Count Me In – Our October Winner!
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Published 3 Oct 2023 in Colleagues
A big thank you to everyone who has taken part in our Count Me In colleague campaign so far. Curious about what it entails? It’s all about our colleagues joining in, celebrating and shouting about doing good together. And the moment has arrived to reveal this month's colleague winner! Don’t forget to keep sharing your stories.
Our October Winner…🥁
Well done to this month’s winner – Sharon Maidment from our Fairford Food store.
Sharon’s story is really unique and is a great example of colleagues helping isolated members in need. From a member to a special friend, the member has no family nearby and at 90 years old needs some extra support. Our remarkable colleague, Sharon always has time when the member visits the Fairford store and goes above and beyond to check in and even celebrated her 90th birthday with her. Incredible to hear.
As for Sharon’s £100 charity donation, it will go to the Dogs Trust. Congratulations Sharon and thank you for entering. We hope you enjoy your prize!
Our October Count me in winner - Sharon Maidment from Fairfood Food store 👏
Count me in continues…how can I take part?
We will be continuing our monthly prize draw in November, so why not share your story by simply scanning the QR code & filling in the short online form?
Our remarkable colleagues do good things every day, helping our members & customers, helping each other, and helping communities. We want colleagues to continue sharing their stories about doing good together, so we can tell others.
Plus you could be in with the chance to win a £50 food voucher and £100 donation to a charity of the colleagues' choice!
Doing Good Together and fundraising at Harborough Travel
Doing Good Together for Warwick District Food Bank at Warwick Gates Nursery. The team held a special 'Pirate Week' fundraiser with the children!
Signing the poster, all colleagues can join in to Count me in
Another great example of a Remarkable colleague – hear Margerat Ball’s volunteering story from Bassett Avenue Food
Our remarkable colleagues do good things every day, helping our members and customers, helping each other, and helping communities, and we’re celebrating that with our ‘Count me in’ campaign. One great example of a colleague who’s doing good things for her community is Margaret Ball from Bassett Avenue, who has volunteered with the dementia support group Forget Me Not for four and a half years. This is her story...
Meet Margaret
Margaret has been with the Society for almost 21 years now, even though she planned to retire seven years ago. She says, “I left for almost a year but I just got bored at home, I had too much time on my hands.”
Margaret now works two mornings a week which she really enjoys, saying, “I love the people I work with. They’re all a lot younger than me but they’re all just so lovely. It’s just so good for me.” As well as her work, she also volunteers with Forget Me Not, a day club for the elderly and those with dementia, every Thursday.
How she began volunteering
She first came across Forget Me Not, a day club for the elderly and those with dementia, when she visited as the Society was searching for a charity partner for the Bicester Regional Community group. Forget Me Not was selected and Midcounties raised over £4,000 for the group during the partnership, which kept the club going through Covid.
She says, “I was chatting to the ladies that run the group when we came to visit and when I came back home I felt like I could really help out there as a volunteer. So I looked into it and they said to come along. I'd not had any experience working with elderly people because my mum passed away a good few years ago and I certainly didn't have any experience of dementia. When I first started I was worried that I wasn't doing enough to help, but after a while I realised that just sitting and chatting with the elderly people is enough because they just love it.
“Now I go every Thursday. They have tea and biscuits and then a two-course meal followed by entertainment where they play a card game or all get up and dance. They play all the music from the 50s and 60s and they know all the words.”
Margaret has even begun encouraging her family to volunteer with the group, inviting her 11-year-old grandson Rhys to come along during the school holidays.
“One Thursday, I was looking after Rhys during the holidays and he had to come with me to Forget Me Not because my husband had the dentist. But honestly, he loves it so much and now he comes with me as much as he can every time its school holidays. Just last week he was painting a lady's nails. It’s amazing! You wouldn't get many 11 year olds doing that but he just enjoys doing it because it makes them happy.”
Doing good together starts at home
Margaret’s newfound understanding of dementia helped her spot the signs when her 85-year-old neighbour’s behaviour started to change. She invited her to come along to Forget Me Not and it’s been life-changing for her neighbour and her husband.
“When she started coming it was a break for her husband. It helps the people who go along, but it’s also a break for their partners who can just do what they want for a little while.
“I used to pick her up in the morning and after she’d been suffering with dementia for about four years she was getting really bad and she'd go to the door and she wouldn't know where she was going. She’d be scared and anxious. But she'd be a different person coming home. She'd be singing the hokey cokey! Being there would just bring out of herself. Then she’d go home to her husband and he was delighted because it would just lift her and then that would lift him.
“I think that's what I like about volunteering. I come away feeling as if I've done something for someone else and it's nice.”
It’s all about connections
Even though Forget Me Not is no longer one of our charity partners, the Society still donates biscuits to the group and little treats like an Easter egg for everyone. Margaret and her colleague Hetal visited to distribute the eggs this year and Hetal got on well with a member of the group.
Margaret explains, There's a lovely Indian lady in the group who speaks less frequently than the others, but when I took my colleague with an Indian background along, they were speaking in Gujarati and they had a long conversation. You could see it really picked this lady up and she really enjoyed chatting, which was so nice to see.”
When asked what the best thing about volunteering is, Margaret said, “It’s the feeling of the warmth and the love in the room. Sometimes they'll tell you the same story twice, but you know you're making their day, you're lifting their spirits. I like to get them up to dance and they just love it.”
Help us celebrate the great things colleagues are doing across the Society! Take part in ‘Count me in’ by scanning the QR code at your site, sharing your stories about ways we’re doing good together and you will be entered into our prize draw.
Don’t forget you can use your 22.5 volunteering hours (pro-rata) to support a cause close to your heart. Find out more about how you can do that here. Also, Phil visited the Forget Me Not club recently – you can watch a video of his visit here.