Update October 2023
Charity Number 1151083
Last month was an exciting time for lots of our clients with various outings. Some went to have a look around Air Command. Others enjoyed a trip to Littlehampton and had a wonderful time exploring the arcades, walking along the beach and enjoying the icecreams and fish and chips which are all part of seaside activities. Others enjoyed local visits to Wades Park. Participating in outdoor bowls has been a wonderful experience for our clients and will hopefully recommence once new arrangements have been organised. We would like to thank the Broadway Bowls Club at Ashley Green for hosting our clients and providing voluntary lessons. Others enjoyed a cup of tea at Chiltern View Nurseries.
Some of our clients entered ‘Art in the Park’ and one was selected to have their art displayed there. At the Centre, it was a hive of activity too. Our ‘downstairs’ clients completed the ‘One Million Metres Challenge’, a great achievement being the equivalent of walking from London to Geneva. Our chairman congratulated them and presented them with their medals.
There has been a big variety of craftwork with clients producing stained glass effect autumn leaves, hedgehogs, painting, and making baskets, flower bouquets and snakes. There have been numerous cooking sessions with clients making flapjacks, cornflake cakes, apple tarts, fairy cakes and practising making Halloween cookies, getting eaten with their afternoon cup of tea or taken home to eat later.
Meanwhile, the trustees continue with the gradual improvement of the centres. This is being concentrated at our Bourne End centre at the minute where an unused room has been converted and decorated for use as a new room for the clients for arts and crafts, quiet discussion and health and beauty sessions. Scaffolding is due to be erected there for the installation of solar panels. In Risborough, we are currently getting quotes for the upgrading of the footpath and patio area to the rear and side of the Lower Hall which we hope to accomplish next spring, so it is safe for our clients and enables them to sit outside next summer with privacy provided by the new fence.
We have received a wonderful donation from the Eyre Family Foundation, and a lovely donation from St Mary’s following Risborough Festival Week and the Jinglers Concert. We have also received donations from Parkfest 2023 [earmarked for our Bourne End venue], Black Dog Band, Banjovi Revival, the Poyser Fund and two memorial service collections in memory of Ann Stratton and Betty Day. Also, we are very appreciative of our regular donors.
If you or your loved one would like a free taster of what we have to offer or would like to consider volunteering at the Princes Centre, please contact our manager Kim on 01844 345105 or Mags at Bourne End 01628 527024.
Maggie Wooster Keyte