‘Everyone Should Volunteer!’

Posted: 4th February 2025

When Roosha Sue, Head of Nursery at Eaton House The Manor, volunteered at Ace of Clubs she learned some valuable life lessons in the process.

Eaton House The Manor Nursery is action-packed and busy, with 44 children aged 2-4 running around all day long and learning so much that when Roosha Sue, Head of Nursery and Head of Early Years at Eaton House Schools, decided to volunteer, she chose the holidays as the best moment to create time and space to fulfil this long-cherished dream.

Then, the decision had to be made as to the charity. Eaton House The Manor places great stress on charitable giving and community spirit to the children and it made sense to Roosha to volunteer with a charity for the homeless, Ace of Clubs. ‘We have donated for years at harvest time and for other events,’ says Roosha ‘and I wanted to do some charity work for something we are affiliated to and something that helped families and brought the volunteering back to the nursery community.’

Ace of Clubs proved a wonderful choice as a charity supported by Comic Relief, Nat West, Wimbledon Foundation and Octopus Energy. You can access a hot meal, clothing, a laundry service, showers, healthcare, housing and welfare support and access to computers, and, helpfully, people do not have to be referred. The kitchen serves 3000 meals each month and gives out 1000 items of clothing each year and NHS nurses provide 200 hours of healthcare per year.

Typically, 180 people come each day for food, and, as the charity says, ‘If you got chatting to someone, you might be the only person to ask how they’re doing that month.’

Roosha admits that she was initially ‘a bit nervous – and not sure who I was meeting or what to do.’ However, that nervousness was soon allayed by Charlie, a member of the senior support team, who set her to work in the kitchen prepping vegetables.

‘I was blow away by her passion for setting up and how it worked and what a feat up to 200 meals prepped, cooked and served to local homeless people with food donated by local supermarkets,’ said Roosha. In addition to the meal ‘any sort of leftovers are put into a Tupperware box, and nothing is wasted.’ She was also impressed by the shop ‘where everyone gets a ticket and they can leave with a big bag of food.’

The experience was wholly positive for her. ‘All the people I met were warm and kind and it was an exceptionally humbling experience. I would definitely do it again.’

Roosha adds that volunteering should be part of everyone’s life. ‘This is a lesson that can teach any generation – it’s an important lesson in giving something to people from different background and it’s an important lesson to learn outside the classroom.’

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Donate money of goods and clothing listed on the website at https://aceofclubs.org.uk/contribute/

Categories: All Schools