On Tuesday April 23rd, care home activities and wellbeing coordinators came together in our quarterly focus group to discuss the successes of 2023, our learnings and what we can do better for 2024.

The nature of these groups is to inspire collaborative working and encourage lasting relationships between the care homes, and judging by the attendees and their positive approach, there are going to be some wonderful successes this year.

We spoke about our Walk & Talk sessions, the GRAND Walk & Talk, Bakes Off's, The Care Home Olympics in August, Remembrance Sunday, The amendments to the Wishing Washing Line, The Last Night of the Proms, a potential animal experience day and even Christmas 2024!!

The enthusiasm shown by this small group, and that includes the representatives of the care homes who couldn't make it, is second to none. We are so lucky to have such engagement in Mid & North Essex and we cannot wait to see what this year brings!

We had some pretty decent treats too!

It goes without saying that every focus group is a joyous event, but this one was made so special by the efforts of the team at Loganberry Lodge who whipped up a smorgasbord of tasty treats, from croissants to pain au chocolat, and cream scones to cherry cake!

You excelled yourselves again!!

The next focus group is to be held at Colonia Court in July, so if you're an activities coordinator, care home manager or owner, and you would like to attend, please just drop us a message on hello@fansnetwork.org

Thanks to everyone who came along.

We would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who attended.

Loganberry Lodge for hosting us, Woodland View, The Haven, Milton Lodge, Crouched Friars, Foxburrow Grange, Springfields, Freda Gunton Lodge, and Colonia Court.

Simple wishes make a huge difference, like this one. Denise is a resident at The Lodge Care Home in Maldon, and her wish was for a nice new doll!

These types of wishes are crucial to some care home residents, especially those living with forms of dementia.

You might also think, "surely the care home has the budget for a dolly?" Well, here's the thing. The FaNs Network was started with a mission to connect care homes and their residents with their communities and the people within them, so when one of our incredible supporters granted Denise's wish a new connection or relationship is created, and thus getting us, and them, one step closer to a united community, whatever your circumstances.

Walk & Talk in May

Next month we're looking forward to welcoming Foxburrow Grange and Milton Lodge residents along for our second walk & talk on May 15th, so if you'd like to volunteer to help, just email us at hello@fansnetwork.org

When we collect wishes from care homes, all too often the ones the get the biggest audiences are the "WOW" wishes, something grand and a once in a lifetime experience, but the fact is, most of the wishes we receive are quite small and personal, such as this lovely wish from Jean, a resident of Loganberry Lodge care home in Colchester.

Jean's wish was simply to have some good old East End Pie, Mash and Liquor, so when Katie saw the wish in Tesco, she jumped into action and organised a personal delivery of Jean's favourite dish straight to her room.

Katie and Jean met for the first time, they chatted and laughed as Jean enjoyed her favourite meal, and even got a beautiful bouquet of flowers to top off the occasion.

Whilst this is simple, that one small act of kindness, reacting to one piece of card on a board on a supermarket wall, makes a huge difference, not just to Jean, but to the many care home residents who's wishes are on the Wishing Washing Line board too.

Thank you Katie.

This week, Carebears childminding Service spread double the joy with visits to not one, but two care homes – Longfield Care Home and Hailey House Care Homes in Maldon.

Katie, the heart behind Carebears, shared her heartfelt experience:

"It's so lovely to see the residents so happy and chatting away to the children, such special moments."

Greeting the residents with flowers to brighten their day and engaging in mindful activities, there were smiles all round. Such a lovely thing to do. Thank you, Katie, for making a difference!

As an avid scooterist back in the day, naturally Eileen’s wish on the FaNs Wishing Washing Line was to see some Vespa’s & Lammies again!

So the girls and boys from Writtle International scooter collective, Odds and Sods Scooter Club, 3 Amigos Scooter Club, Braintree Breakfast Scooter Club, The armed forces scooter club, Essex Scooterists and Arrows Scooter Club (A604), all came together to deliver the best of surprises for her! Eileen was absolutely overjoyed and quickly jumped onto one of the bikes to relive some of her younger days.

