Dawn Gracie’s Dickie Bows & Petticoats Club marks first birthday

The club was created as part of Dawn's mission to end loneliness and isolation among older people; and it has certainly struck a chord. Dawn is delighted with all that it has achieved so far, and as it develops further, she will be looking at ways of increasing outreach.

The Dickie Bows & Petticoats Club always meets during the day on the last Tuesday of the month at the Pallant Suite, 7 South Pallant, Chichester, PO19 1SY – and once again this summer it will form part of the Festival of Chichester.

“January was our first anniversary. I can't believe it has already been a year. It has just gone so fast. The original intention was to do something about isolation and loneliness in our senior community by providing daytime entertainment of a sassy kind. It's high quality and low cost and therefore subsidised by a lot of fund-raising. It is run entirely on a voluntary basis by myself and a team of 25 volunteers, and the team is amazing. It is made up from people who come to my other events and shows and can understand the benefits of providing something like this during the daytime for people that would not be able to come if it were in the evening. Some of them in their own capacity already work with seniors.

“What has been a surprising outcome is that through my work with people living with dementia I thought we would have a lot of people come along with dementia to enjoy the chance of daytime entertainment with a difference but actually we have attracted lots of carers and partners of people with living dementia. We are providing silly respite activities for them and they love it. We also have a few people that come along that are widowed are are starting to want to get out and enjoy a social life again but nothing has ticked their boxes until they found us. The feedback we get is great. It makes people feel alive again, is the gist.

“It's monthly and we have now had 14 with February. December was hilarious. The last Tuesday of the month fell on New Year's Eve so I decided to move it forward to the Monday and have a not quite a New Year's Eve party. We did New Year's Eve in the middle of the day. Feedback in the run-up to the special event was great and there was a lady who's 92 who asked would we be having male strippers. So I got some butlers in the buff, very handsome young men that come along with nothing on but a pinny and we had an absolute scream.

“On the last Tuesday of the month, you get two hours that includes a cabaret show – usually a burlesque dancer and a drag queen – and afternoon tea and a game of bingo and lots of singing and dancing and all for only £10. We sell out every time. We can really only fit a maximum 68 people in. Sadly we just don't have a bigger venue in Chichester that is suitable for us.”