Christmas has come early to Barty House Nursing Home thanks to the generosity of the local business community and the determination and ingenuity of three Kent-based firms.
Our staff were surprised and delighted to receive a ready-decorated Christmas tree, wrapped Christmas presents for all our residents, a super karaoke machine, a hamper filled with festive goodies for staff and the promise of a visit by Maidstone singer Jen Shilling sometime in the New Year. Barty House has also been entered into a prize draw to receive an air purifier for a year, worth £15,000, or a light projection table to help support the mental wellbeing of residents with dementia.
The fabulous donation was part of the #Care4Christmas initiative begun by Kayte John, a special needs teaching assistant at Madginford Primary School. She was joined by three determined local businesswomen – Julie Anderson, Design Director of Rap Interiors Ltd, Jan Post, Chairman of the RIFT Group and Lyndsey Gallagher, Group Chief Operating Officer from the Gallagher Group.
Together, the intrepid group set about collecting enough donations and raising cash to supply 15 care homes within 15 days via appeals among their suppliers for books, food, games, toys, toiletries and other items. The response was magnificent – donations poured in and over £7,000 was raised via JustGiving. In the event, there were enough gifts and cash to supply 705 residents in 22 care homes in Maidstone, Ashford and Folkestone, and buy each home a star prize of their choice. For Barty House this was the karaoke machine.
Our home manager, Gabriele Jerome, says: “It was such an emotional, generous donation. All the presents were lovingly wrapped and carefully labelled to ensure that they were easily allocated to the right residents.
“We’d like to say a huge thank you to Julie, Jan, Lyndsey and Kayte, as well as everyone who donated gifts and money and gave up their time to wrap gifts. We know that businesses have had a very difficult and uncertain time this year and we are incredibly grateful for your selfless support. Together you have helped make such a difference to our residents’ Christmas. Thank you, too, for recognising our staff – they have worked tirelessly this year on behalf of residents. It is wonderful to see that community spirit is so alive and well in Kent!”
“Every year we help a section of the community but this year the choice was easy. Now that we are in Tier 4, many residents won’t receive a visit from their loved ones this year and may receive few gifts, so our collective mission was to bring some joy in what has been a very difficult year for care homes. Many people have lost their friends and loved ones and their in-home communities have been hit hard. We were determined to do what we could and let them know they’ve not been forgotten,” adds Rap Interiors’ Julie Anderson.
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