Honeypot Charity Buzzes With Help From New Forest Care Home Residents

Residents and staff at a New Forest care home have raised and handed over nearly £6,000 to a charity that provides essential support for young carers.

Honeypot was the beneficiary of a year of community activities after residents at Colten Care’s Woodpeckers chose it as their main charity to help.

Among the fundraising events at the Brockenhurst home were garden open days, a month of fitness sessions, an outdoor ‘festival of light’ and a Christmas ‘meet the reindeer’ afternoon.

Residents contributed directly by making crafts and gifts to sell, manning stalls and promoting the events to families, friends and community contacts.

At a presentation to round off the year, resident Maureen Miller said: “I’ve really enjoyed what has been a lovely opportunity to raise money for such a great cause in so many different ways.”

Jane Bunker, Companionship Team Leader at Outstanding-rated home, said: “We’ve had such a great year, raising an amazing amount of money.

“It will enable many children to take a break from caring and go and have an adventure at Honeypot House in the New Forest and just have the chance to be a child again.

“The Woodpeckers residents really got behind this year of help. Our Bee-a-thon was a whole month of ‘Let’s get active’ sessions in which everyone donned sports gear to do laps of our garden.

“Another highlight was when the Honeypot mascot Bumble the Bee came for a sleepover.

“We also welcomed Bumble for a Morris dancing afternoon when we opened our new greenhouse and for our festive reindeer day.”

Accepting the home’s cheque for a total of £5,772.60, Honeypot Community Fundraising Manager Viv Carter said: “The enthusiasm and energy from everyone at Woodpeckers is overwhelming.

“We are so happy to have their support. They have really driven their fundraising for us with an understanding of the impact it has.”

Honeypot is one of the few organisations dedicated to supporting young carers aged five to 12 with outreach support and respite breaks.

Without its input, many children would have nowhere else to turn as they struggle to cope with care responsibilities for sick or disabled parents or siblings.

Official figures suggest there are 195,000 young carers in the UK, but the figure is likely to be much higher. A BBC survey in 2018 estimated the number could be as high as 800,000.

Honeypot say young carers can find it hard to relate to their peers, struggle to concentrate in school and have less time to play with friends or take part in after-school activities.