ELECTRICITY North West announced that Elterwater will be subject to a power cut from 8.30am-5pm approximately, next Sunday November 29.

Over 5000 volunteer hours were carried out by a team of over 100 volunteers at Ambleside Parish Centre in the first four months of the pandemic, between March and July, to meet the needs of the elderly, housebound and most vulnerable during the pandemic.

The Centre’s recent annual report reflected that before Covid, the Centre’s range of new and routine activities had expanded in 2019 with regular well-attended sessions for all ages involving indoor sports, art, choral singing, exercise classes, Yoga and Pilates, plus weekly Foodbank and Fareshare lunches.

There was also a social and cultural club for those new to the UK, two thriving youth clubs and weekly Evergreens for older people. Special events included the 2-week Lake District Summer Music (LDSM) festival, Ambleside & District Art Society’s annual exhibition, concerts, birthday parties, anniversaries, weddings and memorial gatherings, craft fairs and business meetings.

Youth leaders held 35 sessions offering numerous indoor and outdoor activities including sports coaching across two age groups, with football, dodgeball, hockey, golf, and rounders.

Activities at the All Together Now club for European nationals and migrant workers included dragon boating and cultural cooking, and IT support for those applying for EU citizenship.

A Games for Men group met regularly for pool, dominoes and table tennis and a rota of volunteer cooks prepared free 3-course Fareshare hot lunches weekly from food donations of ‘best by’ ingredients donated by Apple Pie, Granny Smith, Spar, Tesco and the Co-Op.

Nearly 800 lunches were served in the 5 months before Covid, with £1846 in donations and £463 gift aid, which funded a new range cooker and two extractor hoods for the kitchen, and other new equipment gifted by LDSM. A Bereavement group also met monthly (now weekly in lockdown) offering an informal drop-in for those learning to live with loss, and a Home Visiting Team befriended people living alone.

A counselling service is also run at the Centre by Cedar Counselling’s six counsellors, which helped 26 new clients with 441 hours of counselling and continues online and by phone during the pandemic.

The Centre’s weekly Foodbank increased its users and created a new purpose-built shelved area for food and donated sundries, so that users can choose what they need. Ravi and staff at Thomas Bell Pharmacy also supported the Centre with donations of personal healthcare, household cleaning and hygiene items.

The Centre also established a new grant towards the cost of travel to medical appointments, with funding help from Ambleside Rotary clubs, Cumbria CC, Lakes Parish Council, the Lions, district councillors’ budgets and various trusts.

However, since routine activities stopped in March 2020, the Centre’s Facebook pages became a forum for Covid information, with a weekly lockdown list of local services to assist self-isolators and those shielding.

The Centre itself became the hub for the co-ordination of volunteers, food donations, books and jigsaw puzzle swaps, children’s ‘at home’ online arts and craft activities, Zoom exercise classes, Easter egg activities, plus shopping and prescription deliveries, dog walking, gardening, welfare phone calls, meal delivery drivers, foyer greeters, admin assistance, food servers, food bank volunteers, assistance with benefit claims, access to free Wi-Fi, counselling, and general support.

The Centre also linked up with Windermere School which prepared hot 2-course lunches in their kitchens on 3 days a week and which were delivered by Centre volunteers to those shielding, self-isolating, housebound, vulnerable or on low or no income.

A total of 2,368 meals were delivered between April-end of June with generous local funding plus a grant from the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

Hot lunch deliveries are continuing through winter, email admin@amblesidepc.org.uk

The AGM thanked Centre Manager Caroline Gunning who has left to be General Manager for Cumbria Deaf Association and welcomed Sophie Bryde as the new Centre Manager. The Centre’s Trustees also thanked John Biggs for his Chairmanship for the past nine years and welcomed Rob Ashworth as new Chairman.