Toddler Ethan Wicks with The Solihull Homes Activity Coordinator, Charlie
With Christmas just around the corner, disabled veterans at The Royal Star & Garter Homes welcomed babies and toddlers to a fun-filled, Christmas themed multi-sensory class held at the Charity’s Solihull Home. Residents were invited to join in the festive fun alongside the youngsters. The class was run by Hartbeeps, as part of an ongoing partnership between the Solihull Home and the local group to help bring generations together.
The class focussed on the fun and joy of the Christmas season, with children taking a ride to the North Pole on a sleigh before receiving their ‘Sleigh License’ and snowballs from The Royal Star & Garter Homes very own Santa and Elf. Everyone wore Christmas clothing to embrace the spirit of the season.
This was the third Hartbeeps session hosted by The Royal Star & Garter Homes. Classes have proven to be a huge success with residents, who enjoy the youthful fun and energy of the children. The Solihull Home will begin to host regular music and sensory classes for babies and toddlers in the New Year.
Resident, Vera, sharing a heart-warming moment with toddler
Nicola Wicks, Owner of Hartbeeps West Midlands – Solihull and Henley in Arden Franchise, was touched by this special moment when she was hosting the class, “I was nearly brought to tears as I heard a gentleman singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ behind me. I looked round and had his eyes closed whilst holding someone’s hand. Just magical!”
Andy Cole, Chief Executive of The Royal Star & Garter Homes commented, “It was touching to see such wonderful interaction between our residents and the children, everyone was smiling and having a really good time. We are very excited about the relationship between The Royal Star & Garter Homes and Hartbeeps, and we look forward to working together to help build relationships between the younger and older generations.”
Residents and children join together in a festive sing-along
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For further information please contact:
Diane Fisher, Press Officer, e: diane.fisher@starandgarter.org, t: 0208 481 7669
Cally Madden, Marketing & Communications Manager, e: cally.madden@starandgarter.org, t: 020 8481 7692
Michelle Danks, Senior Marketing & Communications Manager, e: michelle.danks@starandgarter.org, t: 020 8481 7691
About The Royal Star & Garter Homes:
The Charity provides award-winning care for veterans and their partners who live with disability or dementia.
The Royal Star & Garter Homes is a charity founded in 1916 to care for the severely injured young men returning from the battlegrounds of the First World War. Today we provide specialist care to the whole military family in our friendly, state-of-the-art Homes. Disabled ex-Servicemen and women, and their spouses, can all benefit from our pioneering approach to nursing, dementia and therapeutic care.
We are in the process of building new Homes around the country to provide specialist nursing care for disabled ex-Service people in the best modern surroundings, including dementia care facilities to address this growing need. The Charity has award-winning Homes in Solihull, West Midlands, and Surbiton, Surrey, which also enables the Charity to offer interim care for young disabled Service personnel. Following the successes of the first two Homes, a third Home in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, is being built, with a planned opening in 2018.
We are proud to have enjoyed Royal patronage since our foundation, including that of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II from 1953 to the present day.
The Charity celebrated its centenary in 2016: providing specialist care for disabled veterans since 1916.
Twitter: @starandgarter
Facebook: facebook.com/starandgarter
Website: www.starandgarter.org
About Hartbeeps:
- Since 2003 Hartbeeps has been delivering original music classes to 1000s of babies and Children
- Hartbeeps creates innovative, multi-sensory and highly interactive productions for the very young, baby, including toddler and pre-school age. Repetition and variation are built into the programme to offer young children reassurance of continuity, along with variation on a theme opening the world of imagination and the opportunity to explore one’s own creativity.
- Hartbeeps’ bespoke music library is now into the 100s and includes specially timed, sequenced and professionally composed songs, sound plays and sound effects.
- Nicola Wicks has owned the West Midlands – Solihull & Henley in Arden franchise since 2016. 2018 will see the franchise operating 13 classes per week.
- For more information, please visit htpps://bookeo.com/hartbeepswmsolihull
