Academy Carols for Care Home

With the Argyle Academy under-18 side currently on winter break, the young Pilgrims traded the training ground for some tinsel and tunes last week – surprising a local care home with some Christmas carols.

In partnership with the Argyle Community Trust, under-18 coach Darren Way organised the trip to visit the Astor Hall care home in Stoke, where their Christmas party had recently been cancelled.

Way said: “For us, it’s important that we give something back to the Community. Because we witness the amount of good work that the Argyle Community Trust does while we’re training at Manadon, we thought it would be a good idea to go with the players and sing Christmas carols for the carers – loud and proud.”

Keen to ensure that the club’s Vision and Values is present through all of the age groups at Argyle, Darren teamed up with Emma Potter, the Trust’s training and skills tutor, to organise the doorstep concert at Astor Hall.

Darren said: “There were a few Argyle supporters there, and for the half an hour that we were there, I think that the carers and the patients had a fantastic time. It took one or two of our lads out of their comfort zone, which is nice, but the buy-in from the players and all the staff was brilliant. It was one of the most rewarding experiences that I’ve been involved in for a long time.”

The visit rounds off a tremendous year of outreach activity for the Community Trust, whose Tackling Loneliness Together project has been crucial in supporting isolated members of society throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Emma said: “It really had a great impact on the care home, as they have been quite isolated from their loved ones. This ties in with our loneliness project over the past few months. On speaking to some of them, it really lifted their spirits, and they were beside themselves that they had had a visit from us."

For more information on the projects delivered by the Community Trust, or to support any of their work, visit their website.

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