Recently Amy Cox and Elyse Heron from our farm team volunteered for a day at our charity partner Daybreak in Kidlington, Oxford.
Amy wrote:
Last week I volunteered at Daybreak Oxford – Lilacs Club. Daybreak runs three day centres or clubs in Oxfordshire, providing care and support to help people live well with dementia. When we arrived, we were introduced to the staff and clients and asked to join in the activities – throwing coloured balls into containers on the floor, calling out anything associated with the colour red which were written up on the whiteboard and a word puzzle. We sat with the clients and chatted with them while they ate their lunch and cleared the plates away. After lunch a couple of the clients didn’t want to join in with the main afternoon activity, so I sat quietly with them and read a book of poems to them. The staff were brilliant and it was very rewarding to spend time with the staff and clients. It made me realise how important it is, not just to raise money for our charity, but to offer our time too. It is fantastic to know that we are supporting a local charity and in turn the local community.
Elyse wrote:
We started the day by reminiscing with books, magazines and by colouring before we went onto playing word and colour games altogether. I steeped in for a lovely lady in a throwing game but my coordination was rubbish, she enjoyed laughing at me. We helped to serve up lunch and cake before playing more games and having a sing-a-long. I hope we made a difference, we certainly laughed and smiled! Hearing about their careers and watching them interact with each other was my favourite part.
County are proud to support this local charity and we have more volunteering days lined up.
To learn more about Daybreak and the work they do click here