A club for the over-50s which meets at a Bradley Stoke church has been awarded a £2,000 grant from Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme.
The scheme distributes funds raised through the 5p carrier bag levy and three organisations in the local area (covering the Stokes, Patchway and Almondsbury) are selected every two months to take part in a customer vote to decide how the three awards of £5,000, £2,000 and £1,000 should be allocated.
The money will help the club put on a series of monthly coach trips, which typically cost around £400 each. The first one, which has already been planned, will be to the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke.
Club member Josie Hadden, who submitted the grant application on behalf of the club, praised Tesco’s local community champion Dawn Richards for providing guidance about the scheme and said she had found Groundwork, Tesco’s partner for implementing the Bags of Help scheme, “very helpful”.
The Young at Heart Club was started in 1999 when Bradley Stoke was still being built and there were no social groups for older people. It has 56 paid-up members and an average of 36 attend the group’s weekly sessions on Thursday afternoons at Christ the King Church.
The weekly sessions feature a diverse range of activities, including guest speakers, entertainment and quizzes.
The popularity of the group is evidenced by the fact that it currently has a waiting list, as numbers are limited by the hall size and the numbers that can be accommodated on coach trips.
Photo: Bradley Stoke Tesco Extra manager Kevin Vickery (centre) and Tesco community champion Dawn Richards (right) present a cheque for £2,000 to members of the Young at Heart group.
This article originally appeared in the April 2017 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on page 27). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,500 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
