Cherymaker News
February 2018
Welcome At Cherry Trees we are incredibly thankful for all the amazing volunteers we have and we wanted to make sure that you know you are appreciated by us for everything you do. You are a group of committed and inspiring people so we wanted to firstly keep you updated with the difference you are making to Cherry Trees but also connect you to each other. As the 2012 Olympics was such an amazing success with the “Gamesmakers” we felt it only appropriate to call our volunteers “Cherrymakers”. You are after all essential to our success. This newsletter will be on a quarterly basis and we would love to hear from you about the topics you would like included in here. So we are passing the baton over to you to let us know what you think and if you could take just a few minutes to complete this 2 minute survey we will make sure we deliver the right information to you. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/XSTTWK K
6000 hours During 2016/17 there were in excess of 6000 hours of volunteering given to Cherry Trees! You are all AMAZING!
Be Cherry A new campaign this year is our Be Cherry campaign, and you will see various Cherry Characters popping up relating to the various areas of fundraising. Our volunteering Cherry will be “Cherry Involved” and above is just one of the characters. The campaign is aimed at engaging people with Cherry Trees in various ways, feeling involved and part of a very special place.
The difference you are making by just giving your time means we can put money in making sure we provide the essential care our families so desperately need.
Santa doing what Santa does! Picture above is Caroline receiving a surprise present from Santa. Caroline comes to us every Friday on a voluntary basis and provides a truly scrumptious tea for all the children.
Page 1
CHERYMAKER NEWS |
2
Volunteering insight Our amazing volunteer Kate Kate's daughter used to come to Cherry Trees and we still have the great pleasure of seeing her cheery smiles at our family events. With a 20-year professional background in HR, Kate felt she could lend her skills to Cherry Trees; she now provides invaluable support one day a week over in the house office. Kate has also helped us out as a volunteer at events, and her knowledge of both the care and fundraising departments at Cherry Trees make her a valued asset to our volunteering team. Kate did an amazing job at our ball selling baubles for our tree of life as she could speak first hand to our guests of the difference Cherry Trees makes. On why she chose to come and volunteer for us, Kate told us, "I wanted to be able to give something back to Cherry Trees. I found the staff at Cherry Trees, over and above everyone else involved in my daughter's life,
to be the most sympathetic, knowledgeable and helpful when I was having crises of one sort or another. They not only helped my daughter, they helped me personally through a very difficult time."
Kate with her beautiful daughter
Thank you so much for your help Kate! You are a fantastic help, providing such professional, high quality support. We couldn't do what we do without people like you.
Welcome new volunteers Just before Christmas Kathy from the village joined the fundraising team helping out on a Tuesday morning. Kathy is working with Debbie helping to research lots of community groups and organisations such as golf clubs and rotary’s. This will make life a lot easier for Debbie to start approaching all these groups. We also welcomed Pam to the office in October. She has been working hard support Sarah Jane in accounts and helping the fundraising team with organising all the cash and banking that comes into the office. Over in the house we have Clare assisting with a wide range of administrative tasks which are never ending with over 90 children
to support and all the regulatory requirements we must adhere to. We are always looking for volunteers and you are our advocates so if you can mention Cherry Trees to people it would be great to hear from them – or direct them to the website https://www.cherrytrees.org.uk/volunteerfor us
CHERYMAKER NEWS |
GENERAL NEWS
3
Cycle Track Challenge
Volunteer Tea Invite
This year we are working closely with the Jigsaw Trust, a school catering for children with Autism. Together we are holding the Cycle Track Challenge on the Top Gear Tack and will have two sessions, one for the serious riders and one for families. By working together we will be reducing our costs and hopefully increasing the number of people we can get to the event.
Please put this date in your diary – it is our chance to say thank you to YOU. We are inviting all our volunteers to an afternoon tea
If you would like to come along and cycle the Top Gear track here is your chance! For more details
We will let you know more details and how to book in due course.
3.30pm on Wednesday 6 June 2018.
https://cherrytrees.rit.org.uk/Event/cycle-trackchallenge
Minibus As many of you know (being some of our lovely bus drivers) we had a new minibus arrive in October. We are extremely grateful for the minibus being provided by the Lord Taverners and funded by the fantastic Guildford Lions. However, many of the voluntary drivers and staff felt uncomfortable with driving it as it was so large. It was such a shame to have such a wonderful vehicle not getting used, so we spoke to the Lord Taverners and explained our situation and the difficulties we have around the very narrow lanes we have around Cherry trees. They were very supportive about changing it for something that works. So we have a new bus arriving in a few months (which is a medium wheel base vehicle) and will be an automatic to open up options to other drivers. We are looking forward to receiving it.
January visit We had our two day visit from Ofsted in December. This is an extremely thorough analysis of our processes and systems as well as the quality of care we deliver. We came through extremely well with an overall judgement of ‘Good’, which we are very pleased with.
IT’S A FACT THAT …..
60% Over 60% of our children have Autism and most have more than one disability.
Unique Job Role for a pair of Volunteers You may have seen “Cherry” on our social media or in the local paper! She is going to be a big part of spreading the awareness of Cherry Trees, and we would love to find two people will to be Cherry! We anticipate that Cherry would be present at events or collections, and any opportunity for a news story. We anticipate about two outings a month on average. Cherry needs to be accompanied by someone at all times and in hot weather it would be essential to swap roles so if you know of a couple who might be willing to have some Cherry fun then please let us know. Drop us a line at fundraising@cherrytrees.org.uk
CHERYMAKER NEWS |
4
Calendar of volunteering opportunities by [Article Author]
We always aim to have some fun at our events and if you get involved we want you to enjoy yourself – feel that you have made a big difference to the day and want to come back to help again. Below are some of the forthcoming events where we need volunteers – if you fancy helping up, please get in touch and pop the date in your diary. THANK YOU! 10th or 17th May
Railway Collection
6.30 – 9am at Guildford, Woking and Clandon stations.
“Be Cherry Giving” Sunday 3rd June
NGS Open gardens and tea, High Clandon Vineyard Estate
6 x volunteers throughout the day (smaller slots available) to help serve tea throughout the day from 10 – 4pm
Saturday 17th November
Guildford High Street
20 plus volunteers for our big one day collection. 2 hour slots available throughout the day.
Collection
If you think you can spare a few hours to help at one or more of these events please email on fundraisingsupport@cherrytrees.org.uk Or call on 01483 222507
Be Cherry Smiling
CHERYMAKER NEWS |
5
We thought that Mondays deserved a little brightening up so we have introduced Be Cherry Smiling for a Monday on our social media with Narindin being our first smiley face. We think he has an amazing smile.
Why your help makes a difference “I wanted to say thank you and all your staff who have all worked so hard to make Luke feel welcomed at Cherry Trees. Our son seems very happy when he visits, he happily runs in to be greeted by warm, friendly and dedicated staff. Your service is a lifeline to us and allows us some time to recharge our batteries. I never thought I would be able to trust a respite centre again, the staff at Cherry Trees have supported us along the way and made our son feel safe happy and reassured us“