On the afternoon of Saturday 16th June at the Keynsham Rugby Club we had our 40th birthday party.  Over 300 people attended and enjoyed the live music from Daz Rocks 4 charity and Weston-Super-Mare band ‘Better than Expected’. Our very own Music Man Project gave an exclusive live performance, DJ Barry played dance floor favourites to get everyone up dancing.  A fun afternoon with Chuffy the Train rides, bouncy castle and face painting all made for a great afternoon in the sun celebrating our 40th birthday.

Jason Preston was in the firing line in the stocks a great opportunity to see how his beard is growing and to get a soaking.

The rugby club were great host and run the bar and BBQ to keep everyone fed and watered, it was a great way for us to celebrate with everyone who had been involved in the society.

It was wonderful to see so many members, their families, volunteers old and new, founder members and supporters come together to celebrate this milestone in our  Society’s history.

Over 40 years hundreds of children and adults have found friendship, fun and support with us. As we move forward towards our 50th, we will aim to develop increased opportunities and initiatives to promote the wellbeing of those with learning difficulties generally.

With a feisty performance from our Music Man project after only ten sessions, we demonstrated and took pride in the potential that our members with good support can achieve.

Check out our photos on our Facebook page!

We are currently recruiting for the following two positions:

Deputy Play Leader
Saturday morning 9.30am – 12.30pm, term time only.
Odd Down, Bath.
£9.00 per hour
The role will be working with the club leader and project assistants to deliver activities at a weekly social club for children aged 5 – 18 with learning disabilities. Prior experience of working with disabled children strongly preferred.

Book Keeper
Weds/Thurs/Fri AM
Keynsham
12 hours per week @ £11.00 per hour.
The role will be working within the office to assist with daily book keeping, banking and record keeping.
Accuracy and attention to detail essential.
Experience of Sage Accounting strongly preferred.

To apply for either of these positions you can download an application form here

So the sun shone, the bride looked beautiful and DJ Barry’s party music played out to the community of Keynsham. Our Royal Wedding fete on the 19^th May at the Scout HQ in Keynsham had largely been organised by Student volunteer Molly Hale and her tribe of volunteers,  and it was a great success. So huge thanks to everyone who helped out on the day you really are  the reason these events are so successful.

We raised around £500 on the day with a Raffle, Tombola, Cakes, BBQ, refreshments and lots of fun stalls including face painting and a bouncy castle. 

There were a few new faces among the attendees at our event as we welcomed old and new members  we hope to see you  all again at our next event.

We had visits from the police and the fire service and they were able to show our attendees the vehicles and sound the sirens.

It was great to host a popular event that coincided with a national event. We were also able to air the wedding live from a separate room in  the Scout HQ in Keynsham, to ensure everyone good be part of the great event!

Scones, Jam and cream for English cream teas were very kindly donated by Arthur David food wholesalers in Bishop Sutton, Paula from Tesco Brislington  donated a gift card and teddies for the tombola’ The Meat Machine kindly offered us our BBQ food at a reduced rate. Thanks to kind donations like these we are able to raise more money for our fundraising.

Check out our Facebook page for more photos of the day. 

As part of our 40^th celebrations Keynsham Mencap Member parent Jason Preston has pledged to go without shaving his beard for a whole year. Jason started his mammoth beard growing activity in February 2018 and will continue for 12 months.  All Jason is asking for is a £1 sponsorship from everyone he knows and meets throughout the year.

Jasons’ step son Matthew Washbourn is a member of our Go Explore Club and Radstock Juniors Club.  Matty joined us nearly 4 years ago as a member of the Saturday Club and Radstock Juniors Club.

Jason is an avid supporter of our society and a fierce fundraiser.  So far he has taken part in sponsored bike rides from Midsomer Norton to Weston, from Midsomer Norton to Brean, and the Prudential 100 mile bike ride in London, most recently he held a fundraising disco party in February this year.

Look out for Jason as he plans to decorate and embellish his beard throughout the year marking annual celebrations such as Christmas and other themed events.

The images below show a clean shaven Jason and also Jason is pictured here with Matty.

We will keep you posted on Jasons progress. If you would like to also donate to Jasons fund raising efforts If you would like to support Jason in his quest please donate via this link. https://localgiving.org/charity/keynshammencap/project/Beard

So what are you doing on 19th May? Why not join us in  celebrating the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle  and come along to our Royal Wedding inspired family fete.

