Running simultaneously to the group's Walk For Wellbeing challenge is B&M Care's 'Memory Capsule Relay'.

Officiated at Templemore Care Home in Northampton, B&M Care Chairman Bill Hughes presented the home with a trunk that will be transported around each of our 26 care homes to collect a historic cache of items and information that will later form part of a pandemic time capsule which will be buried at the group’s Memorial Garden adjacent to Ashlyns Care Home in Berkhamsted.

Running until the end of August, the first seven days of the relay has seen the trunk be delivered to the group’s northern-most care home, St Anns (Kettering), before being driven down to St Leonards (Aylesbury), and then onto St Josephs (Tring), and finally Chesham Bois Manor (Chesham).

With a simple aim of communicating the essence of living through a global pandemic to a future generation, items have included photographs, handwritten memoirs, and art & craft displays.

“Preparing our items for the arrival of the trunk was a wonderful opportunity to poignantly reflect upon the past year,” said St Leonards Care Home Engagement Lead, Nicky Vin d’Arc.

She continued: “Using art, craft and written word, we looked at our entries as an accessible and collaborative project, a way for residents to express their thoughts and feelings through both unique and creative means. And being able to take residents with me to present the trunk to the next home was just lovely – it epitomised the initiative’s message in ‘reconnecting’.”

Steps To Reconnect

B&M Care’s Memory Capsule Relay, in conjunction with Walk For Wellbeing, forms part of a wider initiative, titled Steps To Reconnect. With an aim of tentatively reconnecting our family network of care homes, Steps To Reconnect looks at offsetting the “year like no other” with two challenges that continue to diminish distance and unite the group as a whole.