Last month, Red Roofs Residential Care Home launched an appeal to receive 101 birthday cards for Gladys Welch and what a response we received. We were very fortunate to have cards delivered from across the globe including the UK, Denmark, Northern France, the Isle of Wight and the USA.
It all started as a little appeal on our website and Facebook page and soon gained interest from the local community. As soon as we hit 101 cards, we were keen to raise the bar to 500 but we soon surpassed that target too. From this, we decided to aim for 1,001 cards a few days before Gladys’ big day! The end total was 1,502 cards – what a fantastic amount to end on!
The weekend of 28th January saw hours of laughter, singing, dancing and fun. We were contacted by a number of entertainers who wanted to provide live performances for Gladys as well as a very special visit from Puppy the miniature horse. The whole weekend was an incredible experience not just for Gladys but for our other residents too. As we care for 30 people, we’re like a close-knit family. We all come together for celebrations like this. Everyone was joining in with the sing-a-longs and dancing with our team members.
Ruth Hodkinson, Activities Coordinator at Red Roofs Residential Care Home said:
“The whole of January has truly been overwhelming and we are delighted with the response to our appeal. I’d personally like to thank each and every person who kindly sent Gladys cards, gifts, cakes and flowers.
One of our residents put it very eloquently, ‘people really shared and sent their love.’”
Gladys Welch, resident at Red Roofs Residential Care Home said:
“I had a really good day, and my favourite part was the visit from the miniature horse.”
We’ve counted all of the gifts and we’re happy to say Gladys received seven bouquets of stunning flowers, three delicious cakes, up to 10 balloon packages and several boxes of chocolates.
There are so many people we need to thank, and we’ve created a list below of businesses, schools, nurseries and organisations who donated to our appeal:
- Roy Briggs-Price and his miniature Falabella horse called Puppy
- Brownies, Beavers and Scouts
- Local nurseries like Serendipity’s Day Nursery in Newark
- Schools from in and around Nottinghamshire
- Newark Academy School
- Care homes from across the nation
- Builders yards
- Shop owners and Morrison’s in Newark
- Becky’s Bakes
- The Lord Mayor of Newark
- The RAF Association
- NSK – this is the new name of Gladys’ previous employer
- Spotted: Newark (Facebook page)
- Radio Newark
- BBC Midlands Today
- ITV Central News
- Eleanor Mattley and James Fry – both incredible performers
- The Conservative Club in Newark
- Our fantastic postman
- Teresa Martin for the offer of a free portrait to celebrate
Newark Academy School went above and beyond for Gladys by hand delivering a birthday cake in the shape of 101 – it was a beautiful surprise. They continued to amaze us with a USB stick full of warm birthday wishes and songs from the pupils. We cannot forget the stunning cards too. We’d all like to say thank you to NAS for their kindness, we did not expect such a response to our appeal.
We do have plans to display these cards in the Buttermarket in Newark so people can walk through and appreciate the great work the people of Newark and surrounding areas have done. We will share updates of this project on our Facebook page in the coming weeks so please follow our page here.
And finally, you really did make Gladys’ day extra special and left our staff feeling overwhelmed by your incredible generosity. It was truly a day to remember.
