So, this is our last official “in school” working week of 2024! What a year it has been and that is all down to YOU!
THANKYOU ALL SO MUCH!
This week we held our annual ” carols on our diveway” with the support of some of the members of the Boscombe Salvation Army band. Without question, this is one of the highlights of our year. It is amazing to be able to bring family, friends and community all together to share what we do AND to celebrate the important message of Christmas.
Thankyou to Howard ( Band master) Kev , Steve, Ray, Jenna, Elsbeth, David, Stuart and Ian for giving us so much of your time in what we know is a VERY busy period for you!
The Concert gave us a time to personally thank those that go above and beyond to keep us being able to support the Autistic community. Whether it be by talking about AANP, donating plushies or by simply liking and sharing our posts, it all makes a remerkable difference.
It was also the perfect moment to introduce our official mascot for 2025 – Purdy the PDA panda. PDA is an extremely complex and individualised profile of many Autistic people. Our gorgeous son Herbie is one of those Awesome people!
Herbie is not one for being in the public eye, infact he rarely allows us to talk about him in our work and even less, share a picture. So imagine our surprise when Archie and I said we needed a volunteer to be a public mascot and Herbs jumped straight in!!! We are so proud and gratful to you Herbs. What a brilliant Mascot you are!
To see the carol concert( and Purdy) in action, simply click on the link below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDbnfrRPR9d/
As you may remember, back in November we made an appeal for no longer needed teddies and Plushies. We wanted these to be used for Our very first Santas grotto to give to kids in the community. Well , I was staggered that we had multiple binbags FULL kindly given. There were so many that we were able to share the teddies amongst the Grotto, familes and some of the local primary schools that we support. THANKYOU!!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DDfHRZaPERa/
Being a non profit means that we rely heavily on people that are ok with us ” regifting” preloved items . So if you do recieve ANYTHING this Christmas that is simply not going to be useful to you, please do drop us an email. We are fortunate to work with The Salvation Army, The UHD charity and Autism Unlimited, not to mention hundreds of families and schools, so we can ALWAYS find a grateful recipient. This way you know that that gift is going to be used and really appriciated.
Santa Dash.
This was a new one for me 😉
I have been so lucky to be able to regularly volunteer 1:1 support at the beautiful William Gilpin School in Bolder. Since September I have been working really hard with this awesome dude! ( pictured above). Together we tackle tricky lessons, work on our mental health and self esteem. But this week we did something altogether different!
WG Head teacher Simon Croutear, asked us if we could perhaps create the feel of a Christmassy racetrack for the annual Santa dash 🙂 IT WAS BRILLIANT!
Together we covered as much as we could in tinsel ( even old lorry tires on the field) and made the signage. Apparently, the race went down a treat!
I share this because to me, this is true inclucion. It’s ensuring that EVERY child feels that they have something to offer and that their voice is not only heard, but matters. Thankyou WG for being THAT school! I am looking forward to working with your incredible team again in the New year!
And finally Jeremy Vine Christmas Star nomination.
MASSIVE thanks to the lovely Claire for nominating us for a Jeremy Vine Christmas star award. Now, we havent heard anything yet but, you never know 😉 To be honest, just knowing that you took the time to nomintaed us was simply WONDERFUL! THANKYOU for being so thoughtful, its kind gestures like that that keep is going! Jeremy, if you are reading this please do check us out 😉
