Beamish expresses gratitude to local businesses for supporting launch of accessible minibus

Beamish, the living museum of the North has thanked local businesses for their support in making health and wellbeing activities more accessible.

The open air museum located in County Durham, provides award-winning activities for those living with long-term health conditions such as dementia via their Clover Cottage in The 1950s Town.

Beamish’s Health and Wellbeing team work directly from Clover Cottage, which has become a dedicated space for accessible activities and sessions. 

Sessions include; Men’s Groups, Canny Cuppa social groups, walking groups, music and movement sessions, and sessions exploring Beamish’s collections. 

After launching Clover Cottage, Beamish’s Health and Wellbeing team identified a need for an accessible minibus to transport participants to the sessions, due to many being wheel-chair users or having limited walking ability.

Now, the idea for the minibus has been brought to life, thanks to local businesses sponsoring the cause, and their business logos are now proudly displayed on the minibus.

Businesses who have signed up to sponsor the brand-new minibus include; Durham Group, Newcastle Building Society, Stanley Travel, Stephenson Mohl and Ward Hadaway.

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Head of Health and Wellbeing at Beamish, Michelle Kindleysides, expressed her gratitude to the businesses for their much-needed support.

She said: “We cannot thank our sponsors enough for their generosity in supporting us with our accessible minibus. It’s going to make a huge difference to our participants and our groups, meaning that we can meet people as soon as they arrive and can support people to get to Clover Cottage easily, reducing any worries that people might have when they arrive.

“We have this amazing new space here at Clover Cottage, but being in the middle of the museum does make it trickier for the majority of our participants to get to us quickly and easily, especially during times when the museum is busy. The mini bus is perfect for what we need!”

Chief Executive of Durham Group (one of the sponsors of the brand-new minibus), Gurpreet Jagpal commented: “Beamish Museum is a valuable asset and destination for us all in the North East. Making it accessible to as many people as possible is very important and therefore we were delighted to support the funding of this minibus.”

Stanley Travel’s director, Andrew Scott also spoke of how pleased their business were to sponsor the important cause, as he said: “When we originally found out about the opportunity to sponsor a minibus for use by the Health and Wellbeing Team to complement their ongoing activities, we immediately knew it was a project we wanted to be involved with. 

“For so many reasons as a local business we align with the museum and, enjoying a long-standing relationship, we are always keen to help support their exciting developments. Stanley Travel’s contribution to this specially adapted minibus will go a small way to enhancing the lifestyle of older adults and people living with dementia in the community and we wish all the minibus users lots of pleasure for the future.”

To find out more about Beamish, the living museum of the North and how to support them, please visit the Beamish website.