Care Home Thanks Local Community for its Generosity and Christmas Spirit

A CARE home in Glasgow has thanked its surrounding community for their generosity and kindness this year, after school pupils and locals sent in a raft of personalised handmade cards and presents to residents.

Residents at Belses Gardens, which is managed and operated by Blackwood, have been treated to a packed month of festive activities, which culminated in a Christmas party where residents enjoyed food, gifts, and a visit from Santa at an outdoor gazebo.

The care home in Glasgow would normally host a local primary school for an afternoon carol service, but with Covid-19 restrictions this couldn’t go ahead. Instead, the community banded together to show their support for the care home through gifts from Hillington and Cardonald Primary schools and local people.

Liz Peebles, Care Services Manager at Blackwood, said: “The past few months have driven home how important our community links are, and how valuable these community and intergenerational relationships are to our customers and staff.

“We’ve had a fantastic reaction from the gifts and homemade cards from the children at Hillington and Cardonald Primary schools and our customers loved the Christmas party – this month has given us all a much needed boost.

“We’ve received donations of hampers with selection boxes and homemade tablets, our staff created Advent Calendars for customers, and we were also gifted some lovely handknitted Santa hats and Christmas puddings with chocolates in them.

“After a challenging year for many and our usual festive celebrations not able to go ahead, we feel extremely lucky to have had such a warm response from the community and we’d like to thank everyone for their support, generosity and kindness over the year.”