Activities at Cherry Trees Care Home

Our residents and staff here at Cherry Trees believe cats and dogs deserve a treat at Christmas too!

This year we wanted to make a difference by helping out at The Cotswolds Dogs & Cats Home - CDCH by donating to the Festive Shoebox Appeal. The Cotswolds Dogs & Cats Home this year have found loving homes for 257 animals, giving each of them a new lease on life. 

Each adoption is a tale of transformation finding these loyal companions their forever homes.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped us to collect lots of goodies for the Dogs and Cats over the past couple of months. 

Our residents had great fun in making up and wrapping these shoeboxes ready for us to deliver. Once ready, we took some residents on an outing in our minibus to The Cotswolds Dogs & Cats Home to drop off our wonderful shoeboxes and pop them under their Christmas tree. 

Of course we couldn’t go without saying a little hello to some very cute furry friends!

There was huge excitement at Cherry Trees Care Home as Mrs. Claus came by to visit the residents ahead of her husband’s big night delivering presents on Christmas Eve.

Staff and residents at Barchester’s Cherry Trees care home in Alcester had a wonderful time chatting with Mrs. Claus all about her home in the North Pole.

General Manager, Debbie Osborne said: “We had the best time with Mrs. Claus, she is such a joy spreading festive cheer through our home." 

Barb Hulbert, resident at Cherry Trees said: “What a lovely surprise, you were so good to me when I was a little girl, thank you!” 

We look forward to seeing Mrs. Claus again next year and from everyone here at Cherry Trees, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Our residents here at Cherry Trees braved the rain and enjoyed a wonderful evening supporting Alcester Bunting and Lighting for Alcester’s Christmas light switch on. 

Our residents wrapped up warm ready to officially begin our Countdown to Christmas!!

We enjoyed a lovely performance from Alcester’s Silver Band accompanied by hundreds of voices from the Church. 

The wonderful 1st Alcester Squirrels did a splendid job at switching on the lights as we counted down with members from our community to see the most magical array of lights beautifully presented throughout our town. 

Margaret said, ‘it brings back many happy memories of the years we spent Christmas at home’, and Joe’s hands didn’t stop clapping. We always feel so lucky to be a part of such a fabulous community at Christmas time.  

Residents and staff at Cherry Trees visited the fabulous Chadbury Farm Shop and Cafe where we enjoyed a lovely stroll around the farm shop before indulging in the most delicious selection of drinks and freshly baked cakes.

Our residents had a lovely time looking at all the wonderful Christmas gifts and chocolates alongside the wonderful selection of cheeses and locally sourced produce. Thank you to all the wonderful staff for making us feel so welcome, nothing was too much trouble and our residents really did have a lovely visit.

David said ‘It was just brilliant!’ and Margaret’s already looking forward to a second visit to do a spot of Christmas shopping! 

Remembrance Day can be a time to reminisce and share memories of family members or friends who served our country and to remember the acts of bravery of those who fought in war. Here at Cherry Trees we have a number of residents who remember the Second World War and others who were on active service.

Our wonderful resident David proudly served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force managing a team of airmen, planning and executing tactical missions during War. Joan, a remarkable lady who also served in the Royal Air Force as a Wireless Operator sending morse code to aircrew in Bomber Command. Our incredible Peter, a RAF mechanic dealing with the mechanical maintenance of aircraft’s during the War.

Our residents are remarkable people with remarkable stories and we stand incredibly proud here at Cherry Trees. Together with the help of our residents, families, friends and staff, we were delighted to showcase our collaboration project for Remembrance Day creating a beautiful poppy cascade for all to see in and outside our home. 

Staff and residents here at Cherry Trees are treated weekly to a visit from our beautiful Pet Therapy dog, Fingal and his wonderful owner, Adrian. 

Fingal, aged 3 and a half absolutely loves his visits here to Cherry Trees. He is an Australian Sheep Dog and is fed regularly on salmon oil which helps to keep his coat soft and silky, which our residents love to pet. Due to Fingal’s kind and soft temperament, his owner, Adrian decided to train with Fingal to become a Pet Therapy Dog volunteer joining an amazing organisation called Therapy Dogs Nationwide. With over 2000 volunteers this wonderful national charity supports volunteers to take their dogs into establishments to provide comfort, distraction, and stimulation. 

The benefits of Pet Therapy range from improvement in general health and wellbeing, increased confidence levels, improved and controlled movement to improved communication skills. Pet therapy helps to provide our residents with companionship, which also helps to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. It’s so lovely to see just how much these regular visits improve our resident’s communication evoking memories and stimulating conversation. A big thank you to Adrian, Fingal and to Therapy Dogs Nationwide, our resident’s are already looking forward to your next visit!