East Park Newsletter

JANUARY 2009

Happy new year!

2008 was a good year for us here at East Park. We welcomed some new residents to the centre; Gwenda, Alan, Michael, Jeanne, Rowland and Zena – A warm welcome to you all. We've had two new additions to the care team; Gelu and Julian. There's a few new chickens (Frosty, Blueberry, Alice and Ace) in the coop. We welcomed Charles and George the guinea pigs, Cola the hamster and of course the newest addition to East Park; Ronnie the miniature Dachshund.

Our staff continued to live up to their reputation for excellence, working hard to provide the best possible care and service to our clients. The care team took lots of courses to improve our skills, seven of our team are in qualification for their NVQ level 2 in care and our Romanian staff have been studying extra hard at their English lessons with the lovely Anya. Two members of the care team were promoted to deputy senior carers – well done Joe and Elena!

In October, our manager Karen ran a half marathon to raise money for Breast Cancer Care Cymru, raising an amazing £1680! The Friends of East Park have also supported numerous charities over the year, including Strongbones, Christies Hospital, the British Heart Foundation and the NSPCC.

We discovered last year that our team have a talent for 10 pin bowling - more so the girls apparently, according to Karen and Elena. Having said that the boys on the team are the best at pool. In November, Julian and Karen were able to go to Old Trafford to watch their team Manchester United beat Hull City 4-3. The most notable sporting achievement of the year was Karen's son Lewis' grading to black belt in Shotokan Karate, under the strict instruction of Sensei Mike O'Brien.

As always, we had a busy festive period here. There were lots of parties and fantastic musical performances from Hank Hillman, the Haverfordwest ladies choir, the St. John's church choir and the excellent Sherri Meyler, not to mention a brilliant stand-up routine from up and coming comic Lewis Murray and a brief but entertaining harp recital from his sister Skye. The staff enjoyed a trip to the pantomime at the torch theatre in Milford Haven, giving us some ideas for a production of our own later this year.

However, the Christmas decorations have finally come down, and the staff have worked hard to finish the mountain of sweets and chocolates generously donated by friends of the centre. There's a new year ahead of us full of new challenges and opportunities. In February, Karen will be releasing her new book 'Live and Learn.....then Live Again', so be sure to get your signed copy before she's famous.