Could you volunteer for Age Concern Causeway?

The Age Concern shop on the Waterside will be the venue on Wednesday, August 17. Light refreshments and a prize draw are on offer for everyone who comes, and there will be substantial reductions on all stock.

A spokesperson for ACC said: “Recruitment Day has two aims. We want to raise awareness of ACC’s wide range of essential activities and by showing off some of the things we do to help the local community, we hope to encourage new volunteers to join the enthusiastic but over-stretched team who already serve in the shop and provide many other services to the over- fifties in our local community.!

ACC’s most public façade is of course the shop, where excellent bargains can always be found in nearly new clothes, bric-a-brac, books and other items – all specially reduced in price for the Recruitment Day.

The money raised in the Nearly New Shop goes to support what goes on behind the scenes. Age Concern Causeway, is in fact, the only local charity where every single penny of what is raised goes straight back into the community that has donated towards it.

It provides a Befriending service for lonely and isolated pensioners and Advocacy services and advice for older people needing help in dealing with things like the complications of filling in benefit application forms.

The Active Age Programme offers a fulfilling range of regular social activities from bowling to reminiscence. There are also regular talks on a wide range of topics that have a special interest for local people, and all these activities provide a great opportunity to get out of the house, meet other people, and have a good old chin-wag.

Recently ACC started a scheme in the Causeway Hospital whereby volunteers are on the wards at mealtimes to help patients who may have particular and individual meal-time problems.

This major initiative has been welcomed by the hospital and has aroused widescale media interest.

It is clear from all this that there are many dedicated people in the area putting in a really great effort to help the over-fifties in the Causeway area.

It takes a lot of volunteers to support our services, and there’s always a need for new volunteers. Come along to the Open Day next week and talk to ACC about the ways in which they can use your skills, your time, your energy.

Much of ACC’s work is done so quietly that it isn’t noticed by the public at large. But it would soon be missed if it were not taking place.

Anyone with a few hours a week to spare will find something where he or she can contribute to this vital and immensely valuable local support system.

ACC is helping to look after those people in the community who in their own turn helped to make local society a decent and comfortable place in which to grow older.

So come along to the Waterside shop next Wednesday at any time between 9.30am and 4.30pm; you will find bargains and good company; you will also find how valuable your time and services might be to this absolutely vital and truly local charity. See you there!