Thame Day Centre stalwart retires after 22 years

A THAME volunteer, who has worked tirelessly for the Thame and District Day Centre almost since it opened 22 years-ago, was thanked for her tireless and dedicated service at a special garden lunch party this week.
After presenting flowers on behalf of the members of the Day Centre, the other volunteers and the Trustees, the Chair to the Trustees, Brenda Prosser, told Sheila Schleising that she was “a part of the history” of the Day Centre.

Sheila replied:”You havn’t got rid of me quite. I will be popping in on the odd occassion because I do love a good old chat.”

Sheila will also be giving up the organising of the Thame Community Car in July.

Brenda Prosser said that in losing Sheila, the Day Centre is now even more in need of more volunteers if it is to continue offering support to elderly, frail and socially isolated people.
She explained how they are competing with a number of more visible worthy causes in the town, like Charity shops, for volunteers in a climate where more and more people are working for longer or “going off ski-ing and the like, spending the kids’ inheritance!”
“We suffer,” she said, because we are less visible being attached to the hospital and people thinking that we are part of it.
“If we do not have volunteers to give a listening ear and work with the Members of the Day Centre, the centre cannot continue.”

Gillain Coleman, the centre’s Manager, told ThameNews.Net: “Working at the Thame and District Day Centre, as far as I’m concerned, is the best job in the world. The members are lovely and I get great satisfaction in bringing things like seated exercise, professional entertainment, quizes and even May Pole dancing into their daily lives.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about becoming a volunteer at the Thame and District Day Centre, for even just one day a week, can contact Gill Coleman at the Day Centre by calling: 01844 212080.