Retirement Village Resident Takes Part in Skydive for Charity

A resident of The ExtraCare Charitable Trust’s Pannel Croft Retirement Village in Birmingham has taken part in a skydive to raise money for the charity.

The skydive was organised by the Coventry Building Society as part of a partnership with ExtraCare, a registered charity based in Coventry, to raise funds to support their work with older people in the city.

As well as ExtraCare’s resident, seven volunteers from Coventry Building Society and one from ExtraCare’s head office took part in the event, raising over £4000 that will go towards health and well-being activities for older people living in ExtraCare’s three schemes and one village in Coventry.

Charith Fernando, 66, said: “I took part because I wanted to help ExtraCare in all the work they do providing homes and care for older people. It went really fast, just as I was enjoying the freefall it was over!”

Angela Carpenter, Head of Assurance at ExtraCare, who also volunteered to do the skydive said: “It was a privilege to have the opportunity to do the sky dive. I wanted to do something that was a personal challenge as well as raising money for a fantastic charity.”

Research from Aston University into the charity’s housing, care and lifestyles model showed a reduction in depressive symptoms in ExtraCare residents over an 18 month period after moving into one of their villages. The money raised from the skydive will go towards continuing to improve the lives of older people across Coventry.

A video of Angela’s dive can be found here.

Photo captions: Charith Fernando and Angela Carpenter prepare to take a leap of faith at Skydive Langer in Nottingham

The ExtraCare Charitable Trust

The ExtraCare Charitable Trust is a registered charity established in 1988 and based in Coventry. Our vision is better lives for older people and our mission is creating sustainable communities that provide homes older people want, lifestyles they can enjoy and care if it’s needed. To deliver our vision and mission we essentially do three things:

• We develop new villages
• We operate villages and schemes
• We support our villages, schemes and our ‘extra-care’ model through fundraising, advocacy and research

Each village or scheme has 5 to 18 social, health and leisure facilities that are accessible to our residents, volunteers and local people representing all age groups living in surrounding communities. Our Charity Shops help fund care and well-being services for older people living at our each of our locations