Once again our 6 main activities have continued to expand as we reach out to more people in more places as we have now significant activities in East Meath as well as South Louth.
Care and Repair – We did 260 jobs, once again gardening, painting, fitting grab rails and taking items up to the re cycling centre were our main activities. For the first time we made a profit (€1000) this is due to our new policy of agreeing a price before we undertake to do a job.
Failte Isteach – Attendance much the same as the previous two years with between 22 and 30 students and 14 teachers. 20 students were awarded “attendance certificates” by Mayor Paul Bell at the award ceremony in The Highlanes Gallery. We made a significant change in deciding to only run the classes once a week commencing January 2017.
Good Morning Drogheda – The number of clients we had this year was 118, our average of 90 calls per day, unfortunately 13 of our clients passed away.
The office continues to be very busy, we saw an increase in the number of people concerned about their utility bills, pensions, other entitlements and UK pensions. There was an increase in people looking for panic buttons and we completed over 250 forms for people.
Befriending – this is our newest venture, established nearly 2 years ago. We currently have 40 volunteers and 27 established matches, the requirements for this service are increasing every week.
Computer Classes – we reduced this to one afternoon a week because we didn’t have enough teachers, apart from that the classes are going very well.
Fundraising:
- Flag Days in May & July
- Easter Raffle and Coffee morning
- Bag Packing in September, October and December
- Carol Singing in Scotch Hall in December
- Carol Singing in Town Centre in December
Other Notable Events:
- We took part in the Expo Expedition in Dundalk and gave a talk to the East Meath Active Retirement Group in Julianstown.
- 12 of our volunteers helped out at the Maritime Festival
- We sent 6 older people to the Lions Club holiday in Trabolgan
- Positive Ageing Week was again a success, and included a trip to Airfield Garden and House inn Dundrum.
- Lions Club Tea dance, once again we provided over 30 people to this very successful event
- We (I) spent some considerable time on the Genio committee in Dundalk which was a project on “Flourishing with Dementia” We held a final Presentation in Dundalk in July where we delivered the findings.
- We celebrated our first 5 years in existence with a very successful dinner dance in the Westcourt hotel
- We also had the Volunteers Xmas Night out and this year Father Christmas put in an appearance as well as Joan Martin the Chief Executive from Louth County Council
- We were delighted to win two awards. We won the Age Friendly award from Louth Chamber of Commerce in Dundalk and the Community and Voluntary Award from Louth Public Participation Network.
- One very significant event in 2016 was the agreement with the HSE that they would provide some funding to run our organisation. Without the hard work and dedication of all of us in the past 5 years we would never have been in a position to be considered for any sort of grant.
- We also changed our accountant; we are now under the guidance and service of Bowden Walsh & Co.
- We have updated our Constitution to reflect amendments proposed by Revenue.