Newsletter September 2014

Well we have had another busy period since the last Newsletter in June 2014. During July Gill Whitehead from Scott Richards Solicitors successfully completed a gruelling 110km cycle ride in quite hilly conditions.  Gill managed to raise a whopping £850.00 for AIMS.  A huge thank you to Gill for all her hard work and for choosing to support AIMS. We have also been lucky to receive donations of £900.00 from local Masons and £200.00 from a local group called “The Songbirds” who travel to Retirement Homes and sing to the residents.  What they received in donations they very kindly passed onto AIMS. We have had a great summer with swimming days proving to be immensely popular.  We are lucky to have Ben Ashfield with us who is completing his Duke of Edinburgh Award.  Ben has been great particularly at playing football with the older children and also helping the younger children with the cooking activities.  We hope Ben will stay with us once he has completed his Award. We had a lovely picnic in Teignmouth at the end of July and a trip to the newly opened Pier.  It was a lovely day and the children really enjoyed themselves playing football on the Den after lunch. We are still working on the website, and you can find more information on our website’s Active Travel Directory at https://active-travel.uk/blog/what-is-the-active-travel-directory. We hope to update this as soon as possible. The annual BBQ at The Swan Inn in Dawlish took place at the beginning of September.  A massive thank you to Mark (the Landlord) and Kerry for making this such a fabulous day.  Many of the regulars gave their time manning the BBQ. A big thank you to Dave, Steve, Vinny, Fairy and Rick.  We had over 70 raffle prizes kindly donated.  Emma and Scott at The Swan made the auction great fun.  We had live music from our very own Robin Brown and friends.  Joy and Di sold some delicious cakes and other treats.  We raised approximately £2,300.00.  All the money raised was donated to AIMS.  Many of the AIMS families attended and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We are extremely grateful to everyone that has and continues to support us. All the money raised goes towards the children and their families and enables us to plan trips out for the children. We are planning a day out at Paignton Zoo during October half-term. On 6^th September 2014 we paid honour to Sandra Littlejohn.  We placed a specially made plaque alongside the tree we planted in Sandra’s memory in the sensory garden at Oaklands Park School.  A huge thank you to local artist Michelle Greenwood-Brown who kindly made the beautiful plaque for us.  Some of Sandra’s relatives joined us for the occasion. We’ve got some fantastic activities lined up for the rest of this year and always welcome new families so please feel free to come along and visit us at Oaklands Park School on a Saturday morning.