She spent time chatting to the scooterists, looking at the bikes, hopping on and off a few and even had time to pose for photos, including showing the bikers an old photo of her very own scooter from back in the day!

Then it was back inside for a lovely hot cuppa, some delicious birthday cake and many, many more laughs!

Edwina was a resident at Crouched Friars Residential Home and her wish was to have a West End musical experience. A trip to London wasn't appropriate for Edwina, so the students and staff at Philip Morant School and College stepped in brought the West End to Colchester with an epic school production of Matilda!!

Edwina had a truly magical evening, even being made guest of honour at the school, and being presented with a beautiful bunch of flowers from the cast and crew! So a huge thank you to everyone that made this wish and experience come true for her.

At the end of last year we approached schools in the Braintree and Maldon areas to see if they would like to make some handmade Christmas cards for a care home local to them and we were overwhelmed by the care, attention and love that the students put into making the cards.

Some of the cards were delivered to the care homes by students, accompanied by some Carol Singing and chats. Below are pictures of just a few of the cards that were made.

Fortunately for the residents of Willowmead, Tiptree Hand Bell Ringers were more than happy to oblige. Dressed in their Christmas hats, the 15 strong group spent the morning with residents playing festive favourites.

When St Dominic's care Home mentioned they were having a silver band into play for their residents in early December, we couldn't help but ask if they were happy to have a few extra guests, and in turn grant a wishing washing line wish at the same time. The homes wonderful activity coordinator, Robyn, was more than happy to oblige.

Bea, activity coordinator at Southminster Residential Home was over the moon to be able to fulfil Judith's wish and was more than happy to drive her and her friend Maureen to Kelvedon to surprise Judith on the day.

It was a magical start to Christmas for Judith, Maureen and the residents of St Dominic's Care Home and it was a really beautiful collaboration between care homes to make a dream come true.

The Princes Theatre hosts FaNs for Christmas 2023

71 care homes residents from 13 care homes across Tendring joined us for our 2023 Christmas Extravaganza.

The staff at the Princes Theatre were incredible and very festively dressed. Oscar from Gfitness did an activity session to warm everyone up, Mick O'Connell strummed his guitar and created the oldest collective Hokey Cokey ever seen and DJBuzby provided hit after hit and almost everyone made it onto the dance floor.

As part of our multi generational "Up!" initiative, 39 students and staff from Clacton Coastal Academy came to enjoy the fun and hand out hugs and chocolates.

See you again in 2024!

Back in 2018, respected Colchester childminder Kim Barnetson made the decision to try to engage with her local older people's care home, a decision which has borne fruit ever since. Since then, Kim has been a regular visitor at four local care homes, taking the children in her care to meet, interact, play and learn with the elderly people living there.

Kim would encourage anyone leading in child care, be it a nursery or childminder, to engage with their local care home and reap the same benefits they she and the children in her care have received.

If you would like to know more, just email hello@fansnetwork.org and we can set you on the path to a beautiful and sustainable connection for you and your children.

Back in March at one of our activity coordinator forums we were discussing the upcoming walk and talk sessions for the year. Unfortunately at that stage we weren't able to offer any sessions in Clacton, to the disappointment of Glengariff care home. Knowing how much it would mean to the residents of the Clacton home to get out and about, Alderwood kindly offered their bus and driver for the day, allowing Glengariff to visit Colchester castle for a walk and talk session yesterday.

The residents of Glengariff were thrilled to have a day out and to come to the castle. We were lucky enough to be joined by children from Butterfly Barns Day Nursery, who all wanted to help push the residents who were using wheelchairs.

After a gentle stroll and some feeding and fattening of the pigeons and squirrels we headed to the Lucas vault for refreshments and a look at some of the artefacts, we wandered around the museum looking at the exhibits.

