Author: keynshamdaa

We are already three months into 2024 and it’s been a busy start to 2024 for the group. There have been four Music for the Mind sessions so far and they have all been well attended despite the winter weather. With February having 5 Thursdays we put on a boccia session on the 29^th. Boccia is similar to bowls but it’s an indoor game played while sitting down and is suitable for all ages and abilities. The session went very well with over 30 people taking part. Boccia seems to be getting more and more popular and the next session will take place on Thursday 30^th May.

Please note that in March there will only be one Music for the Mind session on Thursday 28^th March as St Dunstan’s Church Hall was not available on the 14^th March. 

The Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir have nominated our group to be their Charity of the Year 2024. They aim to run concerts during the year and any money raised will be donated to out charity. They are holding a concert on Thursday 21^st March in St John’s Church starting at 7pm. A young choir from Wellsway School will also be singing plus a local ukulele band. Tickets can be obtained from gac.ticketlight.co.uk or call 0844 888999. 

Our group has also benefited recently from two local organisations. We applied for a community grant from Keynsham Town Council and our application was successful and we received £975 from them to help us continue with our work. We also received a donation from our local Waitrose store. Many thanks from our committee and all our volunteers to both the Town Council and Waitrose for their support.  

Live Well B&NES are running a ‘Support & Wellbeing for Adults’ event on 20^th March.

More information can be found on https://www.facebook.com/livewellbathnes

The event, at Keynsham Scout Hut (Ashton Way, Keynsham BS31 2UF) on Wednesday 20^th March, is a drop-in from 2pm – 4pm.

The Scout Hut can be found at the top of Ashton Way car park. The building is accessible to all, with wheelchair access and an accessible toilet.

The last 2 months of 2023 were very busy for our group. We had our usual Music for the Mind sessions on the 2^nd and 4^th Thursdays of the month and as there were 5 Thursdays in November we ran an extra session on the 30^th November and played boccia instead of singing.

November day trip to Cadbury’s Garden Centre

We had one of our daytrips on 16^th November when we took just over 20 of our friends and volunteers to Cadbury’s Garden Centre. We had a good time there last year and this year’s visit was just as successful. The staff at Cadbury’s gave us a quiet area where we could all sit and they served us cake and a drink when we arrived and then lunch. There was time to see all the Christmas decorations including the singing reindeer before returning home. Thanks once again to Keynsham Dial-a-Ride for providing the minibus.

Christmas Music for the Mind session

We only had one Music for the Mind session in December on the 14^th. This was a special Christmas session with some singing but we also gave our friends and volunteers the opportunity to show off their talents. We had a fantastic Christmas cake that was baked for us by the chef at the Meryton Place care home and this was cut up and shared between the 60-70 attendees. The acts included Julie and Christine doing a song and dance routine to Mary Poppin’s Supercalifragilisticexpailidocious, Brian read a couple of his poems, Rick played his clarinet, Peter sang Mary’s Boy Child with everyone joining in the chorus, Judith treated us to a couple of her jokes, and Mike Greenside gave us an exhibition of his earlier rock and roll days by dancing to Rock around the Clock accompanied by Kelly. The final act showed us the true versatility of some of our volunteers. Liz, June, Mike, Trish and Christine did a 5 minute budget performance of Cinderella which nearly brought the house down. Yours truly played the part of the Christmas fairy and I got some admiring looks from some of the men in the audience. All the acts were well received and I’m sure we’ll do another Keynsham Talent Contest in the future. Tony Hall, who runs the Bristol DAA, came along to the meeting as a guest and handed over a Recognition Award to Merrial and Mike for the work that they do with the K&SDAA which we do with the help of all our wonderful volunteers. Well done everyone.

Keynsham Christmas Tree Festival 

St John’s Church in Keynsham held their usual Christmas Tree Festival over the Dec 8^th to 10^th weekend. There were 50 local entries and our dementia group dressed up a tree as part of the festival. Several of our friends went to see all the trees over the weekend including residents from the nearby St Phillips and St James care home.   

Keynsham Methodist Church are holding their next event on Tuesday December 5th from 10.30am and have invited along those linked to Keynsham and Saltford Dementia Action Alliance. Please see below for more detail.

What has the group been doing recently?

We are averaging between 50 and 60 attendees at our Music for the Mind sessions. Recently we have arranged 2 visits to Oakham Treasures near Portway. It’s a great place to bring back memories going back to the 1960s. There were so many cries of “oh I used to have one of those”. There is a lovely café there and Keynsham Dial-a-Ride provided the transport on both occasions. On Wednesday 27^th September we took our friends from St Phillips and St James’s care home and on Thursday 19^th October we took some of our other regulars. Everybody had a good time and the singing on the way home was excellent and kept everyone awake.

What is happening in the future?

There is quite a lot happening with our group between now and Christmas. Between now and the end of the year we have 2 of our usual Music for the Mind sessions on Thursday 9^th November and Thursday 23^rd November and then only one in December on Thursday 14^th December. However, this last session will include an open mic session for anyone who wants to sing, dance, read poems or tell jokes or any other party pieces. It’ll have a real “Keynsham Has Got Talent” flavour to it.

There are 5 Thursdays in November so on the 30^th, which is the 5^th Thursday, we will be running another boccia session which is becoming increasingly popular. Usual time, 10.30 until 12.15. Come and give it a go.

Our final outing for the year is going to be a Christmas trip to the Cadbury Garden Centre on Thursday 16^th November. We’ll have a cuppa on arrival and a bit of lunch and plenty of time to look around for Christmas presents.