Around 60 family members and friends of the people we support at Malvern got together recently in Keith and Sue Davis’s lovely garden to help raise funds for the horticulture / sensory garden project at the service. Everyone enjoyed a delicious barbecue lunch with a glass of Pimms before enthusiastically launching themselves into a croquet competition. This was a new sport for many people who picked up the rules as they went along! It was fun for everyone and provided great entertainment for all ages. The afternoon was then rounded off with ‘vicarage tea’, complete with cucumber sandwiches!

The event raised £715; a fantastic result! Our thanks go to all those who helped to organise it; especially Keith, Sue and Caroline Shearing.

Members of the Performing Arts Group from On Track Day Services in Petersfield, Hampshire, are pleased to be staging their next production, All That Jazz, at The Studio, The Petersfield School on Friday 17 September at 7.30pm.

The cast has been busy rehearsing for many weeks already and the show promises to be full of fun and energy, featuring music and dance from a variety of West End musicals.

The Group is hoping for another full house and tickets, priced at £4.00 (adults) and £2.00 (children) are now on sale from The Box Office at The Studio – 01730 234641 and also from On Track – 01730 711090.

The audience is assured a warm welcome and a very entertaining evening!

Elizabeth FitzRoy Support is delighted to be exhibiting once again at this year’s Learning Disability Today Exhibition in London on Wednesday 8th December at the Business Design Centre in Islington.

This is the sector’s premier exhibition and to celebrate its 10th birthday, it’s planned to be the biggest yet! We are delighted to have secured a double stand in a prime position which will give us the opportunity to effectively promote Elizabeth FitzRoy Support and the services we offer. Visitors to the exhibition will include professionals, carers, service users and their families, as well as potential staff and volunteers.

More details will be available from us nearer the time, but if you would like to find out more now, please follow the link to the Exhibition’s own website and make a note of the date in your diary!

www.learningdisabilitytoday.co.uk

A ‘turf cutting’ ceremony took place last week at Donec, our care home for 14 people in Grayshott, Surrey, to mark the imminent start of the construction of 3 new, 5 bedroom homes to replace the existing building.

Donec was the foundation of the Charity, bought as a children’s home by Elizabeth FitzRoy, back in 1962. John Williams, the organisation’s original Chairman, shared the honour of cutting the turf with Philippa, who as a child of 6, was living at Donec when Elizabeth FitzRoy took it over. There was much reminiscing amongst the residents, staff and guests which included our Patron, Virginia McKenna; Cissie the former Matron of Donec, now in her early 90’s, and representatives from Leadbitter, the building contractors, as well as many family members, friends and neighbours.

The new purpose built homes will be fully adapted for wheelchair use and a lift will be installed giving access to the first floors. Smaller houses with normal domestic facilities and appliances will offer the residents far greater opportunities to take an active part in the running of their own homes and so enable them to learn a wide range of daily living skills.

There will be much excitement over the next few months as they watch their new homes begin to take shape and everyone is looking forward to moving in sometime during spring 2011.

The Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, Mr Michael Brinton, kindly attended a ceremony at our Malvern Services on 17 May to thank the local Rotary Club for their work in the garden. As well as donating many hours of hard labour to dig a new patio and lay the paving slabs and new grass, they also paid for all the materials. They presented the home with a plaque to commemorate their donation, and were then thanked by Michael Brinton and Andrew Grant, one of our Trustees.

The residents of the Oaks bungalow can now all sit safely outside on a level patio, and make the most of the summer sunshine. It overlooks the new horticultural project which is being developed to offer opportunities to both those supported by Elizabeth FitzRoy Support, and to other local community groups.

The Kew Society in Richmond made a £1,000 donation to Silver Birches, a local residential care home.

The Society’s Chairman, Michael Glazebrook, met a number of the residents and staff when he visited the home to present a cheque.

The donation will be used to part-fund the installation of a fully automated entry system to the flats, giving the residents more independence and privacy.

The new garden at the Petersfield Resource Centre is being used now that the sun is out.

Members enjoyed spending time outdoors, with new garden furniture, raised beds and planters provided through donations from the Lions Clubs of Woolmer Forest and Petersfield.

The fences have been painted with the help of the horticultural group and employees from a local company, Purple Foodservice Solutions.

The outside area is now totally different to the concrete square that was inherited when Elizabeth FitzRoy Support took over this service in 2009.

This new project is now up and running at the Sustainability Centre (near Clanfield), and took part in the Hampshire Green Fair on Sunday 9 May.

Why not go and have a look at the project which will support adults with learning disabilities to learn new horticultural skills. Find out what they will be doing, such as woodcrafts, flower-growing and estate management.