A CARE home in Wrexham held its annual summer fun day this week, with many of its staff and residents dressing up for the occasion.

Emral House Nursing Home on Chester Road held the event for its residents on Thursday, July 18, with the theme this year being Alice in Wonderland.

Staff, as well as thee residents and their families were decked out in their finest costumes to celebrate the day, which was also attended by the Mayor of Wrexham, Cllr Rob Walsh.

There were musicians at the event, a bouncy castle for kids, a croquet lawn, and a barbeque as well as a bar.

Bev Hughes, Manager of Emral House Nursing Home, said: “Gaynor is responsible for this, she organises this event every single year.

“A lot of the residents here are for end of life care, so we try to give them a day that they can look forward to and a day that they can remember.

“All the families come, everything is free of charge to everyone who attends, and all-in-all it’s just a day of fun for everyone.

“It’s nice to get everyone outside because it can be a bit of an effort sometimes to get everyone out of bed on some days, but this event excites them all and it’s a great way to get everyone involved.

“The best part is seeing the smiles on everyone’s faces, the staff all look forward to it as well, they all come in on their days off to help out.”

Gaynor Wright, Catering Manager, added: “The purpose of the day really is just to put a big smile on the faces of all the residents and all their families.

“The staff all get dressed up and it’s a lot of fun really, it gives everyone hear a day they can really look forward to throughout the summer.

“This is the fifth year we’ve been running it. The idea sort of stemmed from a few of us sitting around and chatting abut what we could do to give the residents some fun, and we came up with the idea of putting on a barbeque, but we thought if we added a theme to it, that might add an extra bit of fun.

“We’ve done Willy Wonka, a seaside theme, this year it’s the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, which is quite well suited because we’re all a bit bonkers in here, we don’t have to get into the role then since we’re all mad anyway.

“Care homes sometimes can get quite bad press, and the media are quick to jump on things that happen in care homes that are negative.

“On the flip side of that though, we’re not all bad, and it’s horrible sometimes because you see this bad press and you think, well we don’t do that.

“Care homes do good things like this as well, everyone here is happy and having fun.”