The local airwaves were filled with excitement recently as a beloved…
The recent Rickshaw event held at Buckshaw Retirement Village was a massive hit with residents, staff and the wider community.
The event which is a joint initiative between Buckshaw Retirement Village and Buckshaw Village Community Church who came together to form ‘BV Rickshaws’, was to launch a bid to fundraise for three rickshaws for the retirement village. The idea originated from Andrew Kesiak who is the church’s Pioneer Ministry Enabler and everyone at Buckshaw Retirement Village quickly understood what huge benefits it could bring to the people who live at there and got behind the idea. Market Square Coordinator Susan Bell said, “This launch is a culmination of 6 months’ work. The point of it all is to help reduce social isolation by helping the residents to better participate in the wider community, as well as inviting the wider community into to come and share our facilities which is to the benefit of everybody. But really, the list of benefits can go on and on.”
On the day a rickshaw was gratefully loaned to the village by Anna France who was also the driver for the day. Anna took residents and team members on short trips, including to the iconic Buckshaw green man, to Tescos, to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Costa. All the way they were accompanied by Andrew, Community Church Minister James Gwyn-Thomas and his PA Abigail Saunders all from the community Church who kept up with the rickshaw on their bicycles.
Buckshaw Retirement Village Health and Wellbeing Nurse Julie McGlough said, “The response from the community has been amazing! After going through the KFC drive through the manager and his team came out with refreshments for everybody and Tescos were happy for the rickshaw to go up and down some of the aisles where the staff made everybody feel especially welcome. At each stop it was wonderful to discuss how as a community we can all benefit each other by sharing and coming together.”
You can watch a short video of the day on the Lancashire Evening Post website: https://www.lep.co.uk/health/watch-as-rickshaws-come-to-buckshaw-village-to-give-dementia-residents-a-ride-around-town-1-9827220
There is a crowdfunding page for this wonderful initiative and it can be found here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/buckshawrickshaws