Organised by our very own Student Volunteer Molly Hale and her team of willing volunteers. There will be lots of fun stalls, raffle, cakes, refreshments  BBQ and a prize for the best Royal Wedding Inspired fancy dress costume.  All welcome, you don’t even have to miss the wedding we  will be screening it live at the event.

Please come and support Molly, the fete is on  from 12pm till 4pm on Saturday 19th May at the Scout Hut, Ashton Way Keynsham.

We want to let you know about an exciting opportunity for our fundraisers to win up to £1,000 for us!

Whether you’re stretching muscles or bathing in beans, in April people across the country will be raising money for local charities in a bid to be crowned Localgiving’s Local Hero!

Local Hero will be launched on 1st April and will run until 30th April. All participants need to do is think up a challenge, set up a fundraising page for us on Localgiving and persuade as many people as possible to donate.

Throughout April, fundraisers will be ranked on a leader board according to the number of unique online donors who sponsor their page. At the end of the campaign, Localgiving will award £5,000 in prizes to the causes supported by the top 20 fundraisers, with a top prize of £1,000 going to the cause of the fundraiser who has secured the most donors.

We’d be incredibly grateful if you would consider setting up a fundraising page and becoming our Local Hero! 

But don’t worry if you haven’t got a challenge booked for April you could support Hannah Gallagher become our Local Hero, Hannah is running the Bristol 10K on 13^th May 2018 her fundraising page is https://localgiving.org/fundraising/hannahbristol10k/  Hannah’s cousin Helen Griffiths is a member of our 18+ club.

What is the #LocalHero campaign?

You can find full details about the campaign here.

How will the money raised be spent?

Any money you raise for us will go towards our activities budgets; Just imagine what we could do with an extra £1,000!

How can you get involved?

If you think you could be our Local Hero, then please visit our Localgiving page here: https://localgiving.org/charity/keynshammencap and click ‘Fundraise for us’ to get started. Only donations made between the 1^st and 30^th of April will count towards the campaign, but you can get your page set up and ready to go right away!

Thank you again for all your continued support.

On Saturday 17th February 2018 we hosted our 2nd Dinner and Auction at the Saltford Golf Club.  The event raised over £3100, and was held in aid of the Society’s New Building Appeal.

128 guests arrived at 7pm and were greeted with a warm welcome and a glass of prosecco. As the guests were invited to view the auction items live Jazz was performed exquisitely by Nicki Jefferis and Anders Olinder.  Everyone looked great in their black tie and evening dresses.

This year we had a mix of silent and live auction items all generously donated by local organisations, and they included; complimentary pizzas at the new B Block Café  in the Chocolate Quarter, kindly donated by St Monica Trust. 2 standard return rail tickets to anywhere in the southwest via Great Western Railway. Dinner for 2 and bottle of wine at the Olive Tree Restaurant in Bath. A beautifully framed limited edition print entitled ‘Reflection’ by local artist Anna Smith. Family passes for Avon Valley Wildlife Park, the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum, Victoria Art Gallery and the Grand Pier at Weston-Super- Mare. A 3 course dinner for two plus wine at the Pig Hotel in Pensford. A 30 minute flight simulator experience donated by Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club. A round of golf for 2 at Stockwood Vale Golf Club. A half day retreat for two at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath was the jewel in the crown.

The evening also included a raffle, and the generosity of local businesses was overwhelming, prizes included a gift voucher from Wild about Flowers, a hot air balloon ride with Bath Balloons donated by Bath Building Society, a family race day at Castle Coombe race circuit, back massage from Pure Beauty in Keynsham, bottles of fizz from Tesco and Sainsbury and a bowling game courtesy of Bowlplex at Longwell Green.

Michael Ashbee of Davies and Way once again provided his expert services of auctioneer and kept the guests buzzing with excitement and raising their bids to the max. 

Our chair Lisa O’Brien gave a heart-warming speech and this year the theme was ‘Family’.  ‘We are all part of one family.  We support each other and we celebrate the support we receive from our community’.

