Week three of my campaign to find our Hazel Grove Heroes.
This week goes to Ruth Otto, who is an incredibly dedicated lady, her work at Romiley Lifecentre is priceless.
William said, "Ruth is another brilliant volunteer and works with a wider brilliant group of volunteers. Well done Ruth!"
Bio of Ruth, from Ruth;
"I am Ruth! For the last 7 years I have been heading up the café in the Romiley Lifecentre. The Romiley Lifecentre has been up and running for 13 years – funded in the first place by the church family of St Chad’s Romiley. The aim of buying the building was to give the church a presence on the high street, to invest in the people, and local organisations, of our community.
The Lifecentre provides conference rooms typically for local charity organisations/public sectors/LEA. We also have a café, which is open to the public, staffed by a team of 50 volunteers.
It is my role as manager of the café, I oversee all the menus and food preparation, and looking after the volunteers.
The impact we have is to provide a comfortable, friendly café environment, serving delicious home-made food and fair trade coffee. We want to welcome people in to stay for as long as they like, and offer a listening ear if they need to chat.
Much of my time is spent investing in our volunteers. Not only do we have people from our local church on the team, we also have volunteers from the local area too. We pride ourselves (in the right sense of that word!) in how we encourage people who are struggling in life, or who need a second chance, through their volunteering, to find greater confidence and self esteem. We have people from local care homes, local pupils, and those with depression on our team. Often, through their volunteering, those who have struggled to work, find themselves able to apply for and gain employment – through the acquisition of new skills, but mostly through having re-found their sense of self-confidence. At the present time, we have 5 such volunteers.
I give my time, 3 days a week, freely. If I arrive after 7am I am late! I often serve on a Saturday too. On the other two days, I am a radiographer in a local hospital trust. On the days when it feels hard going, the fact that lonely people find a great place to have a coffee, and volunteers who were otherwise struggling have found a role in life and often go on to do more, is all the inspiration I need!"