A thriving community is taking shape at Churchill Retirement Living’s new Eliot Lodge development in Ashbourne, where Lodge Manager Lyndsey Arthur has come up with a great way to keep apartment Owners connected throughout the lockdown – the Eliot Lodge Newsletter.
“When I started here in January I did the first issue all myself,” Lyndsey explains. “In February one of the Owners joined in with writing the quiz, and each month it has become even more successful with Owners submitting their own poems, favourite recipes and pieces of writing. April is a gardening special with Owners sharing their gardening tips and favourite plant ideas. Whilst we haven’t been able to meet up and socialise in person, the Newsletter has been a great way for the Owners to keep in touch and maintain the sense of community.”
Apartment Owner Pauline Ward is very grateful, and says: “A wave of happiness comes over me when I see my newsletter come through my postbox. It is a really good source of reaching all Eliot Lodge’s Owners. It is fun, inspiring and encouraging, with activities we can get involved in if we want. The format is friendly and readable, with delightful photos dotted throughout, and a quiz which ensures us old folk can still learn something new! As a relative newcomer here, I see Lyndsey as the head of a lovely family, always working hard to help in a friendly and appropriate way. During lockdown the newsletter has been a real tonic more than ever.”
Fellow Owners Knighton and Anne Butterworth are also fans, adding: “We very much like the newsletter in that it involves all members of the Eliot Lodge community. We enjoy all the contributions such as recipes, poems and puzzles, and in particular the reminders of things to share on various days of the month – like a joke for Comic Relief Day or a favourite poem on World Poetry Day. We hope the monthly newsletters will continue for a long time to come!”
As well as fostering a close sense of community, developments like Eliot Lodge have proven to be very safe places to live throughout the pandemic thanks to the excellent safety measures, the hard work of Lodge Managers like Lyndsey, and the secure, self-contained nature of this type of accommodation. This has meant the rate of Covid-19 infections among Churchill Owners has remained less than a third of that seen across the wider UK population, and safety and wellbeing continues to be a top priority.
Eliot Lodge is located near the heart of Ashbourne close to shops and amenities, and perfectly located for local transport links. The Lodge comprises 38 private, self-contained apartments with spacious rooms throughout, considerately designed with the over 60s in mind, and a warm, comfortable Owners’ Lounge where regular social events will start up again as soon as Covid restrictions allow.