STAFF at a dementia care home say they are “overwhelmed” by the generosity of locals following the donation of a Christmas tree.
Alice Jacobs, activities assistant at the home, said: “We’ve been blown away by this generosity.
“It was a real treat going to Blackdown Garden Centre to choose the tree, and residents have had great fun assisting and supervising as we put the decorations on it.
“And we’ve had a large selection of gifts delivered by the amazing team from Taunton’s Dunelm store.
“The Delivering Joy initiative is such a simple scheme, but they’ve done incredibly well to gather in so many gifts, and we really appreciate that our residents are on the receiving end of the kindness of local people.”
The retailer reports that nationwide they have delivered almost a quarter of a million gifts to those in need over the past four years, working with local care homes, schools, refuges and charities to gather gift requests and create tags that include the recipient’s gender, age and choice of gift.
The tags were hung on a Delivering Joy tree, located in every Dunelm store from autumn until mid-November, from where customers could collect them, then return with an appropriate gift (from any retailer, or home-made), and deposit the gift with its tag back at the original Dunelm store.
Manager Zillah Oakes said: “Dunelm arranges the delivery of all the gifts in time for Christmas, and I know their staff work really hard checking everything and making the deliveries, so we’d like to say a huge thank you to our local team.
“It seemed very appropriate that there was a rainbow in the sky when they made their delivery to Camelot House and Lodge.”
Residents at the specialist dementia care home are now enjoying a full programme of festive activities in the run-up to Christmas, including a visit from a magician, a festive horse and a fun-filled Christmas party.