridge community since 1916 and supporting older people is at the heart of everything we do. Our charity provides the very best in residential and nursing care to the elderly. Respite care will also be available but will no longer be free of charge and the cost will be £890 per week. We hope that everyone understands the difficult decision that we’ve had to make and will continue to support us in our vital work.

Thank you

Berenice Groves

Chair of the Trustees

 

 

Making music with Ruth

Ruth Boyd visited recently to spend an afternoon with us, and sang all our favourite Christmas songs to get us all into the holiday mood. It was lovely to watch everyone sing and clap along and cheer when she finished each song. Ruth also bought our residents a Christmas gift – some warm blankets for our residents to use when they go on outside trips.  Thank you very much to Ruth for helping us celebrate the festive season and for her generous presents.

Christmas Day at Charlotte Straker House

We had a lovely Christmas Day at Charlotte Straker House. We asked each resident how they preferred to celebrate Christmas and helped them meet visitors and keep in touch with family and friends. Our hard working kitchen team pulled out the stops with a traditional roast turkey dinner with all the trimmings, followed by Christmas pudding and brandy butter. The atmosphere in Charlotte Straker House is always lovely, especially at Christmas time!
All the staff worked really hard to make it special for the residents this year, with decorations, glitter and lights and there were Christmas carols on in the background, which we all loved to sing along to. On Christmas Day, the residents were all given a carefully chosen individual Christmas present. Seeing their faces light up is what it’s all about. Our residents have shown us that you’re never too old to get excited for Christmas.