2021 Review

Jackie Holland, Charity Manager, Grapevine Essex.

After 2020 being a complete washout for Grapevine’s activities, we hoped that 2021 would bring some relief from the black cloud that is Covid-19. We provided free membership to all our existing members to make up for the previous year but unfortunately the Covid situation was not much different and the year began in the same vein.

We were disappointed that our Clubs weren’t able to open and no Easter activities could be planned. Thank goodness for online video calls and Sport for Confidence! We carried on with our twice weekly Zoom sessions until June; and Sport for Confidence were able to offer socially distanced weekly sessions that members could participate in.

However, the situation had started to improve by the start of the summer, and with vaccinations and rapid testing, we were able to hold an exciting programme of Summer events. It was lovely to be able to get out and meet up with members faceto-face again. The summer events were so much fun and we enjoyed two amazing residential trips. My favourite was to the Wilderness Centre in the Forest of Dean. We had a large country house and 30 acres of glorious private grounds all to ourselves. Members were able to take part in archery, climbing, caving, team building games and lots more. It was a wonderful relaxing break.

In September, our Dance Group and Club Grapevine were able to restart and things were really getting back to normal for Grapevine members. The Winter activities were almost stalled again due to a new Covid variant but thankfully, we were able to enjoy everything that we’d planned.

For me personally, life became exceptionally busy around the end of the year because we moved house and are now living by the sea in St Osyth. This doesn’t change anything with Grapevine, I will still continue running the charity from home and organising lots of lovely events for a long time to come.

Jackie Holland Chair & Charity Manager