Milestone millions

Round & About

Posted on

charity

In May we told you about the Community Foundation for Surrey and the work they do to support causes through its family of donors, they are now delighted to have reached a magnificent milestone

Emerge Advocacy_WEB
Artventure Trust_WEB

The Community Foundation for Surrey has now awarded more than £10million in grants to support local charities and community groups.

The philanthropic organisation works with local donors wanting to give back to their community by connecting them with projects in Surrey working to improve health and wellbeing, the disadvantaged, the environment, education, sports and the arts.

In 2018 and 2019, more than £1.4million was awarded across 436 grants – the greatest amount in a single year since the charity began.

Among those to have benefitted are Emerge Advocacy and Artventure Trust.

Emerge Advocacy was launched to provide mental health support to young people admitted to A&E at Guildford’s Royal Surrey County Hospital in response to their needs and vulnerabilities. Supportive adults operate as mentors for patients during their time in A&E and after to reduce anxiety and help young people engage with services which may be able to help.
Founder of Emerge Advocacy, Joy Wright said: “There has been significant demand for Emerge projects across a number of Surrey hospitals. This grant from the CFS has made it possible for us to launch a further project at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, that is now busy supporting young people with a variety of mental health issues.”

The Artventure Trust works with adults with learning difficulties enabling them to be creative, have fun and make new friends in a supportive environment. Sessions improve self-expression, develop skills and enhance self-esteem through the use of a variety of materials and techniques allowing clients to produce unusual and exciting art.

Trustee of Artventure Trust, Paul Charlesworth said: “At a time when local authorities are cutting back on funding for learning disabled adults, we have been very lucky to have secured financial support through the CFS. This has allowed us to carry on with our work in support of one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in our society – for which we are most grateful.”

Announcing the fantastic achievement of the £10million milestone, CFS Chief Executive Laura Thurlow thanked all those who have helped reach this. She said: “Our aim is to encourage and inspire more local people to join our growing family of donors. If you are wanting to support your local community, we would love to hear from you.”

The Foundation is due to launch a report next year highlighting the needs that still exist in Surrey.

• More than £25million has been generated to support Surrey communities since 2005

• Each year the foundation supports more than 200 voluntary groups across the county

• UK Community Foundations have collectively awarded over £1 billion in grants

Surrey Community Foundation

For more information, visit

Website

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Macmillan coffee morning

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Join thousands holding coffee mornings to raise funds for Macmillan on Friday, 27th September

Last year almost £27million was raised through people drinking coffee and eating cake as part of Macmillan’s Biggest Coffee Morning and this year with your help they want to top that.

The first get together was held in 1990 with the very simple idea that people would gather over a cuppa and donate the cost of their coffee to Macmillan. Such was its success it was decided to do it again the following year but to take it national – since then the coffee mornings have gone on to raise more than £200million.

Whatever you raise it all helps make a difference – just £28 could pay for a Macmillan nurse for an hour, helping those living with cancer and their families receive practical and emotional support; £112 could pay for a Macmillan social care worker for a day and £210 could fund a Macmillan nurse for a day. However much you raise, you’ll be making a difference.

And if you need some ideas for what to treat your family, friends or work colleagues to while drinking their coffee, they can help with that too. How about a piece of cherry and almond tray bake, coffee and walnut cake or try a savoury option of gruyere, bacon and leek scones?

Whatever takes your fancy, get cooking (you can even cheat and buy ready made if you like) but join in and help people have access to cancer support in their communities.

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Full of pride

Round & About

Posted on

charity

There’s extra reason to take pride in the Royal Borough as The Lions of Windsor & Maidenhead 2019 sculptures go on display for the next three months.

The public art event will feature a giant pride of super-sized lions displayed from 10th August to 27th October to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and raise funds for local charities.

The colourful individual lions are sponsored by a range of businesses and organisations and have been decorated by leading artists, designers and illustrators. There’s also a mini pride of lion cubs which have been decorated by schools across the area.

The display also has a serious message with the aim of highlighting the plight of lions, which have become endangered with only 15,000 left in the wild.

