Rosedene, a childcare provider which operates across Tees Valley and North Yorkshire, is delivering smiles and joy to a Northallerton care home during lockdown to raise residents’ spirits.
The provider has a partnership with many homes close to its 11 sites and has maintained these strong relationships during the lockdown while it has been operating out of four hubs, caring for the children of key workers.
As part of Rosedene’s ‘appreciation week’ the children from the hub in Northallerton wrote letters and created artwork for residents at Mount Vale care home.
The children decorated banners to show support for all those who had gone the extra mile during the coronavirus crisis, including NHS workers, postal staff, refuse collectors and the Rosedene team.
Alice McCullagh, director at Rosedene, said: “Our relationship with the local community is very important to us, and we wanted to reach out during the crisis to make sure our friends in the care homes knew we were thinking about them.
“There are many benefits to both the children and the residents in intergenerational activities, and it was lovely to be able to deliver a little bit of cheer during a difficult time when we knew the care homes couldn’t allow any visitors.
“The children produced some lovely artwork and were genuinely very appreciative of how hard people having been working to help the country. It’s lovely to see.”
Helen Fisher, manager at Rosedene nursery in Northallerton, said: “The children have an incredible bond with the residents and they are missing their weekly visits. They have enjoyed sending letters and drawing pictures for them and were very excited to see them in the garden, they are really missing them.”
“A lot of them had created pictures at home to thank the NHS, so they were very excited to show their appreciation to our heroes working in the hospitals’’
The staff and residents from Mount Vale carehome sent the children a hamper and created a card showing they miss them and that they are looking forward to seeing the children again soon.