A CAR dealer has helped to ensure some happy faces are made.

Inchcape Toyota Basingstoke, in Edison Road, has donated £1,550 to the Happy Faces Playgroup and Cherry Blossom Manor Care Home to support a project which brings different generations together to help combat loneliness.

The automotive retailer provided the grant to help the playgroup in Sherfield-on-Loddon continue monthly visits to the care home in Bramley.

The visits include activity sessions for both the children and elderly residents including arts and crafts, board games and puzzles, singing, baking and picnics.

The joint initiative between Happy Faces and Cherry Blossom Manor was inspired by a recent television documentary called Old People’s Homes for 4-Year-Olds. The programme highlighted the plight of loneliness in the elderly and showed how the presence of children can have an immediate positive effect on their wellbeing, as well as being an equally valuable experience for the children.

The donation to help fund this project was presented to the playgroup as part of the Toyota Fund for a Better Tomorrow; a nation-wide programme of grants which Toyota retail centres can bid for to support charities, schools and community projects in their area.

General manager Andy Hollis said: “The playgroup visits help the residents at Cherry Blossom Manor Care Home enormously. It brings joy and laughter to the home, brightening up the day for some of the elderly residents.

"The Toyota Fund for a Better Tomorrow is a fantastic initiative which helps us to support causes within our local communities and this donation was extremely gratefully received.”