ROC (Robert Owen Communities) celebrated the tenth anniversary of Laura House, a registered home for adults with learning disabilities in Totnes with a day of music, dance and drama at the Civic Hall and in the Civic Square in Totnes on Thursday 9th September 2010.

Laura House was opened on 16th September 2000 by Councillor Judy Westacott after a substantial community fundraising effort for a purpose built residential care home. Laura House’s focus is to enable people to pursue their interests by accessing existing community services.

David Wilson, Chief Executive of ROC, said, “ROC would like to thank the people of Totnes for their support.  Today has been a great celebration of the first ten years of Laura House. It is wonderful to see everyone together and we have been lucky to have such great weather for it”.

The day culminated with a demonstration of wheelchair dancing in the Civic Hall which was followed by the Samba ROC band performing in the Civic Square, which brought everyone together to take part and close the day’s festivities.

Thanks to the support of last year’s Mayor of Totnes, Councillor Jean Harrop, who chose Laura House as one of her charities of the year, ROC was able to host the day to celebrate the first ten years of Laura House and to look forward to what is to come. There were demonstrations of the activities enjoyed by people who live at Laura House throughout the day, including wheelchair dancing as well as a performance of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

Therese Timberlake, Head of Specialist Services for ROC, said: “We arranged a day of events to highlight some of our activities as well as celebrating what people have accomplished. Our ultimate aim is to enable people to achieve their dreams.”

“It has been great to see people from Laura House’s history coming along to see what we’re up to now, and to meet people who were just passing by and were curious to see what was going on”, said Therese Timberlake.

This is the first of a series of events this autumn which culminate in the November Ball which will celebrate 20 years of ROC.