Launch of The SuperJam Tea Parties!

This is very exciting; after months of preparation, we today hosted our first of many tea parties for the elderly. About thirty guests came along to Sighthill community center and we all enjoyed a great laugh for a couple of hours and the delicious cakes and scones that were kindly donated by Waitrose. Alan from Contact the Elderly also came along and entertained us all with games, a couple of quizzes and a hilarious poem.

I was inspired to get involved in entertaining housebound elderly people by my Gran (who also taught me how to make jam). When she originally made jam, she would make jam and scones and cakes and take them to all the elderly people in her area. These were people who didn't ever get out of their homes and rarely had visitors so my Gran would take my brother and I with her and we would have to play our musical instruments or share stories with them to brighten up their day.

Caring for lonely elderly people in our area was something that we were always brought up with so I thought it would be nice to continue the theme on a big scale by setting up a project to run tea parties in community centers across Edinburgh. The initiative is supported by Waitrose , who are very kindly donating the food and drink for all of the events, and by Edinburgh council, who are providing the venues.  John Lewis also kindly donated the tea pots.

The next event is at Meadowbank Stadium at 2pm-4pm next Thursday, 26th June. Feel free to bring your Gran! We're also looking for young people and musicians/entertainers to get involved in future events. Ultimately, we're planning to run 20 events a month in Edinburgh and then grow to other cities across the UK - we're going to need a lot of help!