Another fantastic Easter
On Easter Sunday 16th April, Ray met three cooks at the Wantage Health & Wellbeing Centre at 7am to get over 10kg of topside beef in the ovens ready for The Ray Collins Charitable Trusts Easter dinner.
Waitrose Wantage contributed £348 towards the dinner through their green token scheme, with the trust paying for the rest. This enabled forty-six local lonely elderly and vulnerable people to enjoy a fantastic meal, fantastic company and fantastic entertainment.
Trustees and volunteers decorated the centre on Good Friday with balloons, Easter bunting, set the tables with wonderful flower decorations from Hazel Stanyon and purchased all the food and drink for Sunday’s dinner.
Volunteers then made up the Easter egg parcels, so all the guests had more of a surprise to take home: not just a wonderful egg, but some lovely treats as well.
At 10.15am volunteer drivers and trustees began picking up the dinner guests. As each person arrived, they were seated and given a drink of their choice.
At 12.30pm dinner was served: roast topside beef with all the trimmings, followed by apple pie and custard. All of which was consumed with glee by the hungry guests and volunteers who all sat together enjoying their meal and each other’s company. We also delivered three dinners and eggs to people who were too poorly to attend the dinner.
At 1pm local folk band Shotgun Weather Ferret arrived and played a medley of toe tapping tunes which thoroughly entertained the crowd.
The Mayor popped in and sat chatting to many of the guests to their great joy as many had never met him before. The mayor’s wife Julia Trinder and their children Ellie and Daniel had handed out Easter cards to all the guests and helped get drinks for them.
Just after 2pm the trustees brought out Easter eggs parcels for all the guests, containing a large egg, shortbread biscuits, mini eggs, marshmallows, Easter bunnies, ginger bread men, coconut macaroons and more.
Trustees and volunteers then took everyone home while the remaining helpers tidied up the centre and cleaned the kitchen with everyone home and finished by 3.30pm.
Thank you so much to Tanja Salter, Michelle Church, Castel Fairlie, Tim Waite, Katie Buckingham, Karen England, Fiona Frost, April Moore, Laura Beale, Johnny Jenkin, Shelley Breakspear, Hazel Stanyon and Robert Huffnagle for all their help on Good Friday.
Thank you also to Castel Fairlie, Tracey, Karen England, Anna Byrom, Jan Taylor, Oliver Taylor, John Durban, Robert Huffnagle, Peter Williams, Chris May, Tracy Wilson, Ian Matthew Donaldson, April Moore, Jo Dickie, Julia Trinder, Ellie & Daniel, Steve Trinder, Ema Ralson, Daniel & Jasper Edwards and Waitrose Wantage for all helping at Sunday’s Easter dinner.
Another fantastic event by The Ray Collins Charitable Trust helping 46 local elderly and vulnerable people living in isolation.
