The Trust’s head of healthy communities, Andrea Parkinson, has reflected on the HUB opening on Christmas Day morning for breakfast and drinks.
Speaking on the success of the day, Andrea said: “It went really well, we got a handful of people that turned up, and we were saying yesterday that even if one person turned up, we knew that we’d made an impact on that one person.
“To get a handful was really nice. We sat and chatted to people, served bacon and sausage cobs, gave them a drink and a present. The two hours that we were there meant a lot to those people who turned up.”
Members of the Chesterfield FC coaching staff made an appearance at the HUB. Andrea added: “Paul Cook, Gary Roberts and Paddy Byrne came round and just spent a little bit of time with people that were there, and for them to spend the morning on Christmas Day with the manager of the football club and coaching staff was great.
“They sat and spoke to people who were there, they had a breakfast cob before training, and they were with us for a good 45 minutes. To spend Christmas morning with the gaffer of your football club, not many people will be able to do that. A massive thank you to them for popping across on a day when they were preparing for a big game on Boxing Day.”
Finally, Andrea spoke more about the impact that opening on Christmas Day can have on people, saying: “Christmas is advertised as bringing families together, and people who turned up yesterday haven’t got that family to get together with. For us as staff, it meant that we, hopefully, impacted their life and just made their Christmas.”
