A Really Special Day!
By Esther Smith
Thursday 29th April was a very special day for Caring For Life, as we welcomed back our Patron Her Royal Highness The Countess of Wessex, who was here to visit us and also to help us to thank the Directors and the whole team at Dunbia for their very generous support of our work.
Preparing for a royal visit is always a good opportunity to ensure that the whole site is clean, safe and looking its best! We do try to ensure that Crag House Farm, the home of Caring For Life, always looks well cared for, because every day we have seventy or more visitors to the Granary Café and Farm Shop. But we also know that every day is very special for those in our care and we want each person to feel valued and important enough for us to ensure that they are coming into a pleasant and attractive environment.
Places do suffer wear and tear though, especially the Centre, into which sixty or more people are squeezed every weekday morning for breakfast and a time of sharing news and prayer, then sixty or so for lunch! With the help of some wonderful cleaning paste enhanced by elbow grease, every bit of wall and paintwork was cleaned on Tuesday/Wednesday and the carpet shampooed. So it was shoes off for everyone entering the building on Wednesday!
The reason for ensuring that the Centre looked its best was that this room was to be transformed into a “banqueting” room for a special lunch to be served to guests from Dunbia and our Patron. The tables looked beautiful, decorated with flower arrangements made by Sarah, who is an exceptionally gifted florist. The menu was quite something and it was designed to showcase some of our new meat products, now in place thanks to Dunbia.
For many months, Dunbia have supported Caring For Life by sending Stevie Dobson to assist in meat preparation, and have now built a beautiful butchery department, equipping it and also starting to train staff in packaging and storing fresh meat, plus making pork and beef sausages. Our young people had been treated to a meal of the pork sausages and gave them a very definite “thumbs up”!
In the Granary, everything was spruced up after closing time the evening before the visit, with staff staying late to make preparations and Pete and Sarah, one of our TFJs, worked late to produce a beautiful menu for the Civic Reception to be held there as part of The Countess’ visit. One task was to make exquisite miniature marzipan carrots for the carrot cake!
The day dawned and breakfast was served for all the staff, young people and helpers: Cornish pasties and coffee in the middle workshop, as the Centre was all set up and out of bounds!
When The Countess arrived she was greeted by Peter and a big cheer from the CFL family. Our Patron went across to chat to the gathered group before being given a brief tour of the newly refurbished Farm Shop, with a display of fresh meat, including our very own sausages. Then it was on into the Computing and Media Project office, where the team showed a DVD specially made for Her Royal Highness, including utterly hilarious outtakes!
In the Literacy room, The Countess met up with tutors and those they were teaching and viewed some of their work, then she was taken through to the Music and Drama Room, where Alan sang Edelweiss, Sarah played the Bodhran and presented The Countess with a bouquet she had made herself, and Joe sang “What a Wonderful World”, reducing everyone to tears. Thea had been poorly just before we arrived in the room but managed to recite “The Frog” by Hilaire Belloc.
Through in the Art Room, The Countess met several young people who are new to the project and viewed a range of artwork before going on to the Centre for lunch, after which she gave an immensely moving speech about CFL and expressed gratitude to the Board of Directors at Dunbia. Some of the guests present asked if we had hired in professional help for the meal, as it was beautifully cooked and served and the waiters all looked so smart. We explained that the waiting on staff were all our own staff and volunteers, who were multi-tasking that day, to put it mildly!
It was a joy to have Ingrid Roscoe, Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, with us for our Patron’s visit and Ingrid was delighted with the lunch and with all that she saw that day. Our pork sausages were a resounding success and we hope that this official launch will be just the beginning of a means of increasing CFL’s income, enabling CFL to support many more very vulnerable people.
Following lunch, The Countess formally opened first the refurbished Free Range Egg Room and then The Butchery Department, unveiling plaques and viewing the facility, with Stevie and Michael from Dunbia demonstrating incredible butchery and sausage-making skills.
Our Patron then viewed the Equestrian Project, for which we are seeking Riding for the Disabled Association status. The Wessex Youth Trust had recently funded a piece of harness for the project and The Countess was really delighted to view the project, say hello to the Shires and chat to the project staff and young people.
At the Civic Reception in the Granary we were delighted to welcome a number of guests and Peter explained something of our work to them before The Countess took her leave. Guests stayed on to view the projects and learn more about Caring For Life’s work, so important new friendships were established that day.
All in all, a wonderful day and a very special time, when we were thrilled to welcome our Patron back to Caring For Life, thanking her for all her support and the generosity of the Wessex Youth Trust, and also thanking Dunbia for their great kindness, generosity and support of our work.