The pride will go on show on the streets of Windsor, Eton, Ascot, Datchet, Maidenhead and beyond for the duration before being auctioned off for charity.

You’ll be able to ‘go on safari’ and follow the lion trail with maps available from the start of August and take a tour of the borough visiting the noble beasts on the streets.

The lions were created by sculptor Alan Dun who had previously created the Lions of Bath in 2010 and last year’s Owls of Bath.

Having shaped and moulded the original lion, a fibreglass mould was made to create the prototype from which the pride was born.
He also sculpted the lion cub to be decorated by schools, charities and community groups to then display on the trail.

Once the lions are taken off display they will be restored by the artists and then gathered together for one last roar goodbye on 9th and 10th November before the charity auction on 21st November.

All proceeds from the auction will go to local charities – Thames Hospice which provides care for people with life-limiting illnesses in East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire; Windsor Lions Club which helps a wide range of people and organisations in the community; Look Good Feel Better equips people to face cancer with confidence and wildlife charity Tusk.

Lions represent nobility, royalty, strength and stateliness so are the perfect choice for the Royal Borough and to raise awareness of their decline – over the past 50 years, the number of wild lions in Africa have fallen from 200,000 to less than 15,000. Tusk, which is working to highlight the decrease in numbers, has declared 2019 to be the Year of the Lion.

Find out more

Visit the Lions of Windsor site

Click here

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Kilimanjaro climb

Karen Neville

Posted on

charity

Pair to take on Kilimanjaro climb for Helen & Douglas House

Sabine Schwaebisch has a very special reason for wanting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.

As a nurse at Helen House in Oxford she often meets children and families facing unimaginable challenges and it is this which has inspired her to take on the climb.

Sabine is doing the climb as part of a group of 12 trekkers in aid of the children’s hospice in October. They will take the seven-day Machame Route, starting through the rainforest and later up a rock wall before then trekking up through arctic conditions at night to reach the peak at 8,595m – the world’s highest solitary peak.

The team will battle through altitude sickness and exhaustion but all the time spurred on by why they are doing this.

Sabine, who lives in Abingdon, and friend Adeline Daly are pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and know they’ll face their fear of heights, the extreme cold and altitude sickness but all the time will be driven on by raising funds.

As part of their fundraising for the trek, the pair are holding a black tie event at Jurys Inn, Oxford, on Saturday, 13th July. The evening will include a welcome drink, a three-course meal with wine, big band live music and a raffle in aid of Helen & Douglas House.

Sabine says: “Knowing first hand that the hospice is a lifeline for many local families, we want to raise funds to help secure the hospice’s future. It is such a magical place, full of love, life and laughter, which almost entirely relies on the public for financial survival.”

Find out more

CLICK HERE to book tickets for the charity ball costing £50

Or to donate to the Kilimanjaro climb click below

Fundraising page

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Harrison’s Fund

Karen Neville

Posted on

charity

Join Box Hill brunch walk and raise money for Harrison’s Fund

Two mums from Surrey are organising a walk to raise money for a charity that funds research into a life-limiting condition for children.

Klara Cecmanova, 41, and Vicky Lush, 49, from Epsom have organised The Box Hill Walk as part of local charity, Harrison’s Fund’s Harrison’s Brunch campaign. The walk starts at 9.45am on Sunday, 30th June at Box Hill Viewpoint and sees walkers walk down the hill and back up the steps to the top, followed by a bring your own picnic.

Klara has been a big supporter of the charity since two of her boys Theo (7) and Oskar (5) were diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in 2014.

She said: “Due to their condition, both Theo and Oskar would struggle to walk up Box Hill, their muscles just aren’t strong enough.
“We would love to see as many people as possible at the top of Box Hill ready to help our little warriors down the steep slope, over the stepping stones, and back up the stairs to the top – a tough walk for those that are fully fit but almost impossible for our boys.

“We’ll be able to see the area we live in from the viewpoint so they’ll get a real kick out of this and once back at the top we’ll be relaxing with rugs and a picnic so bring your own and get to know us and your local community.”

