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Aiming Higher - Charity for Disabled Children + Community

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The of

June 2013

Aiming Higher H/Q

Vol. 3 - Issue 6

Aiming Higher Officially Witness The Worlds Largest Swimming Lesson - Tuesday, June 18 3rd year Targets 22,000 Children from Across The World

The kids at Palatine Leisure Centre with Katy

Three schools took part with up to 150 students from each: Thames school, Seven Road, St. Johns, Church Street, Baines Endowed, Penrose Avenue and six from Woodlands School, Whitegate Drive. The venues were: Woodlands School, Sandcastle, Moor Park and Palatine Leisure Centres.

The nation's top water safety and training organizations joined forces to present The World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ (WLSL), to build awareness about the vital importance of teaching children to swim to help prevent drowning. Waterparks like The Sandcastle, pools and other aquatic facilities at 700 locations around the globe hosted local WLSL lessons simultan-eously at 11am ET (3pm GMT) in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the fourth time.

Swimming is a life-saving skill for children and a vital tool to prevent drowning, the second leading cause of unintended, injury-related death for children ages 1-14. Research shows if a child doesn't learn to swim by the third grade, they likely never will. The World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ was created to serve as a platform to help local community aquatic facilities and the many different national, regional and state wide water safety and drowning prevention organizations work together to tell this important story on a local and national level.

Witnesses: Katy and Michelle with Sandcastle staff

It’s My

Voice Too

Welcome Seth is lost somewhere in our newsletter, No prizes but can you find him?

Inside This Issue Sandcastle new Features Fundraising at Dahlia’s The Lymph System Recommended Websites

Parent Forum At the New Venue The Parent Forum cannot meet at the Mereside Youth Centre anymore, so we needed another venue for this monthly meeting. ALS now function from the Holy Cross Church on Central Drive, so we followed suit with considerable success. Hilary stayed

Shooting Stars KLW

When offered little choice Let them hear your voice The more voices are bound to make a louder sound

in the kitchen and dealt with the catering and Katy held the floor to keep conversation focused on the agenda.

It was a very lively meeting and we comfortably managed to cover much of what was intended. There’s yet still room for more parents to join in.

Issue 6, Volume 3

The Voice of Blackpool - Page 2

Y

ay, the Sandcastle have got new boilers! What? Okay, so new boilers….not that exciting. And you are right, new boilers aren’t much to write home about, so that’s enough about boilers because, what is exciting is the new sauna (oh yeah, the Sandcastle now have a wonderful new sauna), plus a new place to chill with a foot spa. But that isn’t all, there is now a fantastic changing and wet room facility for disabled children, complete with hoist and hand held controller, as demonstrated by Amy Leach who was the first to play with it. I can tell you, she really enjoyed herself trying it out for herself.

Doesn’t she look happy? The management at the water park have outdone themselves and we can all be proud of their achievement. We were there for the grand opening with some of our Aiming Higher families and children who enjoyed playing in the pool with the Water Ambassadors.

Managing Director, John Child said, “Here’s to the future of the wet room and the lives of the families it will enhance”.

It can’t fail to please and we can’t wait to hear what people think of the new stuff.

A Night Out at Dahlia’s Kitchen Raising Funds for Aiming Higher

W

hen the pot is empty, there’s nothing for it other than to come up with ideas for raising funds and that is a job anyone is welcome to help us with. When it comes to it, sometimes we can get some wonderful ideas from people, and some ideas can be a little bizarre. But when Natalie gets an idea, we take it very seriously as she has some of the best ideas. A night at Dahlias Kitchen, a licensed Coffee Shop and Restaurant, complete with quality entertainment in the shape of Tom McLeod, is definitely one idea to take seriously.

So, there was Natalie and about 20 friends, and there was Aiming Higher with a small raffle. Natalie went around the tables selling tickets and we laid out our prizes. It was a great evening which ticked all the boxes and we raised a worthwhile sum and made some new friends. I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening.

The Voice of Blackpool - Page 3

Issue 6, Volume 3

The Lymph System and Exercising on a Trampoline

Trampoline session at the Tiggers Centre, Sycamore Trading Estate

U

nlike the blood system, which has the heart, the lymph system does not have an organ to pump itself round the body. It relies on gravity and body movement.

Bouncing on a tramploine stimulates the free-flowing lymphatic drainage system, which helps rid your body of toxins trapped protein, bacteria, viruses and other waste the cells cast off. The G-Force at the top of the bounce is zero and the body becomes weightless for a fraction of a second.

