As Henry Ford once famously said “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself”. A recent project with three different groups moving forwards together definitely led to success and lots of fun.
This story is about a group of students at The Downs School in West Berkshire, working as a team to raise the money to fund a project with a local charity. Swings and Smiles is a charity focused on improving the quality of the lives of disabled children and their families. The Foundation was excited to support this great challenge.
At Swings and Smiles there is a vibrant group of disabled teenagers naturally wanting more independence. Rhonda, from the charity, was keen to find the funds to kit out the centre’s kitchen so that these teens could learn to cook for themselves. Items they needed included large switches, designed to help people with limited motor skills control electronic devices and speaking weighing scales. Liquid level indicators, a device which emits a loud warning sound and vibration when the liquid reaches a sensor probe. “Pen Friends” which help people become more independent by making it easier to identify and distinguish between different items.
Following Rhonda’s request, twenty-two enthusiastic students worked with the Foundation in a match funding initiative to raise enough money for all the equipment requested by the Swings and Smiles team. The students put on fun filled events over seven months including mouthwatering bake sales, a tuck shop at a lunchtime performance of the Chemical Magic Show, a film night designed to attract younger pupils and a Christmas extravaganza with games, crafts and snacks.
It was wonderful to see the determination, inventiveness and, of course, a focus on making a difference that this group showed throughout the project. They raised an impressive total of £964 which our Foundation matched to raise the total to £2000.
A celebration assembly was led by Ann Parry from the foundation and all students involved plus the teachers who had supported them were awarded with “Friends of the Foundation” certificates and badges.
A big bonus flowing from the success of The Kitchen Project is that other students at The Downs have been inspired to do their own service projects and we will be delighted to work as part of these teams by match funding their enterprises.
It just goes to shows what we can achieve when we work together.