Over-65s enjoy lunch and entertainment at Manchester Airport’s annual Autumn Leaves event
Around 200 over-65s from the Wythenshawe and Woodhouse Park areas enjoyed a free hot meal and an afternoon of entertainment sponsored by Manchester Airport on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The airport’s annual Autumn Leaves lunch is free for over-65s from Woodhouse Park and other wards neighbouring the airport. Volunteers from Manchester Airport served up a three-course hot meal, plus an afternoon of entertainment.
Since it started fourteen years ago, almost 3,000 people have attended the event, which aims to tackle social isolation among older people in communities surrounding the airport.
This year’s lunch had a ‘magic of the movies’ theme and was followed by bingo, a raffle, and a performance from The Lancashire Belle.
More than 40 airport staff from various departments volunteered to help out across the two days, as part of a scheme the airport operates which allows colleagues to claim up to two working days per year on full pay to volunteer for good causes that matter to them in the local area. Volunteers pitched in by waiting tables, serving drinks and handing out gift bags to attendees.
"We take our responsibility to our neighbouring communities very seriously and we strive to be a good neighbour, so the Autumn Leaves lunch is an important fixture in our calendar of community outreach events. We’re proud to have reached so many local people once again this year and to have given them an opportunity to get out of the house and socialise at a time of year where opportunities to do so are more limited, with the darker nights drawing in. Putting on this event relies on the time and effort generously contributed by dozens of volunteers from across the airport operation, and I’d like to thank them for their hard work in making this happen.”
Robert Pattison, Head of Community Engagement, Manchester Airport
To find out more about Manchester Airport’s outreach in local communities, and the ways in which the airport can help support good causes near you, visit https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/community/.