On Saturday August 5th, we hosted our first Summer Gala since Covid. We also took the opportunity to celebrate the 10 Year Anniversary of the opening of Northcote Lodge!
Residents, friends and families enjoyed a fun day from 10.30am-1.30pm. Coffee/tea and home bakes were served, followed by a barbeque at 12. Marian and Leonard our 2 Chefs, served hamburgers and hotdogs, unfortunately, as the weather was so bad, no-one ventured out into the garden (Marian and Leonard were protected from the rain by a large Gazebo – a typical Scottish barbeque !!) Those who were inclined could enjoy a Bucks Fizz while chatting and mingling with friends.
The rain didn’t dampen our spirits though as we were entertained by the Lindsay School of Dance who performed a number of Scottish classic dances and also the Sailors Hornpipe dance. The young dancers varied in age, however, were all excellent and so professional and really made the day for us.
Following the dancing one of our Trustees, Craig Pike, sang for us accompanied by his mother on the piano. His mother is amazing, she is in her eighties and used to play the piano with the Jack Sinclair Showband, everyone had a great time singing along to songs old and new.
To take a break from the dancing, we had a few stalls to browse. Our kitchen did a great job with the home bakes, supplemented by wonderful baking, jams and chutneys from some of our resident’s families and our very own Sheila who works Front of House.
We also had an artificial flower stall provided by Sheila a friend of Northcote. Her flower creations and vases were amazing.
We also had our usual Tombola stall which was manned by Chris, one of our maintenance men and Jeff who has volunteered and been a friend of Northcote for many years. Some people were very lucky winning multiple prizes.
The finale to the day was our Grand Raffle – in total the day raised £2,300 which will go toward our Resident’ Fund. With Christmas now fast approaching, the money will be put to good use to provide lots of Christmas entertainment for the residents.
