Colourful Fund Raisers!

Issue 8 - Summer 2015
Keeping you informed with news in and around West House
Welcome
Colourful Fund Raisers!
At the crack of dawn on Sunday 2nd August, sixty five
West House team members, young, old and in
between, set off to Muncaster Castle to take part in
the Colour Run.
The fun event was to raise money for West
Cumbria Hospice at Home, a cause very dear to
many hearts as it turns out. Rough estimates
are that they have raised more than £2,500.
Thanks must also go to the people who baked
cakes to donate to the stalls on the day which were a sell out!
Thanks to Mark and Julie who did all the organising, all who took part
plus Chrissy and Eric from Hospice at home.
Blackpool Cala Gran 2015
By Robert Johnston. Reece, Frank, Denise and I all set off on our holidays to Cala
Gran Blackpool with staff back in June for a long weekend.
Upon arriving we unpacked and headed to the café for
something to eat; we watched the evening entertainment
on Friday night. On saturday morning we rode the tram to the
pleasure beach; we had a great time on the rides and enjoyed
some lunch. Frank and Denise went to the indoor illumination show which they
really enjoyed. After the pleasure beach we went shopping for presents for our
families. We had our evening meal out and then spent lots of time at the arcade
which was lots of fun however the weather changed and it started to hail – which
I didn’t like. On Sunday we got the tram into Blackpool to do some shopping and
I got lots of new clothes. Denise and Frank went to a farm to see some animals
and they had a great time. On Monday we had to pack up everything and then we headed to Freeport to
see the big boats and have some lunch and then started the trip back home.
to our summer
newsletter!
I’m not sure what
happened to the sun
as I sit here with a
woolly jumper on. They say as you
get older, time flies, and my
goodness this year has flown in
(I must be really old!). The AGM has
been and gone, the plants from
Grow West are now well
established. But it is the summer
holidays and West House folk seem
to be travelling well both abroad
and at home. At the begining of
August 65 people connected to
West House took part in the Colour
Run to raise money for Hospice at
Home, a cause obviously close to
many hearts.
Well done to all of you!
Our super hero chef at Café
West Keswick is returning down
under and sadly left us recently
to start a new life back in his
native country of Australia.
Brad had a bonza send off with a
well-attended BBQ with lots of
cards and presents from all his
West House friends.
Will we ever find another Brad?
Well of course not, there will never
be another Brad! But at the BBQ
was the new chap who will be
joining us at Café West Keswick.
We hear very good things about
him and look forwards to
welcoming him to West House...
We will report next issue! For ongoing West House news visit www.westhouse.org.uk or follow us on social media
New Face at West House
We’re pleased to
welcome Kate Bool to the
West House team as our
Fundraising Manager.
What a
great night!
We held our Annual General
Meeting at Hunday Manor Hotel
on the 15th July. As ever the evening was very
well attended with around 200 of us enjoying
the food, company and music.
We did of course cover the formal parts of meeting
first and as part of this we welcomed 2 new members
who have joined our Management Board- Louise
Close and Clarence Eardly. Louise and Clarence both
join us with a wealth of knowledge and experience
which will no doubt prove invaluable as the
Management Board continue to lead and support the
organisation through the coming months.
We also celebrated with 2 special people on the
night. First was Kath Gray who has recently retired from
our management team after 21 years of dedicated
service. What an achievement! Kath will be sorely
missed by all those who worked with her and we wish
her well in her retirement. We also thanked Katy Lyons
who retired from our Management Board this year, we
will miss her valuable input and insights about the
services she receives.
I hope that by the time this newsletter reached
you have enjoyed lots of warm sunny days
through the summer and that Autumn takes its
time reaching us.
All the best, Ja mes
For those of you who haven’t
yet met Kate Bool (or haven’t
seen her on the front of the
News and Star or on ITV
News) since she started West
House, now is the perfect
time to make a warm
introduction!
The Londoner, who has
moved to beautiful Cumbria
to join the team, has worked
in various roles in the charity industry both in the UK and
abroad, and has brought a varied and colourful
experience with her of volunteer recruitment, fundraising,
charity operations and marketing to West House.
Since our last newsletter, Kate has been finding her feet
in the West House team and laying down the
foundations of what we hope to be a fruitful fundraising
venture! There is still lots to do but both Kate and James
Cox are very happy with progress so far.
Currently Kate is looking for friends of West House who
want to give something back. There are lots of
opportunities for people to volunteer with West House at
events alongside Kate. If this is something you could do,
please contact her at kate@westhouse.org.uk.
