Activities at The Spires Care Home

We ran a Dementia Friends session at The Spires recently. Members of the team from the Garrick Theatre in Lichfield attended the session. We also ran 2 sessions at Debenhams in Lichfield in the same week as we try to promote Lichfield as a dementia friendly community.

Students from local primary school, The Friary, joined the staff at new build care home in Lichfield, The Spires to bury a time capsule on 27th June containing objects that reflect the year, marking the opening of the home.

Students from year 7 were selected to choose the items to put into the capsule, including the day’s Lichfield Mercury newspaper, alongside other articles like a map of the town, and Ed Sheeran CD, a Blue Planet DVD, a pound coin from 2018, a stamp set featuring the newly married Duke and Duchess Harry and Meghan, which were the top choices put forward by school children.

The home’s new hospitality team also provided a selection of refreshments for everyone to celebrate the special occasion.

Lisa Downes, the General Manager at Barchester, said: “I’m pleased that we can involve our young students from the local school as well as members of the community in this momentous occasion. It’s a very exciting time for the care industry and when the time capsule has been dug up 50 years from now, the new care home will be long-established in the Lichfield community.”

Mark Drury, Assistant Head teacher at Friary School, said: “Students had a wonderful day at The Spires burying the time capsule full of reminders of the here and now for their future selves. Our students from Year 7 submitted so many interesting and thoughtful entries, and are really looking forward to uncovering them here at The Spires 50 years from now. Thank you to the team at The Spires for inviting us to this special occasion. We are looking forward to working with our new neighbours again soon.”

The Lichfield Garrick Theatre was recently awarded a grant in support of their Day Choir from Barchester’s Charitable Foundation. Nominated by the team at The Spires, the Lichfield Garrick Theatre group received a £1,560 donation to help fund the launch and ongoing agenda for the choir.

Aimed at the over-65s, but available for all, the Lichfield Garrick Theatre’s Day Group choir brings older people from the local community together for weekly choir sessions, encouraging them to meet new people, have fun and avoid being isolated and on their own.

An integral part of Lichfield, the Garrick Theatre has many events taking place throughout the year that brings the community together. General Manager, Lisa Downes, a local to Lichfield, heard that the day choir was being launched but needed additional funding to continue, so The Spires came to the rescue.

Carrie Jahn, The Spires' Home Services Advisor. then wrote to Barchester’s Charitable Foundation, a charity that helps older and disabled people in England, Scotland and Wales by offering grants to individuals and small local organisations, who nominated the charity to receive the grant.

Following a successful application process, Lisa, Carrie and the team at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre were thrilled to learn that the grant was approved, where it will provide support for the choir for many months to come.

Lisa Downes, the newly appointed General Manager of The Spires, was delighted to accept the keys to the 70-bed care home on Stafford Road from the Project Construction Manager, Gerard Rogers, of McGoff Construction.

During the build. more than 90,000 bricks were laid, 2,100 energy-saving light bulbs fitted, and in addition to 1,200m² of turf, 5,500 plants, trees and shrubs were used to create the landscaped grounds.

Or Professionals' Cheese & Wine Evening was a huge success; there were many attendees who all had a great time.