We were delighted to be joined by residents of Millard House for a glorious stroll around the Braintree and Bocking Public Gardens on October 9th. Joining us were children from Step Start Nursery Braintree and two local community police officers.

The residents enjoyed helping the children spot things that were pictured on their park bingo, spotting a ladybird, the bandstand and the play equipment.

We walked to the beautiful John Ray gardens, and enjoyed the last scents of lavender lingering on the plant. While the children explored the garden the residents had a chance to chat with the PCSO's from Braintree Police station.

We then went on to look at the fish in the pond, meeting back up with our nursery friends under the bandstand. After another chat with the children, we had to say our goodbyes and we headed to the Coffee Shop in the Gardens to enjoy refreshments sponsored by the Lions Club of Braintree.

We can't wait for our walk and talk sessions to resume again next year!

Seated in the care home cafe, 'Doyles', residents enjoyed the opportunity to sing along, and even have a dance with each other and some of the staff during the performance.

Many residents were visibly moved by many songs as they triggered memories from days gone by with friends and loved ones.

Many of the residents joining us were local to the area and had some wonderful memories of years gone by. One resident recollected coming down to the promenade and to the Queens Head pub on a motorbike in their youth, while another, Cybil having lived in the area her whole life was able to tell us much of the history of the area. Her father had been a bargeman in her childhood, transporting hay to London for the horses and returning with local manure for the local farmers crops. She was also delighted to see a photo of local fisherman in the area, which included many of her uncles.

One resident who wasn't local to the area really loved having the opportunity to visit Maldon for the first time.

And what a concert it was, Mozart's Serenade No. 10 for Winds, often referred to as Gran Partita performed in the wonderfully atmospheric surroundings of Coggeshall's St Peter Ad Vincula Church.

This seven-movement masterpiece was performed by an incredible ensemble of musicans including internationally renowned clarinetist, Sacha Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra's Olivier Stankiewicz.

Peter enjoyed every minute of the experience.

Care home residents, players, volunteers and visitors alike had the best time and made the most of the beautiful weather.

On Saturday September the 23rd, with funding from the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, The FaNs Network held it's annual charity fundraising cricket match at Colchester's beautiful Garrison cricket ground. Care homes from across Mid and North Essex came along to enjoy the beautiful warm weather, a yummy cricket tea, a free bar provided by The Odd One Out public house for those who wanted it and an enormous raffle!

Players from across the county and beyond came along to support the match, including players from Hackney, Chignal Smealey, The Real Oddies and Eight Ash Green Cricket Clubs making up the All Star XI.

Victory is secured!

Losing the toss and batting first, the FaNs XI innings started to crumble. Even though Charlie Loudoun was bowling at the speed of light, his first over with the new ball swung so far the best keeper in the league, Wes Murrell, was trying to catch the ball somewhere near The Abbey Arms. Cue over two, and with a healthy 14 on the board, (all Loudoun extras and Charlie demanding a ball change) opening pair Tony Lee and Curtis Clough moved on to 28, with Tony controversially dismissed for a meagre 8, and Curtis given out caught off his pad for not many more. But with Will Shearman, Alex Hammond and Tom Lee all going past 50 (and retiring), a formidable total of 269 to win off 35 overs looked a big ask, an ask SO BIG in fact, that the FaNs Chairman, Tony Smith, went off to buy a trophy at tea, so confident was he of a FaNs XI win for the first time in four years!

In reply the All Star XI started slowly, due in part to West Indian pacemen Daley Carter opening the bowling and promising he would bowl slow spin. He did not. Ghokulan tried to break every window in Colchester, but couldn't get the ball off the square such was the bowling skill on show! From the other end, Alistair Hammond was bowling back of a length on a lively wicket, almost hospitalising poor Robin Plummer on two occasions before a short delivery jumped up and bopped him on the chin! He bravely continued before inevitably having to retire hurt!

With the top order routed, only a stubborn innings from Alistair Bevitt-Smith and Luke Barlow prevented an early finish, and once team superstar Charlie Loudoun came and went, it was left to youngsters Fraser and James Loudoun to bat out the overs, with Fraser scoring an all run 5, with a little help from his Dad, who batted the ball away twice more to both sides of the pitch during the cross over!