She is very busy working on a number of projects, as well
as getting to know the local community and organising
events!
There are plenty of events coming up at West House;
the Scafell Pike Sponsored Walk, the Rock Choir and the
continued recruitment for the Lakesman are causing a
lot of excitement! Information for these is available at
westhouse.org.uk/get-involved and on facebook!
Anyone who would like to join in the new
FUNdraising efforts visit www.westhouse.org.uk/getinvolved or email her at kate@westhouse.org.uk.
A West House FUNdraising First!
We’re thrilled to announce the West House Charity Calendar is now
available to buy in local Café Wests and other retail outlets.
The calendar will raise much needed funds for West House’s ongoing
efforts to support people in the local community.
With superb donated images from five leading local photographers, it showcases
the stunning landscapes from our region. Our photographers are local outdoors aficionados and creatives. Keith Fitton,
BBC film maker Mark Gillingan, award winning author and Country Life contributor Val Corbett, BBC producer and
director Terry Abraham and local photography enthusiast Neil Kendal. We are so grateful for their donations, and for
making this project possible! Our thanks also go to H & H Reeds Printers for their support with this project.
Since donating his photos, Mark Gillingan has been nominated for Sunday Times Landscape Photographer of the Year of course, we are always committed to working with the very best!
So for your chance to have your own award winning photography in your home with the West House Calendar,
get down to a Café West and nab yourself one!
West House Forum By Marsha
Heather’s Salou Holiday
I have been working as the Forum Facilitator
for two years and my job is to gather any
feedback received and provide a report
for the Management Board. This allows
successes to be recognised and
improvements can be developed if
needed. I am supported by Bekki Turner at
People First in this role.
By Heather
Marsha
What we’ve done:
The West House Forum had a great time
at the West House AGM. We loved the
karaoke, dancing and free raffle! It was a
great chance for us meet with everyone
and to spread the word about our new look.
Bekki
We now have a Facebook page so you can
keep up to date with what we are doing, and share
your experiences of West House services with us
directly. You can also write to us at West House Forum,
4-8 Oxford Street, Workington, CA14 2AH or telephone
us on 03003 038 037.
So far, we’ve written reports for the West House Board
about Wild West and gathered feedback from most of
the supported living houses. We plan to finish talking to
the tenants in supported living houses in Workington
before Christmas. The reports we write are looked at by
tenants, staff, managers and Board members to
acknowledge successes and make improvements the
service.
We look forward to meeting more of you in the future.
We hope that you will become 'Friends of the
Forum' and share your experiences with us.
Grow West Veg
We now have for sale
to the public, all grown
‘right here in Cumbria’
at Grow West:
Tomatoes
Lettuce
Cucumber
Peppers French and Broad beans
Courgette/Marrow
green and red Cabbages for sale
We’ve lots of new shrubs in, both evergreen and
deciduous, all looking very good and strong. A nice range of herbs, including Rosemary, Sage, Mint,
chives and Thyme amongst others.
We have a good selection of plants in flower at the
moment, looking lovely and very colourful.
Too many to mention individually, you'll have to
come and look!
Visit www.westhouse.org.uk/grow-west/
for opening times and location
At the beginning of July I was
very lucky and went on a
weeks holiday to Port
Aventura in Salou. During my
holiday I got up to many
exciting things and loved my
time there relaxing by the
pool and doing lots of
activities. I visited the theme
park where I went on many
rides, one of the being the
'Shambhala' the biggest
roller coaster in Europe, this
was very scary and I
screamed all the way around but all the others I really
enjoyed. My favourite ride was called the 'Dragon Khan'
which had 8 full loops, staff thought I would be really
scared on this one but I absolutely loved it! I also really
enjoyed the water rides, we were grateful to get wet on
these rides as the weather was so hot so we were able
to cool down.
I often went into Salou town where I was able to shop
and buy lots of lovely things, I even went to the pub and
got served at the bar all by myself, I was really pleased
about this!
We had a really jam packed holiday so on some days I
liked to just chill out at the hotel pool to relax and often
dipped into the pool to cool off. Sunbathing was what I
enjoyed doing the most during the day but going to the
shows at the theme park on an evening was definitely
my favourite. The shows were amazing and because
Port Aventura were celebrating their 20th birthday they
had a parade and fireworks everynight, I got to see
many cartoon characters there including Woody
Woodpecker and Betty Boop. I even had my photo
taken with Woody Woodpecker!
