Number of Teddy Bears Donated To CAFT So Far:

 506 

+ 5 Selection Boxes

The Cheshire Centre have currently raised £5,004.25 so far

Latest Donations

£35 from the sale of DVD's from the panto at the Siddington New Year rally

£80 from the group who played at the Easter at Coronation Hall rally

£36, £18 from Ian and Freda Hallsworth and £18 From David and Joyce Lenton from the Easter In Holland rally

£100 from the Harlech ralliers

£105 from the Penisa 'R Mydd Easter ralliers.  This was made possible by the generosity of Kath Fairclough who contributed all of the raffle prizes.

£30 from the Charity Book Store

£90 from the St Patricks ralliers

£16 from the Fishpool Farm ralliers

£50 from the Charity Book Store

£123 from the Siddington New Year & New Year Follow On ralliers

£61 from the Family Christmas Party ralliers

£20 from Mr and Mrs Lear

£56.75 from the ralliers at Tytherington 

£22.90 from the Dinner Dance Rally

£16 from a coffee morning organised at the Centre's Dinner Dance

£223 from a raffle organised at the Centre's Dinner Dance

£15.86 from the Treasure Hunt rally and an unused rally fee

£70 from the Golf Society

£105 from the Umpah, Umpah, ralliers

£225 from the Newquay Holiday rally

A Little Bit About CAFT (Children’s Adventure Farm Trust)

Imelda Lowe is the Cheshire Centre / CAFT liaison person; Imelda can answer any questions you may have.  Contact Imelda on: imeldacaftliason

A Little Bit About Inscape

Inscape House is a 5-19 years day special school for children with autism based in Cheadle, Cheshire. It also has a sister school based in Walkden, Salford. Between them they accept pupils from across 13 local authorities whose needs couldn’t be met within their local schools.

The school is part of the Together Trust, a charitable trust providing a range of services for children and young people across the North West.

A frequent comment from visitors to the school is ‘how different they all are’ and indeed they are a very unique set of individuals. Autism can impact very differently upon people’s lives but there are similar difficulties they have in common. They can be simplified into three areas of :- Communication, Social Skills and a Rigidity of Thinking.

Communication difficulties may vary from those who have not developed spoken language yet and who are taught to use photos and symbols to express their needs; to young people who can be exceptionally talkative but who may still struggle to understand a conversation (ie they may be good at telling you something but not able to understand all of your reply). One example of that would be – if I said to you ‘its raining cats and dogs out there’ would you look out the window to see where all the animals were coming from? Some of these children would!

Social Skills are not easily learnt. Can you tell me the rule about ‘how close you stand to someone you are talking to’? Is it 1ft (30 cms), 2ft, 3ft or 4ft? Actually it depends………upon who it is, how friendly you are towards them, are they family, friend or a stranger, are you in an open space or in a lift etc, etc. Complicated isn’t it? And if you get it wrong you could be thought of as aggressive, ‘in your face’, or disinterested.

Rigidity of Thinking is easiest to understand as an inability to read the ‘patterns of life’. In your job you recall previous tasks you have worked on and therefore can predict much of what you will do today and next week. If you could not predict the pattern of your work – every task you do would be new and a challenge, instead of being able to rely upon your experience. Could make life a bit wearing and stressful.

So if you have autism you need the help of people who understand these difficulties and can help you develop particular strategies for learning. At Inscape we have some unique approaches that enable children to learn and focus upon addressing some of these core difficulties. One of these ‘hands on’ approaches combines physical activities with a community approach – learning in the real world.

This is why we have asked the Club for help to buy a set of 6 bikes (with helmets and visibility jackets) and a trailer to transport them. After we have done the initial safety training with the bikes on site our children will not be ready yet for public roads as they may not have the road awareness to keep them safe. We will be taking them to off-road venues (parks and country tracks etc) to build on the basic skills before they will be ready for roads. We are also trying to develop leisure skills that will contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

CAFT – AGM Presentation, Sunday 20^th September 2009

 I’m here today representing Alistair Laing the Charity Relationship Manager for CAFT as he was already committed to a key event planned today for over 300 people at Booth Bank Farm based at Millington near Lymn. 

