The Courier’s Win a Minibus competition draws to a close this week.
Among those vying to win the coveted prize is Arden House Projects in the Fife coastal town of Leven.
The charity runs 10 day care centres over two locations in Leven and Methil that help more than 160 elderly people in the area every single week.
The charity was established nearly 35 years ago, in 1982, and since then has provided a growing range of services for elderly people in the Levenmouth area.
Margaret Gear works for the charity. She said: “We have two groups of people: the Spinks, who are elderly and frail; and the Gowans, who have dementia.
“We run a range of services to help them with day to day living, entertain them, and give them a social life.”
Arden House Projects runs day care from 10am-3pm every Monday to Saturday and is the largest provider of specialist dementia day care in Fife.
“A lot of it is designed to help elderly people continue to live independently as well as keeping them active and healthy,” Margaret explained. “They’ll get breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea here. We’ll do a range of activities – everything from board games to quizzes to crosswords and carpet bowls. Sometimes we have entertainers come in.”
The charity has eight carers, three kitchen staff, two drivers, four managers and an admin worker.
Winning The Courier Minibus would enable them to provide a wider range of services and help more elderly and vulnerable people, Margaret says.
“We run a befriending service in people’s homes for those who are too frail to make it along to the day centre anymore.
“We take people shopping and to get their pensions. If we won the minibus we’d be able to do an awful lot more like take groups on day trips and other outings.
“It would be easier to get people to appointments like the hospital, opticians and chiropodists.
“There’s a real problem with the elderly feeling social isolation and the more we’re able to get out in the community the better we’ll be able to help them.”