I loved every single bit of my holiday and thought it was
the best holiday ever, so are you all wondering if I got
drunk? I think I might just keep you wondering about
that...what happens on a girls holiday stays on a girls
holiday, isn't that right ladies :-)
I suppose I better let you in on one little secret but shhh,
don't tell anybody, I met a really hunky guy there called
Illious, he was a life guard at the hotel. I think he is
absolutely gorgeous, he wanted to add me on
facebook but who needs a man hey!
Rock Choir
Benificiary Concert
This November at Solway Hall,
Whitehaven.
Tickets are available at all
Café Wests and
Solway Box Office (01946 690970)
For more information contact
kate@westhouse.org.uk
Adult Learners Week by Phil and Pam
West House’s Teresa McCall, has been working with
Allison Wood, Volunteer Development Manager for
Neighbourhood Care Independence (NCI), organising
regular monthly Hubs at Café West Whitehaven and
Café West Workington Library. The Hubs are held by
different NCI Partners who each decide the objectives
of their Hub.
The overall aims of the Hub are to support existing
volunteers, recruit new volunteers, provide information
and advice, to network and provide easy access to
the organisation for the general public The Hubs are
promoted via the NCI Blog
(http://ncipblog.blogspot.co.uk/), Facebook, posters
and Tweets.The Hubs run successfully in Café West
Workington Library and Café West Whitehaven, and
are expanding the Hubs into Café West Keswick in
autumn 2015.
For more information on volunteering go
towww.westhouse.org.uk/2015/
thinking-about-volunteering/
In Memory
of Doreen
by Anonymous
Our Doreen,
As dainty as your little finger,
As quiet as a mouse,
Our Doreen was a special lady,
Whose manners were the best in
the house.
Doreen at her
70th birthday
As pretty as a picture,
With her handbag by her side,
Our Doreen was a special lady,
Whose knitting kept you warm on a ride.
As delicate as flower,
And her sweeties tucked away,
Our Doreen will be remembered,
With her love she shared with us all.
This is Our Doreen.
Doreen passed away recently and this lovely poem was
written by a member of the West House staff who was
her friend. Doreen lived at Waterloo Street, a West House
Care Home in Cockermouth from 1990, and was much
loved by many, many people; she will be sorely missed.
Doreen was a real lady who loved good manners, fine
clothes and a nice handbag.
Doreen will not be forgotten.
As part of the
annual Adult
Learners Week,
Cumbria Library
Service holds a
series of events
from learning
about your family
tree, learning a
new crafting skill to
how to shop
online. One of the days during Adult Learners Week is
dedicated as Learn at Work Day when staff are given
the opportunity to learn something new.
As Workington Library works closely with West House
and Café West I thought it would be a great idea to
have a job swap with a member of library staff and a
service user. West House thought this would be a great
idea and we thought that it would bring us even more
together as a team. Phil drew the short straw and volunteered to spend the
morning with me in the library. As part of the job swap
Phil helped me to put books away in alphabetical and
numerical order, checked out books to customers,
helped with home delivery (putting up books for
customers who cannot get to the library themselves),
assisting with customer queries and finding books
which had been requested by other libraries.
My part of the swap was to spend the lunch period
with Phil and Michelle who bravely trained me in the
art of making cappuccinos and Lattes. I helped with
taking orders and payments for meals, clearing tables
and taking orders to customers.
It was quite a day for both Phil and I. I know that I
enjoyed it immensely and by Phil’s comments I am
sure he enjoyed his morning both in the library and
training me to be a waitress in Café West!
The day is one I hope to repeat as I feel we both got
such a lot out of the experience.
Congratulations
Abigail Burns and Dean and Baby Hayne
Danielle Meyers and Bassam and Baby Gasson
Megan Skelton and Scott and Baby Cooper
Catrina Yates and Steven and Baby Lucas
Annie Reid and David and Baby Lily
Jacqueline Johnston and David and Baby Elisha
Kelly Taylor and Paul and Baby Georgey-James
Kelly Holliday and Kevin and Baby Grace
Rebecca Poole and Gary and Baby Jakob
Emma Musgrave and Sam and Baby Maddie May
Lauren McTear and Mason and Baby Finley
Liam Cook and Lindsay and Baby Kian
Steven Oliver and Catherine and Baby Logan
Nicholette Thompson and Kevin and
Baby Kaylen Sienna
Congratulations on your retirement to
Kath Gray after 21 years service.