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Members at the Finchley Memorial Hospital on Wednesday 1st February enjoyed listening to music favourites played by Egon the guitarist.

Members were delighted to meet the volunteers today from Barnet Council including the Chief Executive Mr John Hooton who were very helpful and joined in all the activities. Lisa the Chairman extends her thanks to all the volunteers.

Members enjoyed 2 quizzes today. One was about the 1960’s which Lisa introduced and the other one was to name some famous faces which was introduced by Kevin one of the Dementia Club UK volunteers.

Lisa then showed members how to make flowers out of pink coloured tissue paper which all members enjoyed doing including our Barnet Council volunteers.

The session then followed with exercise to music which also involved some challenging dance steps and then activities, golf putting, ball catching and a new game of table tennis which was really enjoyed.

Everyone had a great afternoon and members also thanked our Barnet Council volunteers for all their help.

• Mr John Hooton – Chief Executive of London Borough of Barnet Council
• Mr Stephen Evans – Chief Operating Officer
• Mrs Sara Elias-Bassett – Community Engagement Participation & Strategy Lead
• Ms Lesley Holland – Equalities Policy Officer
• Ms Sophie Leedham – Strategy Officer Community
• Mr Danny Slater – Strategy Officer Community
• Ms Hannah Chillingworth – Strategy Officer
• Mr Jason Latouche – Data Analysis

We had a nice e-mail from Danny Slater who went on to say:

“Eight employees from Barnet Council, including the Chief Executive John Hooton and Interim Chief Operating Officer Stephen Evans, spent an afternoon helping out at the Dementia Club UK session on Thursday 26th January, as part of the Business Responsibility programme that allows officers two days of volunteering each year. We took part in two great 60s-themed quizzes – although I’m not sure how helpful we were to the members in getting any answers right! We also enjoyed making tissue paper flowers, doing a group dance and work-out, and a spot of table tennis and golf, all in the surroundings of Hendon Town Hall. Thanks to Councillor Rutter for inviting us along, and to everyone else for making us feel welcome.”

This session was run by Annette Edozian who has been a loyal long standing volunteer right from the start and newly installed and gifted Trustee Tija Hubej. It was a full house. Members enjoyed this session immensely. After the usual tea and cakes, Annette started off by having an in-depth and thought provoking discussion about two very important pieces of technology in our lives, Telephones and Cameras. This was stimulating and kept everyone interested.

Then in the second half, Tija led the group in a lively dance and movement session. She started by reading three pieces of text that each contained information about a previous decade. The members then had to figure out which decade she was referring to and Tija played dance music from that decade. It was fun and got everyone warmed up. We were most fortunate to also have Dr. Angela, Nurse Karen, volunteer Melvyn, and of course Therapy Dog Harley to help make the afternoon a success.

The first session of the New Year was very busy. Today we had violinist Tanya Sweiry. Tanya played some classics and members favourites including “Danny Boy” and “Auld Lang Syne”. Tanya played with so much passion that it stirred a lot of emotions with the members. The session followed with Tai Chi with Egon which all members enjoyed as usual.

Two members also had their birthdays. Mac was 85 today and Mollie was 83, 2 days ago. We also celebrated with 3 different New Year cakes baked by Marina, Dawn and Tija. A big thank you to them all. In Greek tradition a coin is baked in the cake and who ever finds it is lucky for the year. Everyone enjoyed looking for the coins.

Tanya Sweiry held the prestigious Meaker Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music for 2013/14, during which time she was given the honour of preparing and performing on the Viotti Ex-Bruce 1709 Stradivarius, as well as recording Bach and Enescu on it for the RAM. Tanya was awarded the fellowship after receiving a Distinction for the Master of Arts in Violin Performance at the Academy, where she studied with Remus Azoitei. Her impressive final performance meant that she was also awarded a Diploma of the RAM and the Moir Carnegie Prize for an outstanding final recital.

Moshe entertained members at the Britannia Community Centre with a variety of Christmas songs and other favourites and also played a few requests which went down very well. We also celebrated Melia’s birthday. Everybody was up and dancing.