Lunch club marks golden anniversary

A luncheon club which meets at a Black Country beauty spot has celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Members of the Golden Years Social Club have enjoyed some 2,500 lunches over the years and yesterday met at their weekly club in Langley Park in Oldbury to mark the occasion.

The club was founded by Rosland Steele and for the past nine years has been run by Dorothy Nemedi and six volunteers.

Members originally used to meet at Langley Hall, but the club later moved to Langley Lodge in Langley Park — a converted park keepers house — where it remains today. Around 85 people turned up to yesterday's event and enjoyed a buffet as well as trifle.

Mrs Nemedi, said: "I was a bit nervous to make sure the event went well. I have put in a lot of hard work and it was worth it seeing everyone there."

Mrs Nemedi added: "I have to do a lot of events to raise money from cake sales and we rely on donations.

"We go on five trips a year and always try and do one seaside trip and the others are more local places of interest nearer to home." Members also enjoy bingo and sometimes welcome guest speakers.

Florence Mills, aged 92, has been a member for at least 20 years and likes to attend the luncheon club for the day out and the trips.

She said: "There are some excellent trips. I'm not able to go on them all but it's nice and I've made some really good friends over the years.

"Different friends came and joined me in the group. Mrs Steele was a good leader and Dorothy has taken over and we have all followed her and she's really good.

"There's some mischievous characters but I'm not one of them."

The event was attended by Sandwell's Mayor Councillor Pauline Hinton and during the morning a 50th anniversary cake was also cut. Councillor Hinton said: "I think its fantastic they are celebrating 50 years. "You don't get many helpers like Dorothy that work hard. She was telling me how hard she works and she does table tops and all sorts of things to make money.

"She keeps the club going here on a Tuesday morning so that's just wonderful without any assistance from anyone else."

Mrs Nemedi added the secret to the success of the club was hard work.

She added: "You've got to put your nose to the grindstone, keep at it and try to raise money. It's hard to get volunteers these days isn't it. I've got six good volunteers so I don't need any more."