28 June 2007
RICHMOND CHILDREN MEET VETERANS AT THE ROYAL STAR & GARTER
To mark the contribution made by those in the Armed Forces, resident veterans at The Royal Star & Garter Homes in Richmond welcomed around 50 children from local schools. Students from Holy Trinity, Sheen Mount, Whitton School, Park Hill and The Russell School participated in a full-day event at the Home, learning through interactive activities what it would have been like to have lived through WWII. Starting at 9.30am, activities organised for the children were as diverse as baking a beetroot cake out of rationed ingredients to trying on original clothing from the era or even putting the children through their paces with a Home Guard Drill Sergeant!
“Thank you – I had a brilliant time!” said one of the children who attended as she happily left The Royal Star & Garter at the end of the day, taking in hand her WWII themed goody bag.
Royal Marine (Rtd) and resident at the Richmond Home, Dick Martin, expressed “Meeting children is always a wonderful experience because as veterans, we are able to speak face-to-face with the new generation and tell them what it was really like during the Second World War, especially as we were not much older than they when we went to war.”
“It was a poignant day; seeing the youngsters interacting with residents of the WWII generation. We were privileged to have the Mayor attend which added to the prestige of the occasion, “said Lynn McDougall, Chief Executive of the Charity.
The spectacular Drill Sergeant was courtesy of Spectrum and The Museum of Richmond kindly loaned the Charity authentic WWII materials and props to supplement the Charity’s unique archive collection.
About the Royal Star & Garter Charity – founded in 1916.
The Royal Star & Garter Charity has been caring for disabled ex-Service personnel since 1916. The Charity offers the best in nursing and therapeutic care for anyone who is physically disabled or incapacitated and has served in Her Majesty’s Forces. There are also a wide variety of leisure activities available for our residents to enjoy, both internally and at outside venues. The Royal Star & Garter Charity is embarking on an ambitious and wide reaching project to build new homes, in the South West London area and elsewhere, to provide specialist care for elderly disabled ex-Service people in the best modern surroundings and, for the first time, will include a specialist dementia care wing to address this growing need. The first of these prestigious new homes will open in Solihull, the West Midlands, in the summer of 2008.
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FURTHER INFO:
Patsy Willis, Director of Fundraising & Public Relations, The Royal Star & Garter Homes
TEL: 020 8439 8110 or EMAIL: patsy.willis@starandgarter.org