Carole Walker, the manager of the Jubilee Centre, was busy in the kitchen making sure the lunch was just so. Volunteers were helping the assembled lunchers with some gentle exercises – suitable for Marlborough’s older generation (December 8).
Then Lucy Ross-Millar arrived with an enormous cheque. And much to the delight of her audience, she presented the cheque to Sally Wolfenden – recently appointed as the Centre’s Chairman.
It marked a donation of £1,000 from Tescos’s Bags of Help grant scheme. Lucy Ross-Millar works for the environmental charity Groundwork which administers the Bags of Help community grant scheme for Tesco.
The £1,000 will go to help the Jubilee Centre take more of the elderly on outings during the coming year.
It’s a busy time for the Jubilee Centre. People come to its day care sessions (Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays) and its drop-in lunch days (Wednesdays and Thursdays) from right across the Marlborough area – even from Shalbourne. And to entertain them at this time of year, groups of primary school children come from across the area, to sing carols.
They have already heard pupils from Marlborough St Mary’s, Ogbourne St George, Preshute and St Francis. And in the coming week they will be entertained by young singers from Burbage, Shalbourne, Easton Royal and Oare schools.
That’s a really grand lot of carolling. And something those attending the Jubilee Centre certainly remember with pleasure.
The Jubilee Centre also does a Meals on Wheels service for those who cannot get into town. Last Friday Carole Walker was preparing lunch for 31 – 19 older people at the Centre, seven meals on wheels and five volunteers. And there was enough for Lucy Ross-Millar too.
Christmas lunches will be served at the Jubilee Centre from December 19-22. And volunteers will carry on with the Meals on Wheels service between Christmas and the New Year. So news of help – especially aimed at Christmas meals – from the Waitrose token scheme has come as another boost for the Jubilee Centre.
Very tempting aromas of the lunch were wafting their way out into the High Street, but my parking time was running out, so I just had to make my excuses and leave!