Shoppers were amazed to find the Pearly King of Harrow and his daughter the Pearly Queen of Tunbridge Wells at Waitrose Gillingham and Waitrose Sherborne.

Sherborne is now the centre of Home-Start Blackmore Vale’s patch so it was great to be able to cover two focal points of their work.

The Pearly King, David Hemsley, lives in the West Country now but inherited his title from his grandmother, a Pearly Queen from Harrow.  His daughter, Sophie, inherited her title from her grandparents. They continue the Pearly Tradition of carrying out charitable work and meet regularly with other Pearly Kings and Queens in Covent Garden in London.

Caroline Salt, a Trustee of Home-Start BV, collected with them at Gillingham and would like to extend a huge thank you to them both for giving up two whole days just before Christmas.

The Pearlies collected just under £700 which was amazing and will go towards the cost of funding a volunteer for a year. So, thank you to all those who so kindly donated and another to Waitrose Gillingham and Waitrose Sherborne for allowing us to collect on such busy days.

In 2023 Home-Start Blackmore Vale supported 162 families and 243 children. This number is set to rise with our recent expansion into areas of West Dorset.

After completing their training, volunteers commit to 2-3 hours each week to work with a family. They use their training and parenting experience to offer friendship, support, and advice, helping families to find coping mechanisms for the challenges of bringing up young children. This approach has been proven to help transform the lives of those we work with.

We are looking to recruit trustees and new volunteers to support families, especially in the Sherborne to Beaminster area. Do you have parenting experience, and can commit to two or three hours per week to help a struggling family?

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss family support or volunteering. For more information about this visit our website: www:homestartblackmorevale.org.uk, telephone 01935 726438 or email: office@homestartblackmorevale.org.uk