Children from across the Society, along with family, and staff and volunteers, enjoyed a magical evening at the circus thanks to Circus Starr.

Circus Starr is a unique, travelling circus designed especially for children with additional needs. It aims to make the circus accessible and enjoyable for all.

Local businesses sponsor the tickets, meaning they are given to charities, schools and families at no charge. The children all had a super evening and enjoyed seeing all the different acts.

Our football team have now competed in their last fixture of the season in the Somerset FA Disability Counts League.

A Team were runners up in their division, only just surrendering their title to FC1610 United, who won their very last match of day, thus scoring just enough points to come out on top.

Our B Team improved on last years position, rising to 3rd in the league. They beat arch rivals Knowle Park for the first time so the players were all pleased with that result!

The day was followed up with drinks at the New Inn in Keynsham where players were joined by family, friends and supporters. Thank you to everyone that helped throughout the season, with driving the minibus, providing lifts and washing kit, it’s very much appreciated.

Thank you to everyone that took the time and effort to buy copies of the Bristol Post and collected the coupons for us to win a cash prize in the Airbus Community Awards. We are pleased to say we were one of the runners up and won £500! Our Chairperson Lisa and Fundraiser Amanda attended a special awards ceremony at Airbus in Filton to collect our prize. We were up against some stiff competition from much larger groups, but we won due to all your support so THANK YOU!

We have been chosen to be in with a chance of winning a share of £10,000 in the Bristol Post and Airbus Community Awards. Cash prizes are given to the top 10 groups with the most votes so we need your help!

Voting Coupons will be printed in the Bristol Post from Monday 22nd February until Monday 21st March.

Please pick up a copy of the paper and fill in the coupon with our details. You can send the coupon direct to the paper (see the Bristol Post for details), or you can send them to the office or hand them in to your club leader. Voting closes at midday on Wednesday 23rd March so please send your votes off as soon as you can.

Help us spread the word and collect as many votes as possible!

Children and helpers from Super Saturday had a day trip to Crealy Adventure Park.

There was a buffet lunch on the decking in the sunshine and then the afternoon was spent in the animal kingdom, enjoying the play areas and all the rides and rollercoasters.

A great day had by all!

Every year, students and teachers at Millfield School in Street put on a brilliant fun day for Mencap groups from all over the South West.

There are so many different activities to chose from, it’s impossible to fit them all in! There’s sports, drama, dance and aerobics, film making, cookery, bouncy castle,  face painting, art and craft, photography and more!

It’s always a great day out and we’re grateful to the school and Mencap Communities Team for organising such a super event.

As part of the annual Saltford Festival, there was a Scarecrow Trail around the village.
Keynsham Mencap entered a scarecrow into the trail that was on all week. We hope it will raise some awareness of what we do and of people with learning disabilities.  As well as the scarecrow we also had a stand at the networking event for clubs and associations in the area.

When we asked some of the members what was important to them and what they enjoyed about being a member of the society, the top answer was being able to going on holiday. So here’s Manny the Mencap Scarecrow on his holiday!

The 1st – 7th June each year is National Volunteers Week. We have 104 volunteers supporting our various clubs and projects and in the last year they have contributed over 10,000 volunteer hours.

We are so grateful to every single one of our volunteers. As well as supporting our clubs each week they also give up their free time to attend training and to help on day trips, holidays and at events.

Some of the volunteers told us why they volunteer for Mencap.

Thank you to everyone that came and supported our Race Night on Friday 6th March.

It was a great evening, lots of fun and very entertaining!
Races were shown on the big screen with guests placing bets on which horse they think will win. There were cash prizes for the winners, as well as a raffle with some great prizes.

The evening raised £830.

One of our volunteers Harriet Huckin ran the Bath Half marathon last Sunday, completing the course in 2 hours 51 minutes.

Harriet raised £385 which will be used at Super Saturday Club for activities for the children.

Well done Harriet!