Stella's 21st Anniversary Concert on May 4 1.00-4.30pm at The Old Bathing Station Kiosk in Bexhill.
The bands that are playing: Bob Hammond, The Shady Ladies and The Other Band. Stella is raising money for Demelza, St Michael's Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support.
The bands that are playing: Bob Hammond, The Shady Ladies and The Other Band. Stella is raising money for Demelza, St Michael's Hospice and Macmillan Cancer Support.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well on Saturday, we're going to pretend it's my 21st birthday, but it's 21 years that I've
00:11had the kiosk here. I bought it 21 years ago. Thoroughly enjoy it. Keep enjoying it, getting
00:17older but enjoying it. And so we're going to have people coming along in the afternoon.
00:25There's a couple of bands and a singer, which is going to be really good. We've got things
00:31we're doing for raising money. I really want to raise money for charity. So we've got a
00:37raffle and a tombola, a table sale, a little sweet shop out here, air fancy sweets, rocks
00:45and that. And we're just going to have lots of memories over the 20 years. So the charities
00:51I'm keen to do is Macmillan Charity, which covers both men and women that it would go
00:59for. Then St Michael's Hospice, which is such a beautiful, beautiful, peaceful place for
01:06when people have got to that stage. And I appreciate all they did for my mum and other
01:12relations. And then we're doing one for children. And it's for children with serious illness
01:21that may come through, may not. And it's in the Sussex, East Sussex here, Kent and
01:32this sort of area for these lovely children. And then we've got other little things going
01:38on here for children to come and play in a little sandpit with some beachy things in
01:44there. And when I left school, and that was a long time ago, at 15, I became an apprentice
01:50baker. That was with Willard's Bakers, some people might know that. That was when I was
01:5615. So I trained as a baker. And I stayed in that work for quite a while. Then life
02:04moves on. And I've ended up running Holiday Camp in Hastings, the old bathing pool. I
02:11run that. But I've always been in catering and I love it, and in sales. And over the
02:18years, I've gradually, I bought it because I learnt that through relations that it was
02:27coming up for sale. And I was about to take early retirement. So I thought, oh, well,
02:33I'll buy that for early retirement and potter along there. That was 21 years ago, though.
02:41And here we are, moving on. The kiosk itself is still the same size, but we've altered
02:50it to open up more windows at the front, and to take on more lines. And it's been very
03:00enjoyable. It really has. I can't do as much now as I used to, because I've got, as you
03:07can hear, a breathing problem. But I can sit in there and I love talking to people.
03:13And they might laugh and say, interfere. My middle name. But I just love being around
03:20people. And I feel that as I train my staff, for them to remember, in Bexhill, there's
03:28a lot of elderly people that live on their own. And just to have a few smiles and a few
03:33little laughy words. They've got something to go home, when they're on their own, at
03:39an evening, to think about. And that's for me as well, when I go home and I think about
03:45what's gone on in the day. So I do come in, and I'm in there, I sit in there and serve
03:53and talk to people. Thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy it.