We would love to see as many people as possible at the top of Box Hill

Harrison’s Fund was set up in 2012 and funds research into Duchenne – a rare genetic condition which affects all the muscles in the body, causing them to waste away.  Harrison’s Fund’s goal is to get as much money as possible into the hands of the world’s best researchers, who are working to find a cure for Duchenne. The charity is currently funding 16 research projects in the US and the UK.

Klara and Vicky have been raising money for the charity since 2015 when she was part of a local team of women to put on a big community event. Since then it has become an annual event organised by parents with children of the same age who have seen the boys grow from active little boys to becoming increasingly wheelchair bound. The walk is part of the charity’s Harrison’s Brunch campaign which encourages everyone to host a brunch during the month of June to raise money.

Luci Roberts, campaigns executive at Harrison’s Fund said: “Theo and Oskar, like all boys with Duchenne, are an inspiration to us all. Even though their little bodies are slowly failing them, inside, they are just still, little boys who love an adventure, so we hope the local community will join them on their own adventure this June.”

All the proceeds from Harrison’s Brunch will go directly to fund the purchase of a “high throughput analyser” which enables scientists to compare different gene medicines when working in a lab. By using computer automation, the analyser can screen different models and evaluate them in a fraction of the time it would take a team of scientists.

Support the walk or join them

Click here

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Help save lives

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance needs you!  

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is the charity that brings emergency critical care to people who need it most, in their hour of need. 

It costs £15,000 a day to keep the Air Ambulance flying and saving lives and last year the charity’s Critical Care Teams were called to 1,429 incidents across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.    

Highly skilled crews of doctors, paramedics and pilots can be at road traffic collisions, sporting accidents, collapses and a variety of other incidents within minutes, ready to deliver the same level of care you would receive at a hospital emergency department. 

Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is entirely funded by the generosity of our local community and we rely upon our team of volunteers to support our fundraising efforts.   

This is where your help is needed.  They are urgently looking for new events volunteers, speakers, van drivers, maintenance support volunteers and collection pot agents. Volunteers are also needed to join the new event support team, which supports HIOWAA on an ad-hoc basis at the mass participation events.   

Volunteering for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Air Ambulance is fun and rewarding and you can volunteer as often or as little as you wish.  Volunteering can fit around your own life and commitments.  

If you have some spare time and would like to donate it to this life-saving cause, please contact the volunteering team on:

  [email protected] or 02380 743516 or visit the website for more details: www.hiowaa.org.

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Join March for Men

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Take part in prostate cancer’s walks and help raise funds for life-saving research

Sunday, 16th June is Father’s Day so how about doing something really special to help not just your dad, but all men.

Throughout June, Prostate Cancer UK is inviting families and friends to get together and walk and help fund life-saving research to stop prostate cancer, a disease which kills one man every 45 minutes.

Since 2017, more than 10,000 people have joined a March for Men and helped raise  in excess of £3.3million to improve testing, treatments and care for men. There are 10 national walks including those taking place in London and Bristol for you to get involved in or why not organise one yourself where you live?

It doesn’t need to be any great distance, you can choose to walk around your local park or open space or get the community involved – decide on the length and pick a place that’s important to you. If there’s one incentive to get many men marching it’s the prospect of a pint at the end of the walk so how about a pub-to-pub march? Plan a route between two pubs and finish with a well-deserved pint.

Many will know of Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling’s efforts to raise funds for prostate cancer, he has walked 25 marathons which have raised nearly £800,000 and from September 5th to 8th he’s taking on four marathons in four days walking from club to club  in Glasgow, Belfast, Cardiff and London. You can join Jeff or set up one of your own club-to-club walks, it doesn’t need to just be football league clubs and it doesn’t need to be 26 miles either.

For loads of fundraising ideas or to join Jeff go to Prostate Cancer UK

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Cupcake Day

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Bake it or fake it for Alzheimer’s Society Cupcake Day  

Who doesn’t love a cupcake and even better if you can tuck in while helping a brilliant cause.

Bring everyone together on Thursday to help fight dementia for the Alzheimer’s Society Cupcake Day. Whether you’re a baker or not, faking it’s OK with some shop bought ones, every cupcake helps fund pioneering research, support services and care.

