Age UK Somerset's 75th Anniversary
Age UK Somerset started off life in 1948 as the Somerset Older Persons Welfare Committee. Since then, through thick and thin, we have been here to provide a helping hand for local older people and are delighted to be celebrating our 75th Anniversary in 2023!
Can you spare 75p please?
We're just asking for 75p as it's our 75th. There's a quick and easy link to click to donate. It's not much, but if a lot of people gave it could add up to more happy over 60s in Somerset! When we work together, a little CAN mean a lot.
We have organised (or been involved with) lots of events to mark our 75th Anniversary year
8th January 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset
27th January 2023
Rumwell Charity Quiz Night -
A meal and quizzing merriment raising money for Age UK Somerset.
31st January 2023
Celebration lunch for older people in Weston super Mare kindly donated by Bistrot Pierre
5th February 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset
5th March 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset
2nd April 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset
2nd April 2023
Gus ran the Paris Marathon raising over £1,200 for Age UK Somerset!
Thanks Gus!
7th May 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset
12th May 2023
Rumwell Charity Quiz Night - raising money for Age UK Somerset and taking part in SOMERSET'S BIGGEST EVER QUIZ!
BBC Somerset's Charlie Taylor interviewed our Chair of Trustees and broadcast live from the event.
4th June 2023
Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton - raising money for Age UK Somerset.
This month's mystery prize was a shirehorse-drawn carriage ride around the village!
1st - 14th June 2023
For our Anniversary year Volunteers Week became 2 weeks!
We held 12 special 'Thank You' events for our Volunteers all across Somerset and North Somerset.
We're very grateful to Somerset Care for supporting our Volunteers Week events.
26th July
Volunteer Forum
We invited all our Volunteers to a Feedback Forum, hosted by Phil Dolan, our Chief Exec, so they could let us know how they were feeling about their roles and what we could do to improve the Volunteering experience.
For those that were unable to attend we followed this up with an online survey.
This process has led to some very useful changes and additions to our policies and procedures and we are very grateful (as always!) to our Volunteers for giving up their time to help!
Volunteers are central to everything we do at Age UK Somerset so from 6th September to 19th November (the 75 days preceding our Anniversary) we focused on a Volunteer a Day for 75 days!
Use the arrows below to scroll and see each one.
26th October
The Choir of Agels is born!
First rehearsal at Bridgwater Town Hall.
(It is amazing that 23 days, and 2 more rehearsals later they did their first performance at our Anniversary Party!)
1st November 2023
A very special Tea Party near Wincanton
16th November 2023
Charity Day at Taunton Races
We enjoyed at the races where we had a stand giving out information.
We were delighted to be able to hand over the trophy to the winner of the Age UK Somerset 75th Anniversary Maiden Hurdle and even more delighted to collect £440 in donations in our fundraising buckets by the exit gates!
17th November 2023
An Anniversary Celebration for former and current Staff and Volunteers
About 100 current and former staff and volunteers of the charity enjoyed catching up over tea and coffee at the event in St James Church Hall, Taunton, before the Chief Executive of the Charity, Phil Dolan, introduced the debut performance of the charity’s volunteer ‘Choir of Agels’ who performed 2 short songs brilliantly despite only having had three rehearsals.
After a short speech on the charity’s beginnings and the changes it has seen, the guests raised their glasses in a toast to the future. They were then served a slice of Celebration Cake kindly donated by Rumwell Farm Shop (who have been supporting the Charity throughout 2023 via their ‘Charity of the Year’ initiative) while being entertained with six brilliantly performed songs from The Rivertones Chorus.
19th November 2023
Our actual 75th Anniversary!
20th November
We organised a free screening for over 60s of The Great Escaper at Scott Cinemas, Bridgwater.
22nd November
Early Night Club!
We welcomed more than 200 over 60s to our "Early Night Club" event at The Palace Nightclub, Bridgwater. We organised it because we wanted to bring local older people together as part of our Anniversary celebrations, to reduce loneliness or just inject a bit of fun and excitement into the dark months. It was such a fun night and made possible by a grant from Bridgwater Town Council.
More than 3.7 million people worldwide have now watched this lovely film that Will Richards of BBC Somerset made about our event and there have been thousands of positive comments.
We've been interviewed about it not only in Somerset but also on the radio in Cape Town! You can listen to both those recordings below.
Listen to our Chief Exec, Phil Dolan, talking to Pippa Hudson of Cape Talk - a radio station in Cape Town, South Africa, about our over 60s Early Night Club!
Listen to Kate Barrington, lead organiser of the Anniversary events, talking to Jenna Myles of Somerset Cool / Be Somerset Radio
30th November 2023
Somerset, Bristol and Bath Tourism Awards
We've long been the sponsor of the 'Age Friendly' category at the Tourism Awards but this year it seemed appropriate to sponsor the 'Unsung Hero' award in recognition that our Volunteers are Unsung Heroes. (We really do make an effort to make them feel sung though!)
It was a lovely surprise then when during the Awards Ceremony when a member of Age UK Somerset staff was on stage to present the Unsung Hero Award to Zoe Furse of Aurora Foxes, host Ben McGrail (ITV West) made a short speech recognising the hard work that had gone into the events that Age UK Somerset had organised to bring local older people together. 😊
3rd December 2023
A bumper Christmas Charity Pub Quiz at The Lamb Inn, Spaxton!
Raising money for Age UK Somerset.
13th December 2023
Age UK Somerset's 'Celebration of Christmas' Carol Service at Wells Cathedral.
This year's Christmas Carol Service at Wells Cathedral, sponsored by Somerset Care, was wonderful!
There was a really great turnout with our Volunteers as VIPs, representatives from Somerset Council and the Somerset Lieutenancy, guests from Somerset Care homes and lots of others - friends old and new - in the congregation!
The two choirs - the Taunton Deane Male Voice Choir and our own Volunteer Choir of Agels - were fantastic!
Click the button below to read more about it, see the Order of Service featuring the carols we sang and the readings we heard, along with photos and videos from the day.
14th December 2023
Rumwell Charity Candlelight Christmas Dinner
Rumwell Farm Shop organised a fantastic and festive Christmas Carvery and Carols as their last fundraising event for us as their Charity of the Year 2023.
We are so grateful to them for all their support this year. It's been a real delight to work with them! Thank you Rumwell!
Please can you spare 75 pence?
Upcoming events
Meal at Bistrot Pierre in the New Year!
The celebrations just keep on going!
The kind people at Bistrot Pierre, in Weston super Mare, are putting on another free lunch for older people in Weston super Mare early in the New Year. This is due to a campaign they are running where if people book for a Christmas Dinner on a Sunday before Christmas they give one meal away to an older person for free!
If you are over 60, live alone and in or near Weston super Mare please get in touch and we will try to include you in this event.
Thursday 3rd October 2024
Social Tea Dance at the beautiful Winter Gardens, Weston super Mare
Details coming soon!
In the meantime you can contact 01823 345610 or email communications@ageuksomerset.org.uk