Latest news with #RoySmith
BBC News
25-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Gloucester cooking sessions 'give homeless veterans independence'
An army veteran has said says cookery session put on to teach life skills have given men "their life and independence back".Those living in Imjin House in Gloucester, a facility for homeless veterans, are learning critical life skills in a joint partnership with two other charities in the city. Roy Smith, a veteran and Imjin House resident, worked in logistics when he was in the army but had previously worked as a chef. He said the session helps the men "in a lot of ways - more than people realise". Wiggly, a Gloucester-based charity that provides inclusive cookery tuition has partnered with Alabare, a charity that helps people overcome the barriers of homelessness and mental health to put on the sessions. Veterans get the chance to prepare healthy breakfast options using tinned items commonly found in their pantries. Mr Smith said: "The cooking today - its important because there's some people who don't know how to cook."They get some of their life back, they get some of their independence back." Mr Smith said many of the veterans had "struggled" to get a hot meal in the past."Without stuff like this people would be sat in their rooms doing nothing or not interacting with people," he added."It's really important for the guys because sometimes they don't have the interaction and they're out of their comfort zone." Ian Harris, a retired British Army Colonel, said: "As an ex-military person, knowing the need for veterans to become independent through times of difficulty, this session been superb to witness."Claire Foot, general manager of Wiggly charity, said many of the veterans were working on transitioning back to civilian life and are often "living on very low incomes and accessing food pantries"."These sessions are designed to use the kind of food they can access and to build their skills so they can look after themselves in the future," she added.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
GA boy runs a mile in honor of fallen Clay Co. firefighter
GAINSVILLE, Ga. (WTWO/WAWV) — A teen boy in Georgia will be running a mile in honor of Clay County, Indiana, volunteer firefighter Roy Smith, who lost his life in the line of duty last week. Andrew Collinson is a ninth grader in Gainsville, Georgia, and on Friday night, he will be running a mile while carrying an American Flag with a red line on it to honor Smith. Andrew is part of the Running4Heros organization that consists of seven kids in the United States that run a mile in honor of fallen first responders and post the video on social media. ' When I heard it, I was like, of course I would love to do this. I would love to run for fallen first responders who gave so much to the community and did so much for this world, in serving our world, as they went through the danger,' said Collinson. 'On the videos, they leave comments and people are like 'thank you or running for my nephew', 'thank you for running for my brother, my sister.' Stuff like that just makes my heart feel like really good, it's just like wow.' If you want to watch Collinson's run from Friday night, or any other run the organization has done, you can find them on Facebook at Running4Heroes or by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
