Spreading smiles across our community throughout the year is a highly valued part of our service here at Kew Neighbourhood Association. 

Celebrating Birthdays 

Our clients each recieve a handwritten birthday card wishing them a Happy Birthday from all at KNA - hand delivered by our very own KNA Postie Volunteer. We believe age should be celebrated throughout life.  It's so important for us to mark these special occasions. Many of our older residents say how much they appreciate our cards, particularly as the number of friends and family who used to send cards dwindles in number as they age.  Over the past few years our cards have been the beautiful prints of Diana Armfield RA works reproduced with generous permission of the artist. Read our interview with Diana Armfield.  We also mark special 'noughties' birthdays with a plant or homemade baking, you can see our gallery of birthdays here.  Our home baked birthday brownies are delivered by one of our young volunteers and her family and were initially part of her Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award at Christ's School. We are delighted they have choosen to continue to support this kind gesture on an ongoing basis.  

Christmas Greetings

Each year we also send Christmas cards to our clients to deliver our seasons greetings and remind them of the support Kew Neighbourhood Association can offer over the festive season and winter months, at a time we know can be challenging for many older people.  In our cards we also ask if anyone would like a KNA Volunteer visitor between Christmas and New Year.  This initiative was started after hearing one year that a KNA client hadn't spoken to anyone over the previous Christmas period.  We are told that our volunteers' visits make such a difference to their Christmas.

In lieu of visitors, in 2020, and to end such a difficult year on a brighter note, we were able to secure funds for festive teaboxes which were carefully prepared by the Maids of Honour and delivered by volunteers to KNA and Avenue Club members alongside gifts from families at The Queen's School, as well as handfinished Nutcracker solider decorations made by people across our local community.   We were delighted to also receive funding to offer a Christmas teabox delivery in 2021. 

Harvest Parcels 

For more than a decade Kew Neighbourhood Association and families at Broomfield House School have joined together to bring a parcel of treats to members of the community in Kew each Autumn.  KNA Alumni Volunteer and retired member of staff at the school, Nada Morgan told us her memories of the scheme.  

"I really enjoyed chatting to the two young people - it was very nice - and I so appreciated the things in the parcel"

Summer Special 

2022 marked the return of our Summer Party for clients, which we celebrated on the 1st of June ahead of the Platinum Jubilee weekend. We were joined at the Avenue Halls by our guests who enjoyed afternoon tea and entertainment from magic circle magician Simon Alexander. Her Worshipful the Mayor of Richmond upon Thames Cllr Julia Cambridge joined us. It was fantastic to be together again! And, thanks to a donation from Kew College, we were also able to deliver a teabox to clients who are housebound or who were self isolating on the day, so they did not miss out on the celebration entirely. We were also extremely appreciative that this donation was 'topped up' by generous donations from the residents of Chelwood Gardens whose Jubilee Street Party Committee nominated KNA as their charity of choice for the day.

 "Thank you so much for the opportunity to meet some new people yesterday at a wonderfully organised occasion..(and again forgot my pain). I enjoyed the company of a 100 year old man who took the opportunity to tell me his amazing life story and proudly showed me his card from the queen, and had a lengthy chat with our glamorous new mayor, besides seeing some old friends. The food and tea looked like an enormous amount of time and care had been taken, and what a gorgeous cake."

Working in Partnership

We appreciate the generosity of our Kew community in supporting our work and the volunteers who facilitate donations like Rea Granleese.  KNA truely values forming partnerships with local funders, schools, businesses, charities and community groups to bring Moments of Joy to our clients - enabling people in Kew to feel part of Kew's community and remain independent for as long as possible.  We are always happy to hear how we might work with local partners, so please do get in touch at mail@kna.org.uk