Andrew's Blog!: FRIDAY 14 JANUARY - Anniversary Day Celebration with virtual connections

Friday saw the culmination of our week of celebrations to mark the 20th Anniversary of Somerset Care. In the morning at the Canalside Centre in Bridgwater our managers gathered for their annual meeting. We heard a number of excellent presentations by managers about the development of the Group from it's beginning back in 1991. This look back over history was brought up to date with discussion of the current and future developments taking place throughout the Group.

We are grateful to the BBC Radio Somerset and Points West TV who broadcast extensive coverage of Somerset Care's Anniversary throughout the day including a wonderful interview with Eileen Heysham. You can listen to Eileen's interview by going to the following link:
www.BBC.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00cz5lm/BBC_Somerset_Breakfast_
Somerset_Care_20th_Anniversary.
The interview is at 2.04 hrs into the programme. Several other interviews can be heard throughout the broadcast.

At lunchtime we were joined by a large number of friends, former colleagues, residents and guests who joined us for our Birthday Party. Chief amongst our guests was Lady Gass, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset and Councillor John Edney, Chairman of Somerset County Council together with Mrs Edney. Mrs Barbara Cottier, who 20 years ago was a County Councillor and Chairman of the Social Services Committee also joined us. Barbara was the leader of the team who took the decision to create Somerset Care. We were also delighted to welcome back to the party our former Chairmen of the Company, Captain Mike Moorland, with his wife Pat, and Mr John Richards.

Amongst the speeches was an account of the early days by Chris Davies CBE DL, who at the time of our creation was Director of Social Services at the County Council. Chris is now one of the non executive directors of Somerset Care.

Chris was followed as speaker by Councillor John Edney, seen in the photo above with our current Chairman Barrie Dale and Mrs Edney. Captain Moorland is on the left.

At the Luncheon we invited the Lord Lieutenant to present our most significant award of the year, the "Harry Patch Award" to the outstanding manager of 2010. This year the award went to Hazel Jones, Manager of The Court and Popham House in Wellington. Many congratulations Hazel!

Amongst our guests was this group (below) of very special people, all former managers of Somerset Care homes or domiciliary care services. These special friends made such a great contribution in the early years of Somerset Care to help make sure that the Company got off to a strong start.

The highlight of the afternoon was the live SKYPE linkup that we were able to engineer with four of our homes where we were able to call in on residents and staff as they also celebrated. We called in on Preston Park House, Sunningdale Lodge, Critchill Court and Pulsford Lodge. At the latter we were able to join in on a very special party as Mrs Hannah Valentine celebrated her 100th Birthday.

Please see Skype videos below!
Preston Park