By William Coleman
The old traditional caravan nowadays is most likely spotted sat on driveways covered in weather ware or just plonked depressingly in fields throughout the country. One special care giver has stumbled upon a very rare vintage van and has decided to turn it into something worthwhile to help out our aging community.
This week the Teesside Gazette Live ran fantastic story of one woman’s mission to help her community and the elderly people living nearby who have limited mobility and outside contact. After reading what was happening I had to share this Friday feel good story.
Support worker Amie Tait managed the almost impossible feat of getting her hands on the rare Swift 1986 Sprite Alpine caravan with the idea of converting it into a mobile cafe. The motivation behind which is to bring tea, coffee and cakes to those who may not be able to get out and about as much as they used to.
As a population we are getting a lot older and living for many more years. The issue with that is the high street is in rapid decline and a lot of shops are closing. With your local parade of shops becoming almost non existent in certain areas it makes getting those bare essentials a lot harder. This is where Amie Tait comes in.
Amie wants to take us back to an age where a lot of produce was brought to you by a mobile seller, the milkman used to deliver more than just your pint of semi skimmed and full fat. The mobile cafe will help a lot of older folk by giving them a measure of social interaction, something some members of the older generation are in serious need of. Amie has ensured that her new route will be very regular in areas with older residents.
The Middlesbrough mum-of-two will run retro caravan cafe ‘Oh So Lovely’ in her spare time and will could also soon be licensed to serve alcohol for weddings and other events.
“I’ve had strangers knocking on my door asking what I’m doing and what the caravan is going to be,” she said.
“I wanted it straight away, it’s very cute and really quirky in real life. They only made a few hundred of these caravans, someone has even contacted me about it to do the rallies as they’re all very interested in it. We will deliver afternoon tea as gifts, as you would do a bunch of flowers.”, continued Amie.
Amie’s own grandmother lives in an area where a lot of shops have closed down and never reopened which has made it a chore to get fresh goods and see other people.
“She still works and is mobile but a lot of her neighbours aren’t and rely on family. I’m aiming to do a weekly round of tea, sandwiches and cake in residential areas for elderly residents who do not live close to shops and don’t see much of others on a daily basis. This will hopefully help a little with loneliness., says Amie.
“People can enjoy tea and cake at 2pm – a bit like when the ice cream van comes round. We used to have a mobile shop that came round, selling bread and milk – well I’ll be selling tea and cakes instead.”
This is such a fantastic thing to do for your local community, it brings back that old spirit of community that is hard to find now days.
What makes it even more special is that by day Amie works in a children’s home and is doing this on her own personal time. Two thumbs up to you Amie from the CaravanTimes team.
