Sunday, March 12th, 2006
At 10 O'clock on Saturday the 11th of March, the main hall at Bude Infants school was already
full with a happy muddle of noise. from people introducing themselves for the first time,
to children playing on the toys and gym mats.
Everyone was greeted with a hot cuppa a biscuit and a smile. Thanks to Lynn Green, Maria Stopher and Janie Shepherd from the Portage group, Tamsin Coade from Parent to Parent, John & Sandy Lawrence from the Downs Syndrome support group, Carol Hunt and Jodie Parsons from the Sea Horses Nursery at St. Petroc’s School, Liz Plumb speech therapist and by no means least the Mum’s and Dad’s who are all doing so much to help, the inaugural meeting of the Little Rays of Sunshine Club eventually got under way.
For a first meeting, the level of support surpassed our expectations, although the majority of club members come from around and about Bude, friends from as far as Newquay, Gunnislake and Torridge also came to show support.
Claire Jones of the Jo Jingles group came all the way from Plymouth to entertain and it wasn’t before long that she managed to lick a whole bunch of expectant children and their over excited parents into shape. Puppets, Games, Nursery Rhymes, Sign and Song had all in rapture. You see it wasn’t just the children with special needs having fun, their brothers, sisters, mums, dads and I detected one or two grandparents all joining in together. It has to be said at this juncture though, the parents appeared to need a little more practice at signing, but they were no less enthusiastic.
After about an hour, Claire was finally allowed to pack her bits and bobs away, the kids were sat at a table for a drink of squash, a biscuit, and throw pieces of fresh fruit at each other while mums and dads got down to the important business of talking.
The two hours went far too quickly, it was soon time to tidy up and leave. Did we reach any of our core objectives:
1) Where shall we hold future meetings ?
2) What day of the week would be most suitable to most people ?
3) How often should we meet?
An emphatic no, in fact t’committee are going to have a meeting meeting to discuss just these very issues, and whether to extend the age limit a little. let’s hope they have a little more success next time. However one objective, and by far the most important was met, everyone had fun.
On a more personal note, this group has been set up in memory of our daughter Karen, to try and do a little more for children with needs like her son Jacob. We are trying to decide issues in a way that Karen would have approved. Our first report was summed up by one of our grandparent supporters. He said “This is fantastic”. Thank you everyone for helping us so much.
|