If you want to make and decorate your own you’ve got two days to get in the kitchen and get creating but don’t worry if you can’t get it done for then – just choose a day that suits you instead.

In the average time taken to bake a batch of cakes, six people in the UK will develop dementia, since 2016, Cupcake Day has raised £2.7million so get baking and help raise funds as your cupcakes rise.

Take them to work, school or just invite a few friends and family round, tuck in and get helping.

If you need some tips for your Cupcake Day and some great recipe ideas right here

Click here for more about Alzheimer’s Society and the work they do

Read more about what is being done in the battle against dementia in our feature on motor racing legend Sir Jackie Stewart whose wife Helen has been diagnosed with the disease. He has launched a fundraising drive, Race Against Dementia, to boost funds for research.  You can also find out about Singing for the Brain and the benefits of music when it comes to unlocking memories.

For more on both
Happy baking!

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

ARCh: Help a child learn to

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Imagine not being able to read properly? There are many primary school children all over the county who struggle to do just this but with your help they could develop a love of what you’re doing now.

Imagine not being able to read properly? There are many primary school children all over the county who struggle to do just this but with your help they could develop a love of what you’re doing now.

ARCh (Assisted Reading for Children) is an award-winning local charity which recruits, trains and supports volunteers to work one-to-one with pupils, inspiring them to develop a love of reading.

Having grown rapidly since its launch in 2008, ARCh has helped around 6,000 Oxfordshire children to love reading, enhancing their lives at school and beyond.

At present there are around 250 ARCh volunteers working in 100 primary schools throughout Oxfordshire but more are needed and the charity hopes to place new volunteers on the next two-day training course at the start of next term.

After successful application, checking and training process, each volunteer is assigned three primary school children to work one-to-one with, for 30 minutes at a time, twice a week, during the school day. Volunteers are asked to commit to work with these children for the entire year, to build a nurturing, mentoring relationship.

The charity provides books and games, personalised to suit each child.
Sessions involve a mixture of chat, sharing books and playing games. They are fun and encouraging and so build up the children’s confidence and self esteem.

ARCh development manager Jane Rendle said: “There are lots of children in primary schools throughout the county who would benefit from ARCh support.  No formal qualifications are required to volunteer, just enthusiasm for reading, enjoyment of children’s company and good communication skills.

“Our volunteers gain a lot from their experience. Many say the time they spend with their ARCh children is the highlight of their week; they come away from school with a big smile on their face!”

The charity won the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service on 2016 and is the current OCVA Charity of the Year.

Anyone interested should visit the ARCh website to download an application form or call their office on 01869 320380 for an informal chat. 

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter:

Rudridge walk

Round & About

Posted on

charity

Get on the FAST Road to Rudridge and help raise funds for the Stroke Association

We hope we can raise as much money and awareness of the condition as possible and do our bit to support those who have been affected by a stroke.”

Staff from a Farnham company are planning to walk 50km in memory of a former colleague and raise some funds for a very worthy cause at the same time.

Tony Marshall, who worked for materials and groundworks supplier Rudridge, suffered a fatal stroke in 2016 and now the company is hoping to raise awareness of stroke symptoms and support survivors by raising funds for The Stroke Association.

The walk has been called The FAST Road to Rudridge, recognising the acronym that helps identify stroke symptoms encouraging people to act on them – Face, Arms, Speech, Time.

The route they will take on Saturday, 22nd June goes from Southwater in West Sussex to the company’s Farnham depot and includes five walking challenges ranging from 13k to 50k taking in the scenery of the Downs Link Path and the North Downs Way.

Among those taking part will be several of the company’s customers and suppliers who will all be treated to a celebration afterwards at Badshot Lea FC’s new ground in Wrecclesham.

Sales director at Rudridge, Paul Duke said: “Tony was a much loved colleague and he is sorely missed by so many of us here at Rudridge.

To undertake this challenge in his memory will be an honour.

To find out more or make a donation visit Just Giving

Photo (from left):  Tony Marshall with friends and Rudridge colleagues Mark Stacey and Richard May.

Get the latest news straight to your inbox

Choose which newsletter: