Owners hopeful social club will ‘come out the other side’ of pandemic
FAMILY ‘HUMBLED’ BY HUGE RESPONSE FROM THE COMMUNITY
THE family behind a long-standing social club in St Ann’s remain “optimistic” about the future after a year of difficulty caused by the pandemic.
Despite reopening following the first lockdown, the Greyfriars in Gordon Road had to shut again as further restrictions followed as the months rolled on.
In the meantime, the club has been delivering meals to the elderly and club manager Paul Reddington said this service would resume soon.
Speaking of his hopes for the future, the 58-year-old said: “We’ll be doing the meals again.
“We’re always going to maintain the community aspect side of it.
“As regards the business side of it we’re in the hands of the pandemic, it’s how long we’re closed for.
“We’re exactly the same as any other business in that respect. Hopefully the bank account will hold out and once the vaccination programme, testing and all the rest of it has kicked in life will return to some sort of normality.
“Hopefully, we’ll survive as a business and come out the other side.”
Members of staff remain on furlough and committee members have been organising ways to raise money for the community interest club.
Reflecting on the changes experienced in the last 12 months, Mr Reddington said: “It’s been a long story this year.
“In the first lockdown we didn’t receive any sort of help.
“But we were fortunate that there was a huge response from the community in fundraising for us, we had a Gofundme page and the response was just immense.
“One lad ran every day for a month for us and raised £5,000.
“Things like that really humbled us, but it just shows how much people appreciate what we are and what we do.
“We survived the first one [lockdown] by hook or by crook, reopened, got to grips with serving food with beer and all the rest of it and we were doing reasonably well until the second lockdown.
“We were back to square one again, we had to batten down the hatches, turning everything off that’s not in use.”
Mr Reddington’s daughter Roisin Reddington, 30, a Greyfriars committee member, said there were some encouraging signs from when the club first reopened.
Speaking before Christmas, she said: “At the minute you can only think so far ahead because there are new updates every day.
“Obviously everybody in the hospitality sector is having the same problem.
“Nobody knows when to plan for, the rules change literally every 24 hours. I think obviously it’s just a case that we are optimistic for the New Year. We were quite lucky when we had the first reopening after the first lockdown, everybody was so happy and eager to get out.
“We started to thrive again. We had to take table bookings, there was a limit to how many were on a table.
“Then obviously when the second lockdown came, it goes a bit back to doom and gloom but it remains optimistic. We know that people love the Greyfriars, [and have] used it for years.
“People are so desperate to get out. I think it’s a case of we know that when, and if, we can reopen having customers is not going to be a problem. It’s just being able to reopen.”
The club, which opened in 1959, is also hopeful of receiving a grant towards costs incurred as part of the food delivery service.