Stockport in the Community

[caption id="attachment_7392" align="aligncenter" width="640"] All spick and span for the Christmas Fair - a job well done[/caption]

'Tis the season of goodwill and Stockport House are showing us the way today with their tale of how they helped their local community recently. Keith Foster has more...

As part of our involvement within the local community in the Brinnington area of Stockport, a number of our team at Smiths News in Stockport volunteered to help to prepare the Church Hall at St Lukes Church in time for the upcoming Christmas Fair.

The Church Hall was in need of some serious tlc and our team spent time discussing and agreeing exactly what support the representatives of the Church required.

Once this was agreed our team swung into action and prepared and then painted the interior of the Hall and made it look “fresher than it had ever been”. To be honest the most time-consuming part of this whole project was deciding on what colour paint was required!!

The ladies at the Church Hall were delighted with our efforts as the painting work was completed on the day before the Christmas Fair and they were excited about showing off their improvements to the broader Community.

Smiths News also donated a number of raffle prizes and members of the Smiths News team baked cakes to sell at the fair on the day.

It was really nice to instigate this project within the local community and “give something back” as we employ a large amount of people from within this area. Not only did the Hall look much better, but the people who use this facility (which is many different Groups throughout the whole of the Community) really appreciated what we had done. However one of the most important things was that we all had some “fun along the way” together, and hopefully this is the beginning of a relationship that we can look to develop within the community in the future.

Thad Barker (Senior Neighbourhood Management Officer for Stockport Council) said: “On behalf of Stockport Council and the local Community we are really grateful for the support that Smiths News in Stockport has given to us. This is the first time that anybody has done anything like this for us, and for that we all say a really big thank you. It is fair to say that your help and support has brightened up not only the Church Hall but the whole feel of the place and the ladies down there are really thrilled.”

What a fantastic effort Keith, the results of which look set to brighten up events in Brinnington for many months to come. We look forward to hearing how this project develops with your local community and sharing it via Community Link-Up. :)

Nic Tries a Double Link-Up

Last Monday, Nic Hewlett of Rowan House swapped her desk in Swindon for a day at the Inner Wheel combined charity event in Cirencester.

She managed to combine two Community Link-Up elements by linking together fundraising and volunteering when she applied for her day's Volunteer Time. As you can see (to the left of the picture), her role for the day was helping out on one of the many stalls.

The money raised on the day - £234 - will go towards the many charities - both local and further afield - supported by Cirencester's Inner Wheel, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2013.

Nic's fundraising - and Smiths News - were celebrated in the Inner Wheel's national magazine this summer when her fellow member Liz Tovey reported on her receiving Smiths News's Community Champion of the Year award last year. Said Liz:

"Nic our youngest member - and the first with no ties to Rotary - joined us two and a half years ago and is already on the committee, showing a great enthusiasm and totally 'being a friend'.

Well done Nic, we are all very proud of your achievement."

And so are we!

Update: This is post number 500 on the blog! Many thanks to all of you who've contributed news for us to publish over the past three years :D

Stickability is Go

[caption id="attachment_6980" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Pupils from Westbury Junior School with the day's Stickability team[/caption]Following the successful pilot of Stickability earlier this year, Monday afternoon saw the exciting official launch of the programme to a wider public via the media.

[caption id="attachment_6984" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dave Attwood and Ryan[/caption]

The session followed the structure of a typical Stickability session, with both indoor reading and outdoor sporting activities, plus handing out the all important stickers!

Newly appointed Managing Director Glenn Leech and staff member Tina Lawes represented The Consortium's side of the partnership, and Vicky Heslop was there on behalf of Bath Rugby Foundation.

Two of Bath Rugby's playing stars - Dave Attwood and David Sisi - were special guests for the day to complete the Stickability lineup.    

[caption id="attachment_6985" align="alignright" width="300"] David Sisi hands Tia her sticker[/caption]

Vicky Heslop, Education Manager at Bath Rugby Foundation said,

“We have piloted this programme in a variety of local schools and found that it really boosts children’s confidence, particularly for those who start off with the lowest levels of confidence. 72% of the 193 children in the pilot phase showed increased confidence scores, some with an enormous increase of over 30% in just six weeks.

We are delighted to have proven so far that this programme really works, but it would not have been possible without extraordinary support from The Consortium. In addition to fully funding the programme, they have also provided their staff as weekly volunteers to help deliver the programme. Over the first year of delivery, the volunteers will have provided around 400 hours of support and will have had a positive impact on the lives of around 800 local children.