Huge credit also goes to Danny Sharp, who performed like a seasoned pro in his first ever cricket match, and Christina Shields, taking her maiden scalp when Mangesh Dev skied to deep mid off where the unflustered Sharp sprinted like a gazelle, leapt like a salmon and pouched like a kangaroo to take the catch of the day.

Victory was sealed as the FaNs XI couldn't make the breakthrough to take the final wicket in the 70th over of the day, but still won the game by an impressive 131 runs, although one can't help but thinking that the All Star XI could have got across the line had big hitting Keith Gilligan not retired early!

So many people to thank.......

None of what we do here at Team FaNs is possible without the help and support of the local community, so we have to say an enormous thank you to everyone who helped on the day!

Birkett Long were the main shirt sponsor for the match, with Emma Clark coming along and taking control of the raffle/tea/drinks/photography and entertainment (we're also sure there was more)

Tom Knox from The Odd One Out Public House who supplied four kegs of wonderful Colchester Brewery Beer!

Tesco Highwoods who supplied to ingredients to the cricket tea!

To Colchester's Anti Loo Roll Brigade for the loan of the gazebo

To The Real Oddies Cricket Club for the use of their beautiful ground and pavillion, in addition to providing players for the All Star XI.

To every single person who bought a raffle ticket and provided a raffle prize, and every single person who paid a match fee and made a donation for the beer and the tea!

To Jade Murrell from M&M Photography who not only donated a free photo session as a raffle prize, but also donated her time to take professional photos on the day!

To Marianne & Richard Telfer for going above and beyond when ALL the things that were forgotten on the morning were quickly purchased and donated, and, even though it was a mix up, for practically providing a second cricket tea!

But mostly, to the residents and staff from all of the care homes who came along, and especially to Foxburrow Grange, who made the most incredible cricket themed cake which was won in the raffle by young Maddox, (this may have been rigged from the start)!

The aim of the day isn't only about raising much needed funds. It's about involving care home residents in something joyful, something a little different, so to see so much fun being had was such an incredible bonus to the day. They laughed, danced, joined in the cricket, had a beer and enjoyed a lovely buffet, and in one case, by a sheer stroke of luck, Tony, a resident at Loganberry Lodge and a former player at EAGCC, was reunited with old friends and with their lost brother who lives abroad, thanks to the sharp eye of Eight Ash Green's Alistair Hammond! Tony was absolutely overjoyed when he was given his own EAGCC jumper to keep!

However, the wind did not dampen anyones spirits and the residents of Squeaks House enjoyed a stroll along the Maldon Promenade despite the moody grey sky!

After a short time battling against the wind, we sat and had some refreshments and the residents enjoyed stroking Cassie the dog who had joined us with her owner Loretta.

We then moved on to the petting zoo where residents enjoyed looking at the llamas, guinea pigs, skunks and even reindeer!

On the way back to the bus, the residents were on the look out for conkers to place around the home to deter spiders! Thanks to the wind there were plenty to collect.

Since April 2023, there have been ten walk and talk sessions across Mid and North Essex, with in excess of a hundred care home residents from having the opportunity to get out of their care setting and into nature, to walk, talk and enjoy the natural surroundings!

They have laughed together, drank tea and coffee, scoffed hundred of biscuits and got to meet exciting, interesting and valuable members of their communities!

They have learned about local architecture and wildlife, created new and lasting friendships with other care home residents, and got a chance to tackle some light exercise and movement.

It's been such a successful 2023 that we're planning full ahead already for 2024, and with the Walk & Talk sessions due to end in October, we're also considering a continuation into winter. Like a wise Swede, (or Dane) once said, "there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing".

Huge thanks to Catalyst Colchester, The National Lottery Community Fund and to the South Suffolk and North Essex ICB for making all this possible with their generous funding!