Birling House Odds and Silly Socks day

A very successful ‘Odds and Socks’ day coffee morning was organised by the staff at Birling House, last Friday morning the 27^th February. This was to raise awareness and funds for the HD Association and the Mortimer Society jointly. The campaign to wear silly or odd socks is designed to raise awareness of the 50:50 genetic risk for the disease. But this was also an opportunity for everyone at Birling to be involved in a fun morning of chatting, activities and being together.

When I walked into the Butterfly Lounge I was met with a joyful picture of both staff and residents wearing their green HD t-shirts and the sounds of everyone, chatting, playing table games and enjoying being all together. There was a tombola stall, raffle, a refreshments stall serving tea/coffee and beautifully made cakes and savouries and a ‘guess the number of sweets’ in a jar. The staff had all bought their own t-shirts and Paul our CEO had also been persuaded to wear one too!

Denise from the Activities Team had secured donations of raffle and tombola prizes from  local businesses. The cakes and savouries had been made and donated by Linda and Zoe who are mum and sister to a family member living  at Birling House.

During the morning, two members of staff, Christine and Gill were presented with retirement gifts. It was their last day of working at Birling as both carers and key workers for many years. Paul our CEO, spoke about their loyal service and how they would be greatly missed by the residents and their colleagues too. The residents who were involved in the presentations were very excited to be part of this as shown in the photographs. It was a very successful morning with £613.00 being raised from the raffle and tombola and the event was really enjoyed by all.