Annual General Meeting 2022
The next OPAL Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 9th November 2022
at Cheshire View, Plough Lane, Christleton, Chester, CH3 7PT (01244 332 442)
Tea and coffee served from 5pm for a 5.30pm start.
Category Archives: News
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Oct 22
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Jul 22
Vacancy – Communications Officer – (post now closed)
OPAL Services is looking for a Communications Officer for 5 hours a week, to be responsible for the production and maintenance of newsletters, the website and other OPAL communications. Working mainly from home, you will be working alongside staff and trustees in a small rural charity that delivers services for older people in rural west Cheshire to help prevent social isolation. OPAL is a volunteer-led charity whose volunteers have been awarded a Queen’s Award for volunteering.
The successful candidate will have excellent communications skills plus experience of writing for publication, publication design and layout, photography, media editing, web editing and social media. They will be flexible, self-motivated and have access to transport.
- 5 hours a week, hours distributed through the week according to need.
- £11.90 per hour.
Apply us application form For further informationcontact morag.hutson@opalservices.org.uk
Closing date for applications: Friday 29th July
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Jul 22
OPAL Launches a newsletter for Carers
In July OPAL launched a new monthly newsletter for carers called Breaktime. Check it out!
OPAL Breaktime Newsletter January 2023
OPAL Breaktime Newsletter October 2022
OPAL Breaktime Newsletter September 2022
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Jun 22
OPAL Matters June 2022 – Volunteers’ edition
Our June edition of OPAL Matters celebrates Volunteers’ Week 2022 and applauds the work of the amazing volunteers who underpin the work of OPAL Services. OPAL would like to thank each and every one of them for being such an important part of our Charity. This issue also reports on the visit to Buckingham Palace of two volunteers, Mary Thompson and Lesley Duggan, who represented OPAL at a recent Royal Garden Party in recognition of OPAL’s Queen’s Award for Volunteering.
Mary and Lesley write: “What a magical day this was and we feel so privileged and honoured to have been able to represent OPAL in this way. We had such a memorable experience, which we will treasure forever. A big thank you to OPAL for allowing us to represent you at this special event.”
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Jun 22
‘Making caring visible, valued and supported’
Afternoon Tea for Carers – Wednesday 8th June, 2-4pm
To celebrate Carers Week, Opal is hosting an afternoon tea with music at the Deeside Ramblers Hockey Club near Tarporley on Wednesday 8th June between 2pm and 4pm.
If you are an unpaid carer aged 60 + or caring for someone over 60+ in west Cheshire, we would be very pleased if you would join us.
The theme of this year’s campaign is ‘Making caring visible, valued and supported’
To book onto this Carer event, or for more information about OPAL Carer Services, call
Maria Hudson on 07547 508324 email Maria.hudson@opalservices.org.uk or
Joy Walker on 07547 508280 email Joy.walker@opalservices.org.uk
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May 22
National Garden Scheme event, Manley Knoll, 22nd May
On Sunday 22nd May, OPAL provided the refreshments at the National Garden Scheme event at Manley Knoll.
Manley Knoll opens its gardens as part of the scheme every year. It is an Arts & Crafts garden created in the early 1900s. At this time of year, there is stunning colour provided by rhododendron and azaleas.
An impressive array of cakes and traybakes were provided by our amazing OPAL volunteers and the money made on the refreshments sales benefitted OPAL.
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May 22
OPAL Volunteers go to Buckingham Palace
Wednesday 18th May was a wonderful day for Mary Thompson and Lesley Duggan, two OPAL Volunteers who were chosen to represent OPAL at the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace to mark the fact that OPAL Volunteers have attained the prestigeous Queen’s Award for Volunteering. The weather was perfect – blue sky and sunshine, but not too hot. The Palace and grounds looked stunning with the guests beautifully attired, the bands playing and the guards in their uniforms.
“What a magical day this was and we feel so privileged and honoured to have been able to represent OPAL in this way. We had such a memorable experience, which we will treasure forever. A big thank you to OPAL for allowing us to represent you at this special event.”
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Apr 22
OPAL Matters 14 April 2022
Our April 2022 issue of OPAL Matters has been distributed with recent exciting news of services reopening. In what has been a busy period for OPAL we also welcome 2 new trustees and 2 new members of staff to the OPAL Team.
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Mar 22
Soup Lunch Fundraiser – Frodsham 18th March 2022
Join us at the Soup Lunch Fundraising Event on 18th March, 12.30 to 14.30 at Frodsham Community Centre.
Come along and enjoy a light lunch of soup followed by cake and a hot drink while at the same time supporting OPAL
£5 per person + Raffle
For tickets contact Jo on 01928 787899
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Jan 22
January closures of face to face services
Very reluctantly OPAL has decided to temporarily suspend our meetings of Clubs, Carers’ Groups, Branching Out and GoOnLine sessions due to take place in January 2022.
This is not the beginning OPAL had hoped for in 2022 but this decision is due to concerns that we will be unable to run services safely while the present rates of the Omicron Covid variant are so high and covid cases are continuing to rise sharply including amongst people over the age of 60.
We will look again at the situation at the end of January and we will reverse this decision as soon as we feel it is safe to do so.
In the meantime we will strive to provide a telephone befriending service, will send out copies of OPAL Reach newsletter and deliver activity packs, which are the services that were so much appreciated throughout 2020-1.
Keeping people as safe as possible is our first priority.