Our Newly Refurbished Lounge!
April 2025 has seen the fantastic refurbishment of the Club lounge!
Father Paul and the Club Committee recently agreed to invest money to refurbish the Club lounge. With the Club Manager Adele adding her “creative flair” the lounge has been rewired, had a new ceiling and lighting installed, new carpet and floor coverings, new decorative cladding added to the bar, redecoration and all the bench seating and chairs tastefully recovered.
Developing the lounge shows our collective commitment to make sure that the facilities at St Mary’s Club are the very best they can be for patrons and visitors alike. Father Paul and the Club Committee each invested £10,000 into the project, and we are very grateful to the continued support of Committee volunteers who are helping us to secure best value from the funds that have been made available. We are also extremely grateful to those volunteers who tireless help with arranging the Wednesday Afternoon events, the Saturday ‘Star’ nights, and the new Thursday Club. The efforts of the Committee and our community volunteers is instrumental in generating the funds that we are reinvesting back into the Club facilities.
And finally, we could not do this without your support. The loyalty of our members, patrons and visitors alike is not only helping us to improve our facilities, but more importantantly ensure the future sustainability of the Club, and to continue to make a difference to our community.
We are incredibly proud of the improvements that we are making, so from everyone here St Mary’s Club, we want to say thank you, and come and enjoy the new facilities!
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Support from the National Lottery Community Fund helps us to improve our offer to our communities!
In January 2024 the Club Committee invested time, money, and energy to refurbish the existing kitchen. It needed extensive rewiring, re-plumbing, new flooring, resurfacing of the walls with hygienic wall cladding, new fire doors and redecoration at a cost of £13,000. We wanted to do this so that food could be prepared, cooked, and served to the local community, including those who may be vulnerable and struggling financially. We also want to facilitate a neighbourhood cookery club, which will bring people together around food, foster friendships, and contribute to healthier, happier lives.
Our committee felt that developing the kitchen will increase our capacity to attract people to socialise in a warm, welcoming place and to make new friends. Investing in our kitchen facilities offers a cost-effective and accessible way for food to be prepared, cooked, and served on site, which will increase our capacity to bring people closer together, build relationships and to have a good time; from the shared sense of tradition and nostalgia through sharing Christmas lunch, to learning about and appreciating different cultures through food. Offering hot food gives us an increased opportunity to invite people to gather and to bond with each other, building stronger relationships in and across our communities.
However, our funds would not stretch to buying the essential commercial kitchen appliance needed, for the project, so we approached The National Lottery Community Fund to ask for help. We are extremely pleased that in August 2024 they awarded over £18,000 to allow us to buy much-needed equipment, including ovens, boiling rings, fryers, a hot cupboard, refrigeration unit, and food preparation counters. The funding also extended to purchasing new tableware and cutlery to allow us to serve up to 150 people at a single setting.
We are incredibly proud to have been awarded a National Lottery grant and extremely grateful for the support from the National Lottery Community Fund. This money will go a long way in helping support our activity and to continue to make a difference to our community. It shows the value and importance of what we do, so from everyone here St Mary’s Club and all our wonderful patrons, we want to say thank you!
What is the National Lottery Community Fund? Every time someone buys a National Lottery ticket, they help to raise money for the fund. This money is set aside to help charities, not for profits and community projects. Grants are then distributed to worthy causes across the UK through the funding scheme, to help support organizations making a difference in the community.