Jewish Care volunteer, Rita Roth OBE, received the prestigious Point of Light award from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at our Annual Dinner last night, for her incredible dedication and achievement in supporting our community and in particular, our Rosetrees care home.
2023 marks Rita’s 60th year of volunteering for Jewish and wider causes.
As a teenager, Rita volunteered at a local hospital, trained as a youth manager for her local Jewish Youth Club and volunteered for Jewish Care, as well as being Chair of her local League of Jewish Women. Alongside her professional roles, she continued with her youth and voluntary work with older people.
Rita was one of the founding members of our Meals on Wheels service in 1973, there from the start, cooking food from her kitchen, delivering soup and hot meals to people at home, as well as recruiting local volunteers.
In 1994, Rita was awarded an OBE for services to the British shipping industry, which included confidential government work.
For more than a decade, she volunteered at her local Jewish Care home, raising money when needed and took over on a voluntary basis a paid staff member’s job when she left. This incorporated all types of social aspects and also involved fundraising for Havens Hospice and the local Jewish Care day centre.
In 2015 and 2016, Rita’s mother needed personal care at home. Rita knew that Jewish Care’s home care team was outstanding and highly respected, but never expected to need their services. From that point, Rita’s mother went into full time care in June 2016 at Jewish Care’s Rosetrees care home – fifty miles from where Rita lives. In February 2017, Rita took up the challenge of fund raising for Rosetrees, with her first event in December 2017, just two weeks before her mother passed away.
Rita promised to continue to support Rosetrees and now visits regularly, holding very popular morning sessions with the residents, meeting and chatting with them, their families and the staff to whom she is devoted and so thankful. Rita also organises special events for the residents and their families. During the pandemic, when it was permitted, Rita and her team delivered essentials and treats to Rosetrees and the staff, despite not being able to enter the home. Throughout the pandemic, Rita, together with her husband Andrew, also carried on delivering Meals on Wheels twice a week on top of a local route in Redbridge.
In her capacity as Chair of the Rosetrees fundraising committee, Rita has held dozens of events and despite Covid, she has still managed to raise over £100,000 in the last few years, to enable the home to fulfil the managers wish list of extras for all the residents.
Each week, Rita makes the long trip across the North Circular from her home in Southend-on-Sea to the home just to give each of the residents and staff there their favourite bar of chocolate – they call it ‘Rita’s Chocolate Drop’.
We join the Prime Minster in congratulating Rita on a well-deserved Point of Light award.
Jewish Care’s Chief Executive, Daniel Carmel-Brown, says:
“We are delighted that we were able to share this special moment with Rita at our Annual Dinner. Her dedication and commitment to Jewish Care, our staff and residents, is nothing short of outstanding, and we are so pleased that this award is a recognition of that. Mazel Tov, Rita, and thank you for all that you do for us!”
On receiving the award, Rita Roth OBE said:
“I was so overwhelmed to receive the Point of Light Award. It was a big surprise and the Prime Minister was lovely. When I started volunteering as a teenager all those years ago, I never thought I would need Jewish Care, but I really don’t know what I would have done without them. They were there when my mother needed care and support. I get so much pleasure from volunteering and being with the residents. We have a lot of laughs and great chats, and they certainly enjoy the ice cream and chocolates that I bring. It’s given me a huge understanding and appreciation of the care for older people and people living with dementia that Jewish Care provide and I have so much respect and love for the amazing staff at Rosetrees care home.”