Local Care Home Joins the Great Tommy sleep out!
Wimborne Care home on Hayling Island spend a freezing night out under the stars to raise money for the RBLI and our homeless veterans, along with other people in the community they were setting out to raise awareness and money.
General Manager Sarah Peach and activity Coordinator Zoe Freeman have been spear heading Wimborne Care Home in becoming a Veteran Friendly home by going through the frame work over the last couple of months.
Both Sarah and Zoe have been very passionate about supporting the veterans their home and in their local community throughout their time in the care home industry, most recently they have supported their D-Day veteran to meet the King and other royals along with having bacon butty mornings hosted in the care home to bring in the community and all veterans together.
They have been going through this frame work to be able to support their existing veterans and any new veterans that are looking for a care home that can support them.
Zoe learnt about the opportunity to join the wonderful community in the great tommy sleep out and couldn’t wait to get on board, they joined a group of 8 other people. They were lucky enough to have support for fishery Creek Touring Park who let them use their land and Hayling island first responders for medical cover.
They slept out on a 2 degrees night trying to wrap up warm in their sleeping bags and got a snippet of an idea of what these homeless men and women go through each and every day. It brought a group of unlikely people together who shared their stories and why this charity means so much to them.
After a freezing night Sarah and Zoe were welcomed back to Wimborne Care Home with a hot coffee and bacon sandwich where they debriefed with their veteran residents, shared new stories they learnt and tried to warm up their toes.
All together the group raised over £1500 and are so grateful to everyone who donated. After such success they are looking out for anyone who wants to participate next year as homelessness does not go away.
The general manager Sarah said “It has been an honour to be part of a wonderful group of people to raise money for such a great charity even though it was freezing and feel like I had no sleep I already can’t wait for next year with an even bigger group to raise awareness.
“Going through this Veteran friendly frame work has given me even more knowledge and training to support these amazing people in our community and hope through this Great Tommy sleep out we can bring more veterans together and into Wimborne Care Home”