A CHARITY that offers a friendly face to Crowthorne’s older residents is feeling grand after receiving a donation from a local estate agency.
COATS (Crowthorne Old Age to Teen Society) offers hot meals, a range of activities and a friendly face. And they help celebrate milestones – last week’s Wokingham Paper shared news of the party held to mark the 100th birthday of Doug Mustill.
Activities include skittles, bingo, singers and dancers.
Last year, the Pinewood Avenue centre was refurbished, with a new lounge area offering more seating. A lift was installed to help wheelchair users to access the facilities and other small fixes were added to ensure it meets modern standards and is fit for purpose for many years to come.
Prospect Estate Agency, which has a branch in the village’s High Street, said that it has always commended the work COATS does locally. As part of this, last month it made a donation of £1,000 to the ‘Building a better COATS’ fund.
Simon Goodger, Crowthorne branch manager, and his team visited the centre to make the donation and see first-hand the work COATS does for the community.
John Barnes, COATS chairman, said: “On behalf of all the trustees, I would like to thank you for your very generous donation of £1,000 to our charities Building A better COATS fund.
“With the help of many local organisations and individuals, we have just finished an ambitious remodelling and renovation project of COATS Centre. Without such generous support, we would not have been able to complete this undertaking.”
COATS gets its name from its ambition to involve young people in volunteering and helping the elderly. Teenagers and young people contribute towards COATS by helping in the charity’s shop on Crowthorne High Street, selling donations like jewellery, handbags, clothes, toys, CDs, DVDs, books and more.
Impressed by COATS’ unquantifiable contributions towards older people’s welfare, Prospect said is glad to have made a donation and look forward to seeing what exciting projects COATS works on next.
To make a donation or learn more about COATS, visit http://coatscrowthorne.org.uk/ or visit their Facebook (@COATScrowthorne).
To discover more of the work Prospect do in the local community, visit prospect.co.uk/in-the-community