Children’s Adventure Farm Trust is a Charity formed in 1985 by Tim Grundy then aged 24.

For those of you who remember Piccadilly Radio you may well be familiar with the name Tim Grundy. Son of the broadcaster Bill Grundy Tim started there as a tea boy aged 17; 16 years later he was programme controller and drive time presenter, also helping to establish the start of another eminent radio presenter’s career there, the one and only Chris Evans.

Off air Tim used to volunteer at a number of Children’s homes, following many conversations with one home manager he decided he wanted to set up a centre for children to enable them to get away from their day to day existence.

Having formed the Charity in 1985 along with a small band of likeminded volunteers Tim started to realise his dream when sufficient funds had been raised to purchase Booth Bank farm in 1989. After a massive restoration and conversion programme the farm opened in 1992 and 50 children were lucky enough to have a holiday there that year. That essentially is the essence of CAFT.

CAFT offers free adventure breaks and activities to children from across the North West who are terminally ill, chronically sick, disabled or disadvantaged either through poverty, the victims of/witness to abuse and to those who fulfil the role of carers to their parents.

I know from my time at CAFT these breaks allow the children to experience fun, laughter, excitement and most importantly safety. Lots of the things we and our children are lucky enough to experience all the time.

For many it will be their first and for some sadly their last holiday.

This year over 3,000 children will visit CAFT:

27 holidays will run between April and October (Monday to Friday)

21 Christmas parties are planned from mid November up until Christmas  

12 respite weekends are also planned this year   

In the “downtime” the team at CAFT regroup, complete repairs and any updates that are required.

On site the facilities include an art room, a music room, an amazing multisensory suite, a sports hall, 10 acres of land - a nature trail, an adventure playground, an assault course and a pond area – much of the decking I have lovingly varnished and I can vouch for the rip slide and the sit on mower both being great fun!

CAFT requires £750K annually to operate and all of these costs have to be raised, there is no government funding to support the 21 staff or the services they provide and currently the float allows them to look 6 weeks ahead. This is the tightest position they have been in financially in over 3 years.

Typically the £750K breaks down as follows:

            £250k from Trust applications (e.g. Childline and local 3 month lead times)

            £200K from events – Summer & Grand Christmas Ball – at Mere 05/12/09

            £150K from Corporate support

            £100K from the Community eg People like us supporting them

            £50K balance individual donations benefactors

Additional support from local companies to print their literature and newsletters

Cost of providing a week’s break is £590 per child so our goal, our target is to see how many children we can provide with a holiday at CAFT this time next year.

In addition IN ADDITION to our fundraising we can also help in other ways:

Providing basic non perishables: Pasta, bottled water, tins – beans, tomatoes

Selection boxes for the Christmas parties 21 of them!

Christmas presents (£10 limit)

Teddy bears – Really a vital part of the holiday

Mantime – restoring, painting, gardening, supporting key events.

The committee have asked me be the Centre liaison with Alistair and the team to help with enquiries and communication. We’ve already diarised the dates of our bonfire rally and celebration rallies so please feel free to get in touch with me on any questions or suggestions or donations of pasta, water, selection boxes, offers of man time etc over the next 12 months. Mr Lowe and I promise not to eat the selection boxes!

Sadly Tim Grundy died in February this year, aged 50, but as they say from acorns Oaks grow. He has left a real legacy in CAFT and I can assure you it is in very safe hands; Sir Bobby Charlton is President, Freddie Flintoff amongst the Patrons but it is the team people like Alistair who is taking part in the London to Paris bike ride starting on Tuesday along with 34 others all having pledged to raise a minimum of £1,300 in aid of the Farm - £45,500 all the staff and volunteers who make it such a great place.

Thanks to the committee of 2008/2009 for supporting my nomination for this charity and thanks to you for the effort and support I know you will give over the next 12 months. I can assure you the children we help will have an experience of a lifetime, one they will treasure.

Imelda

Whitegate Way, where the children will, hopefully, soon cycle safely