‘Tis the season of giving and one local care home have done just that!  Trinity Manor Care Home in Sherborne recently held a ‘pop-up’ Christmas fayre in their car park, enabling their residents, staff, families and locals to enjoy a bit of festive shopping, with music also provided by the Salvation Army and also Sherborne Girls School, who sang some carols to get everyone feeling extra Christmassy.

Advertising on social media, the home asked if locals could bring items along with them to the market, which could then be dropped off at a ‘donation station’ for the local Sherborne Food Bank.  The response was overwhelming, with many people bringing much needed food and toiletry items to drop off.

After mentioning the ‘donation station’ over the phone to one of the members of the Salvation Army Band, in true charitable fashion, they rallied around and when they turned up to play at the home, they arrived with boxes of food.

Home Services Advisor, Rebekah Goddard, said, ‘we literally couldn’t believe the extent of their generosity.  Not only did many of then travel from as far afield as Wales, Exeter and Plymouth to play voluntarily for us, but they came laden with donations – we cannot thank them all enough for their kindness!’

The following week, some of the pupils from Sherborne Girls School came to help load up the Trinity Manor mini-bus, then residents from the home, along with General Manager, Sohail, and Deputy Manager, Paul, had the task of dropping off all of the donations to their collection hub in Longburton.  There to greet them was the lovely Antony, one of the many, many volunteers who help to ensure local families get the help and support that they need, especially at this time of year, which can be especially tough for those who have found things a little harder than usual.

Sohail said, ‘It has been a very humbling experience, seeing and hearing about the work that they do at our local food bank and we have seen that the support that they need goes way beyond Christmas, and we very much look forward to doing something further for them as we go into 2022.  A huge thank you to all that donated at our fayre.’