It was great to see a real mix of guests; society members, trustees, staff, volunteers and friends of the society, old and new attended and enjoyed the sumptuous food laid on by the staff of Haywoods Kitchen.  Thanks goes to our corporate guests, who for the second year running have supported our event, iTeam Solutions from Saltford, VansGB of Bath and Toplink Envelopes Ltd all had tables and enjoyed the evening.

A surprise was in store for us as the evening unfolded, during the speeches Lisa was presented with a cheque for £15,000 from John Angus one of the Trustees from the Mencap Family home which is now known as The Avenue.  As the Mencap Family home business had come to a close there was surplus funds that the Trustees wanted to distribute to help continue the work that they had done. This very generous donation was greatly received and will be put towards the buildings fund.

Our Treasurer Russ Pocock gave an update on how our fundraising for our new premises had been going. We have made great steps financially to achieving our goal; ‘To own a premises that will facilitate our existing projects and be suitable for expansion’. Our restricted fund has now reached £85k; however we still have some way to go in our desire to raise £250k by the end of 2019.

It’s always good to end an evening on a high and this year is no different as the evening was rounded off with some floor filling tunes courtesy of Delboy Entertainments, a regular DJ with Keynsham and District Mencap Society events, always guaranteed to play music to get everyone up dancing. 

This event is certainly helps to put us on the map and demonstrates the strength of our supporters and everyone who is involved.

Check out all the photos on our Facebook page

So until the next one!

MUSIC MAN PROJECT

We are looking for someone with musical skills and knowledge that can lead a new music project for people with learning disabilities.

You will need to be enthusiastic, fun, and patient, and have the ability to deliver enjoyable and engaging music experiences for the group members.

Complete teaching resources, strategies, sheet music, handbook and song album provided as well as mentoring and support from the project founder and volunteer helpers.

 4 hrs p/w. Saturday 10:00 – 1:00, plus an additional 1 hour of paid preparation time.

 £12 hour

You can download an application form here

CO-ORDINATOR FOR COMMUNITY GARDENING INITIATIVE

We are looking for a person with gardening skills and experience that can oversee our new project; supporting people with learning disabilities to make over and maintain a communal garden area.

You will need to be passionate about gardening and have vision and creativity. You must also be able to encourage and support our members to be included fully with the project.

3 hrs p/w flexible for 25 weeks.

£12 hour.

You can download an application form here

One of our Radstock Junior’s parents Jason Preston is hosting a family disco, on Saturday 3rd February  7.30pm -11.30pm at Pratten Social Club, Charlton Lane, Radstock, BA3 4BD. 

All welcome. 

Please support  Jason and buy a ticket, he has arranged to put on  a fun filled  party for friends and family!   All money raised will go towards fun activities for our members.

On Saturday 11^th November we held our annual quiz, this time it was at the Keynsham Scout HQ. We had over 75 people attend ready to answer a variety of general knowledge questions.  The questions were somewhat challenging this year and when asked one of our ‘quizzers’ from Bath Mencap did say he ‘liked to be challenged’. Someone also mentioned via social media that they attended the hardest quiz in the world! Well here at Keynsham Mencap we like to push boundaries and raise the bar, we do have beacon status after all!

Congratulations to the team called ‘The Hopefuls’ who won the star prize, but then generously donated the items back.  Kit Kettel our quiz master host with the most kept the audience engaged and injected some welcome humour into the questions.

Just to mix things up a bit we held a mini bingo game right at the end and William Marsh called out the numbers loud and clear.

Some great raffle prizes were generously donated by local businesses including Reflections Hair Dressers, Pure Beauty, Sainsbury’s, Simply Carpets, Pomegranate, 73 Degrees, Tesco, Bonzo Lounge and Booker.  This eclectic mix of prizes plus the bar and door sales helped us to raise over £800. 

This money will go straight to providing even more social opportunities to local people that are affected by a range of learning disabilities. 

Our events wouldn’t be the success they are without the help enthusiasm and dedication of our staff, members and volunteers. Massive thanks go out to  Hazel Thompson, Niall Tomlins, Nicola Hodges, Karen Wells and George Hodges who gave up their time to help prepare the hall, run the bar, clean up the empties and blitz the hall after the fun had ended. 

Our members committee are always on hand to help out at our events and ambassadors William Marsh, Barry Hollyman and Suzie Lewis stepped in to help with the additional fundraising activities throughout the evening.