Apartment Owners at Churchill Living’s Trewin Lodge in Yate helped raise an impressive £1,080 for two local charities in 2024 through a series of musical events and Christmas donations. The funds have now been split between St Peter’s Hospice and Caring in Bristol, two important local charities that mean a lot to members of the Trewin Lodge community.
The charitable efforts at the over 60s development were spearheaded by Chris and Julie Grove, whose musical family connections enabled them to entertain fellow residents with Christmas and Summer concerts in their spacious communal Owners’ Lounge. Charity donations were suggested in return for the free entertainment, and in a separate initiative the apartment Owners also agreed to make donations in lieu of sending each other Christmas cards.
On Tuesday 4th February Chris and Julie came together at the weekly coffee morning to mark their recent fundraising achievements, and were joined by members of the Churchill team who presented a special cheque for the charities. The Lodge’s individual fundraising total of £540 was topped up by £540 of additional match funding from the Churchill Foundation, Churchill’s own charity, to double the total amount going to support these highly deserving local causes.
Reflecting on the fundraising, Julie says: “We are delighted to have raised so much for these charities, which mean a lot to us personally and to several other people living here at Trewin Lodge. It’s a real team effort and reflects the amazing sense of community we have here. Chris and I moved down from Birmingham three years ago to be closer to family members who live in Bristol and the surrounding area. We never expected we’d make so many new friends at Trewin Lodge and be part of such a lovely group of neighbours, but it’s been wonderful and we couldn’t be happier here. Everyone is so generous; we have a lot of fun and it’s great to be able to give something back to charity through the concerts we put on.”
Chris is a classically trained singer with an impressive musical background, and his talents appear to have rubbed off on their children and grandchildren, largely thanks to a lot of encouragement from Julie during their childhood years. Their son Simon sings, their daughter Emma plays double bass and bass guitar, and Emma’s twin sister Lisa plays the flute and piccolo. Lisa’s husband Ian is a guitarist, and her daughter Zoë plays the trumpet. Meanwhile Emma’s son Will also plays the flute, and his brother Isaac plays the trombone and ukelele – a multi-talented musical family!
Chris says: “We’ve enjoyed putting on musical concerts here in the Owners’ Lounge; it’s the perfect space for us to perform and it’s a nice way to get our family together – when they can fit in the time for rehearsals! Between all our musical children and grandchildren we have quite an array of instruments to choose from. Our son-in-law Ian has even created his own arrangements for us to perform, and our neighbour Diana, an accomplished pianist, also joins the group to accompany us on the piano. For our Summer and Christmas concerts we’ve covered a wide range of different genres, from sea shanties to pop songs, classical numbers, Christmas carols and more. Julie also contributes with poetry readings, both serious and comic, to add to the entertainment. Everyone is welcome to get involved and we hope to continue the tradition for years to come!”
The health and wellbeing benefits of music are well recognised for people of any age, and it’s great to see the musical events at Trewin Lodge proving so popular, with the added bonus of making a positive contribution to charity.