We organised two days out to Bournemouth this year. The first was on July 25th which was a great success with families enjoying a nice day on the beach. The second was on August 8th. This was a cool, windy and rainy day. While some did still venture into the sea for a paddle, we decided to organise for them to go to the Oceanarium so they could be indoors and see something of the sea-life of the world. This was a great success and much appreciated. This second outing included half a coach of refugees who are living in a hotel. There they get their food and accommodation paid for and an allowance of just £9 a week for everything else they need (clothing, transport, toiletries, toys, etc - anything that a family needs). There was no way for them to get a packed lunch or drinks so we decided to give them £10 each so that they could buy refreshments for the day. Vivienne and Sallie organised the trips and enjoyed the bracing sea air! On August 3rd, 52 children and their parents had a fantastic day out at Camp Mohawk. The families were all referred by Alafia, Christ The King school and a new partner organisation, Fifi’s Vision Camp Mohawk caters for children with various disabilities, in particular those on the Autistic spectrum. We also organised for a petting zoo to be there to allow the children to cuddle and feed animals they may not have come across previously
On August 12th Reading Golf Club, held their Charity Day. They chose Reading Family Aid as their charity of the year and all their fundraising events will come to us at the end of their year, next Spring. Their Charity Day is their main fundraising day of the year. Members pay to play in a competition, holes are sponsored by local businesses and individuals. All in all they raised an astonishing £6,900 for us!! Huge thanks go to Cathy Jones, Club Captain, Hilary Rusby, Ladies, Captain, and all the members and businesses that supported us. We are sorry to say that May Smith passed away on June 25th 2023. May was a long term Reading Family Aid committee member having been involved with the charity since the 1970s. For many, many years she was one of the main organisers of the Toy Project at Christmas and got involved that everything that the charity did. She passionately believed in the work of the charity. In recent years her declining health prohibited her attending meetings but she remained on the committee and avidly read our meeting minutes and looked forward to updates from those that visited her. She will be missed. Reading Family Aid this week heard that they were to receive a Magic Little Grant of £500. The funding for this grant has been provided by Localgiving in partnership with the Postcode Society Trust, a grant giving organisation funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery. This money will go towards the cost of running our outing to Camp Mohawk in August. We are very grateful to Local Giving and the People's Postcode Lottery players. Camp Mohawk is a fantastic centre for families with disabled children, mainly those on the autistic spectrum. There is an outdoor heated pool and many indoor and outdoor play and sensory areas. The staff are fantastic and the setting is lovely in the woods above Wargrave. We will also provide a patting zoo and an ice cream van! At about 4.30AM on Wednesday June 21st a member of Reading Golf Club set out on a marathon mission to complete 100 holes in a day - that's that's about 5.5 rounds, walking about 20 miles and hotting the ball over 500 times. He succeeded in his mission at around 9PM that evening after having only two short breaks during the day. This astonishing feat was undertaken by the amazing Jason Macbeth. He was accompanied in this marathon by the equally amazing Lady Captain, Hilary Rusby, who completed an astonishing 65 holes, as well as Club Captain Cathy Jones and several other members that kept Jason and Hilary company for significant parts of their rounds. Obviously they weren't doing all this for fun! The members had sponsored the marathon and raised an astonishing £2,000 for Reading Family Aid in so doing. Huge thanks to everyone at Reading Golf Club and in particular to Jason and Hilary and Cathy and all the others that traipsed around with them. We hope your blisters have healed! Jason and Hilary (centre) enjoying a well earned sit down and celebratory drink at the end of their exhausting day. On Sunday June 4th Reading Golf Club's Lady Captain, Hilary Rusby, held her Ladies Day with golf followed by afternoon tea. One of our committee members, Jo Saunders, was invited for tea and to say a few words about Reading Family Aid. She said the ladies were very interested in our work and asked lots of questions. Hilary organised a raffle for afternoon tea at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, kindly donated by the hotel for which we are very grateful. All in all they raised over £500 for us. Huge thanks to all the ladies at Reading Golf Club.
On Friday June 2nd, Reading Family Aid celebrated 30 years being a registered charity. We celebrated by providing gifts to around 45 children whose birthdays were on or around June 2nd. We invited them, with their families, to a small celebration in Forbury Gardens. It was a glorious afternoon and much cake was eaten! On a gloriously sunny Tuesday April 4th we organised an outing to Odds Farm for around 20 families. The families are all supported by Alana House, The Weller Centre and Homestart Reading. One mum said "It was a fantastic day for all what you did for my children and family loved the day out hope many more comes up and we can go again and the weather was brilliant and the children didn’t wanted to come home xx" Thanks to all our supporters who have donated in recent times. You have enabled us to put all these smiles on so many faces.
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