Our Veterans' Community



It's still Armed Forces week and today we celebrate our veteran community. The Museum has a good rapport with local veterans which has strengthened over the years. Last year we worked with veterans who had served in Afghanistan who helped us put together an exhibition to share their stories. We have hosted veteran groups, provided talks, done guided tours and have gone to their meetings. We are proud to be involved with the veteran community.

In 2018, as part of our Lest We Forget project funding, we used  HLF money to start a veterans lunch club. We held a one-off Christmas meal the year before, but we wanted to provide a relaxing, welcoming venue for veterans to meet like-minded folk. Although it started cautiously, we have developed this into a format that works. There is a small charge to cover costs, we have a dedicated team of volunteers that run the event, we hold the lunches on the same Monday each month. Except December. Now December is a different ball game.

The Christmas lunch is always a sit-down proper turkey dinner. To keep the cost at a minimum, we always seek additional funding and last year we were given a grant by AgeUK. The Christmas lunch has festive table settings including crackers, access to the bar, quizzes, and a pass the parcel. The lunch is cooked by a volunteer chef and served by members of our young peoples' group. Last year we had over 60 veterans attend and the atmosphere was terrific.

The veterans' lunches have been one of the events affected by the coronavirus pandemic and as I type, we still have no idea when it will be safe to host the lunches again. Although restaurants and pubs are putting together their plans to return, we are not quite in the same position. We plan to open the Museum on the 4 July but will not have the staffing or space to operate the lunches safely. We know the veterans miss the interaction and we look forward to their return. But at this moment in time we have to think about safety first and put this event on hold.

Hopefully, we will be able to host the veterans Christmas lunch this year, and if so, I need to start looking for funding to support this event and enable us to make it the successful event it has become.

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