[caption id="attachment_6986" align="alignleft" width="300"] Tina Lawes with the children[/caption]

In its first year, Stickability will have worked in 30 primary schools in a wide area of the South West spanning Bath and Swindon. Volunteers have come from across The Consortium and Smiths News Group.  We have been particularly impressed that incoming Managing Director of The Consortium, Glenn Leech, has led the way by making time to volunteer weekly within days of taking up the role, and he has been able to see the impact on the children for himself."

[caption id="attachment_6982" align="alignright" width="300"] Glenn  Leech with Tia[/caption]

Glenn Leech, Managing Director at The Consortium said,

“I am really proud of the support The Consortium has provided to the Bath Rugby Foundation, and am delighted to have been a part of such a fantastic programme. Stickability offers such benefits to the children and I believe it would be a positive intervention in any school.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Vicky and her team.  They are truly inspirational and so skilled at engaging the children.  I look forward to next year.”

Whilst this was the official launch, Stickability has already proved its worth. One pupil who took part in the pilot programme in a school in Swindon has autism and had always refused to participate in his school PE lessons. His involvement in the programme really helped to build his confidence.  His school reports that after taking part in the programme, he happily took part in his first ever PE session in his four years at school. Most importantly, he absolutely loved it and the following week even asked if he could take part!

In total 30 schools from the south-west will be involved in the programme this year and spaces are still available. To nominate a school to take part, contact vicky.heslop@bathrugby.com.

Anyone from Smiths News in the south-west who wishes to volunteer on the Stickability programme should contact Claire Philips-High.

Stickability Needs You!

We have a couple of vacancies for helpers needed to support the continued success of our Stickability programme, to start in September. If you love reading, sport and live in or near Chippenham, Wiltshire, then Stickability would love to hear from you!

Stickability is a fun literacy programme created by The Consortium and Smiths News in partnership with the Bath Rugby Foundation to help nine and ten year-old children develop lifelong skills and confidence. 

Ivy Lane Primary School in the centre of Chippenham is one of the schools signed up to the scheme and we're now looking for volunteers to help there for 2 hours per week over a six-week period starting on the 10th or 12th of September.

Your role is to get involved in the activities, help motivate the children and hand out the all-important stickers! As well as the children, you'll be supporting the school's teaching staff and coaches from Bath Rugby Foundation.

Need to know more? We have a special Stickability page here on Community Link-Up.

Want to get involved, but don't live in or near Chippenham? No problem! The Stickability scheme is available throughout the south-west and we're keen to update our list of staff interested in volunteering :)

Contact Claire Philips-High if you're interested.

It's in to Top Gear for Wishes 4 Kids

[caption id="attachment_6554" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Maria (main picture and centre lower row) with some of the children, plus some of the other smiling faces :)[/caption]

If you were very ill and were granted one wish to make a dream come true, what would it be? I'm sure many of you would leap at the chance to be just like Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear and drive at top speed in a performance car around a racing circuit. Well, that's exactly the wish granted by Wishes 4 Kids to a number of very ill children on July 19th. Dawson's Maria Hieke reports on her continued use of Volunteer Time with the charity, where she made sure everyone had a day to remember...

Once again Wishes 4 Kids pulled it off with another successful day at Donington.  The families arrived at 10am for a full day of excitement. With 44 high performance cars which included, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Lotus, Morgan, Jaguars, BMWs and many more.   Each child was given a bag of tokens which allowed them access to the cars of their choice which took them around the circuit at great speed. Again the most popular were the police cars which didn’t stop throughout the day.

Each child and their families were provided with lunch, ice cream and doughnuts. There were face painters on site for those who wished to have their faces decorated.

With the help of many volunteers including myself the day’s event went extremely well, and for one day a least the children and their families could forget about their illnesses and spend the whole day having fun.

Inspired by Maria's story? Would you like to give some time to your favourite charity or other worthwhile organisation? Then take a look at our Volunteer Time Page to see what you can do :)

Thanks to Maria for her report and pictures, and to prmedia for some of the photos of the day; their copyright remains as shown. You can see plenty more pictures of the children having a great time and the amazing cars on offer on their website.

Young Readers Try Some Mixed-up Fairy Tales

Here's a fantastic newspaper clipping from Norwich's Evening News about the Mixed-up Fairy Tales day supported by Young Readers Programme volunteers from Bertrams :)

It would be great to give a name-check to those involved - leave a comment below with the names and I'll update the post.

Update: And here they are :)

• Emily Cater


• Bernadette Nyulasz


• Catherine Rix


• Frances Plant (thanks for letting me know, Frances!)


