Volunteers Christmas Lunch a festive success

Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin’s Volunteers’ Christmas Lunch proved a big festive success with about 160 attending the event in the beautiful Sovereign Suite at Shrewsbury Town Football Club.

It was a suitably crisp and frosty day as people began arriving at the venue; volunteers from all across the county and representing every service provided by Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin.

Before the meal was served, the charity’s President Anne Wignall gave a warm welcome to all attendees thanking them for the magnificent work they do. Anne said ‘This is our way of saying a big thank you for all the hard work you put in to help older people across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin. The work that you do is worth well over £1million a year in financial terms but the overall human impact of that is priceless.’

In addition to the volunteers, Anne welcomed Lady Forester to the event along with BBC Radio Shropshire’s Paul Shuttleworth. Paul was on hand to interview volunteers from a range of our services, for broadcast later in the month.

Among those receiving a special thank you from the President were the Wynn Foundation, whose sponsorship enabled us to provide this event for our volunteers, the Age UK North Shropshire Supporters Group, who continue to raise vital funds to support services for older people in the north of the county and our staff members Angela Goodman and Claire Fishlock, for their hard work in securing sponsorship and sourcing raffle prizes for the event.

Anne also thanked guests Dean Suter and Abi Bebb from R1 Construction, who are running an amazing Christmas appeal for us this year. The appeal hopes to raise £10,000 to provide vital support and companionship to older Shropshire residents, as well as arranging for over 300 gift boxes for local older people who attend Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin’s day centres, and encouraging as many people as they can to volunteer to support the our befriending service.

If you've been thinking about becoming a volunteer, why not take a look at the volunteer roles we have available or call our Volunteer Recruitment team on 01743 233 123 to find out more.