During the 1st Christmas covid lockdown the staff team had a virtual celebration with some silly activities over zoom leading to the overall winner (in this case Julie, our Learning and Volunteer Lead) being presented with the magnificent and now infamous ‘Pink Pineapple’.

This year, for our first face to face Christmas celebration since 2019, we adapted some of the activities when around 35 staff, volunteers and trustees got together on one of the coldest nights of the year in the Digby Hall. It was fun and we were delighted to present the ‘Christmas turnip’ to Angela Alston who correctly matched the most pictures of Christmas trees to their staff team owners. We are sure it will be taking pride of place on her Christmas tree.

But the highlight of the evening has to be the announcement of our involvement in the Room to Reward scheme. Set up by the hospitality industry we are now able to offer two separate volunteers a free weekend away for two from any number of 800+ listed hotels across the UK. The rewards this time have gone to Paul Blake in recognition of his eight years volunteering as a tutor and to Debbie Webber for her fantastic support behind the scenes managing our learner data.

It really is a fantastic initiative and we’re pleased that next year we will be able to offer the same next year. However, because it’s so hard to put any one person’s contribution above another we plan to put the names of everyone who has been with us for more than two years into a hat and draw the winners at our volunteers’ summer cream tea.