• Tracy Branford


• Kiara Hawker


• Amy Martin

A Grand Day Out With Bertrams

[caption id="attachment_6198" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Everyone's ready to board the fire engine[/caption]

Bertrams in Norwich was the scene of "a grand day out" recently, when they played host to a group of twenty children from the Chernobyl area of Belarus. They were each given children’s books, fruit and vegetables, enjoyed a barbeque and sat in a fire engine!

The group of twelve girls and eight boys, aged between 7 and 10, are staying in the UK for four weeks, and come from schools in the villages of Zditivo, Sporovo and Minsk. The visit was arranged by the Mid Suffolk Link in aid of the Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, a charity that brings groups of children to the UK for respite holidays. All of these children are living in areas of Belarus still affected by the after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster, which happened more than 26 years ago.

[caption id="attachment_6199" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Delighted with their books![/caption]

Graeme Underhill, Bertram Group Managing Director said: “We at Bertrams are really pleased to be involved in helping to make the trip a memorable one for the children, and of course it’s great to see local businesses at Broadlands [the business park where Bertrams is located - Ed] working together to create an amazing experience for such a worthy cause.”

Jason Cherrington, Bertrams Group Sales Director said: “It was an honour and a very humbling experience to meet such lovely children who clearly have had to endure some of the harshest conditions, yet still remain enthused and excited about life.”

Elizabeth Parker is the Mid Suffolk Link chair of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline. She said: “Although all of the children who come are not ill, they all have compromised immune systems as a result of the environment they live in. It is said that their four week visit here, breathing clean air and eating uncontaminated food, boosts their immune systems to such a degree that it can take two years to get back to the levels they arrive with.”

“Despite many people trying to say that the radiation has gone, the fact is that it hasn't and the levels of radiation found in Belarus are way beyond that which would be tolerated in the Western world today. In the children's cancer hospital in Minsk, we are now seeing second generation children being born with cancer who live in so called ‘clean’ areas.”

Grocery Channel Reach Their Goal

[caption id="attachment_6096" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A job well done! From left to right – Lucy Evans-Watt, Anne Ferrie, Graham Mills, Mike Makinson, Jeremy Mirams, Jessica Vaughan, Ian Steventon, Alex Lewis, Peter Shields[/caption]

We're delighted to take a short break from fundraising posts to bring you news of the latest Volunteer Time activity! Can painting and football be combined in some way? No? Then Graham Mills has some news to make you think again...

On 27th June, Graham and eight of his Grocery Channel colleagues assembled at Eynesbury Rovers FC (in St Neots, Cambridgeshire) to help spruce up the club. They painted the barriers, goal posts and the spectator stand ready for the new season. 

After the work was completed, Graham - who is the club's vice chairman - said:

“The club is delighted with the work that’s been completed.  The barriers around the pitch are now clearly visible to its players and spectators.  We are due an inspection by the Football Association and this has greatly enhanced the look of the ground.  It has also been a great team building exercise as we don’t get to work with each other on a day-to-day basis as we are mostly out in the field.”

“Eynesbury Rovers is an amateur football club and it has eight teams, whose ages range from under 15 upwards. The club is run by eight volunteers who formed the committee. This job alone would have taken us months to complete.”

Brian Abraham, the club's Chairman added:

“We are truly grateful for the painting that has been done and we would like to thank Smiths News for their support.  As we are a small committee, it would have taken months to complete, thank you!”

And that's not all! Eynesbury Rovers will be raising funds for MAGPAS, the emergency medical charity when the season starts next month by putting out donation buckets at the start of each game. We're delighted to kick-start their fundraising with a £20 donation for featuring this blog post!

Michelle Finds a Rainbow

[caption id="attachment_5800" align="alignright" width="302"] Image supplied from the Girlguiding website[/caption]

A little while ago we heard from  Bertram's Michelle Ward about her fundraising and awareness raising activities for Heartline and the pulse oximetry test. And there's more! Today, she tells us about her work with her local Rainbow unit as part of our series of Volunteer Case Studies.

Hello

I am volunteering at the 6^th Norwich Rainbow group which opened in February 2013 and is for girls aged 5-7 years old. This group was opened as the other Rainbow unit was full and had a long waiting list. We currently have 10 girls in the unit and 3 adult volunteers.

The reason I got involved is I went through Brownies, Guides, Young Leaders and then a Leader, but decided to give up when I had my son. My friend decided to open up the Rainbow unit and I offered to help her run it.

While I am at the unit we run activities for the girls like cooking, crafts, games and a lot more. It is nice to see the girls come to meetings and enjoy taking part in all the activities.

Thanks Michelle - it's amazing you can find the time for this in addition to everything else you're doing. It's most inspirational :)