At the bottom of the bounce, the G-Force suddenly doubles over what is ordinary gravity on earth and internal organs are put under pressure. Their cellular stimulation is increased accordingly so that waste materials within cells get squeezed out. The lymph carries the waste away to be disposed of through the urinary tract and other excretory mechanisms. The vertical use of acceleration, deceleration and gravity provide the ideal conditions for cleansing cells. Whatever our age, for all of us, being still is best left until we go to sleep, otherwise it’s healthy to keep on the move and maintain an exercise regime.

This is important information because kids with autism don’t play like normal kids. Most who are autistic have a sedatory life with little interest in games and physical activities, so what can a parent do to ensure their autistic child has a means to rid their bodies of harmful toxins, bacteria and viruses? Get them onto a trampoline with regular sessions, as well as get them their own trampoline.

The best, possibly the only trampoline club for autistic people in Blackpool is run by Blackpool Tiggers. Website: www.blackpooltiggers.co.uk - Telephone: 01253 365734.

Aiming Higher Recommended Websites of the Month It doesn’t matter what you want, family. We won’t be recommending from tangible goods like clothing, “Whoever said money stuff directly, we are all different and kiddies toys or food, to services want to make our own choices, but can't buy happiness like taxi fares to child care, there is we will point you in the direction of simply didn't know websites that may be just right for a constant struggle going on by every kind of commercial enterwhere to go shopping.” your needs and try to save you monprise to attract your attention to ey. Even if money is no object, you Bo Derek make you part with your money. wouldn’t want to waste it. If money The world is one great big marketis tight (which is more likely the place calling for your attention, so case) then you need to know where where do we go to get the best deals? That is a you can get money saving vouchers. Here are two good question, so we are going to try to signpost great places to check out (including our new onthe places to go when you need anything for your line auction page): http://www.voucherpacks.co.uk/voucherResults.php https://www.facebook.com/groups/168845933289712/permalink/170147286492910/ Today, shopping is not restricted to geography like it used to be.

Shopping used to be a local event where people could pop down to the market and meet up with other villagers, or friends at the bus-stop. Life used to be far more of a social occurance but could take the best part of a morning, or even day. Now we have the Internet and we meet people online for chats, but the world has opened up and we can buy from China if we wanted to. But now as was then, money is tight. We need to share information like where to go for bargains we have found. So if you have come across brilliant value for money, tell us all about it and we’ll tell other families.

Stock photo

We believe in being

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ynamic nspirational ositive rofessional ourself

Donating to Aiming Higher Through JustGiving Chloeann Foster

Brandon Miller

Chester’s Dance Group

Nine Shooting Stars Aiming Higher to Entertain It is heart warming to know that talented young people are prepared to give their time free to fund raise for the disabled of Blackpool.

Of course the traffic isn’t all one way, these wonderful youngsters are given the opportunity to hone their skills, learn their craft and communicate with an appreciative audience. And they earn our eternal gratitude plus the gratitude of Blackpool parents. The whole year of 2013 has been set aside by the Shooting Stars to raise money for

Charity Reg. No: 1144664

231-233 Church Street Blackpool FY1 3PB Enquiries: 01253 206448 Email: katy.simister@hotmail.co.uk Events Enquiries: 01253 206447 Email: AH-EventsTeam@virginmedia.com Website: www.blackpoolaiminghigher.org.uk

the charity at a variety of locations around Blackpool, like Tiffany’s Hotel (the large pink one) on North Promenade. There will be many more opportunities to see them and contribute your support and we will be advising of dates and locations via FaceBook as the year progresses . Please come along to the next round of performances and meet both the Shooting Stars and their parents. Otherwise these boys and girls won’t personally get to know who they are trying to help.

There are many good hearted people in Blackpool who give up their time and resources to support a variety of causes like Aiming Higher. Without these ones, it wouldn’t be possible to continue. There are those that manage to fund raise every once in a while, and there are those that adopt us for a whole year of activities. We want to thank you all, with a huge thank you to Tiffanys Hotel, JLS Shoes, Home made in Berko Plaques & Candy Explosion who all have us as their chosen Charity.

There is also the Little Miss Blackpool Beauty Pageant who have chosen us and Bullies Out for their charities dur-

We now have an on-line means for our supporters to donate funds. You can donate using your Credit or Debit Card, or set up a money donation via Direct Debit on our JustGiving page. www.justgiving.co.uk/aiminghi gher/donate To donate £5 straight from your mobile phone, simply text: AHDC01 £5 to 70070 The amount you donate can be as much or as little as you like.

ing 2013. The boys and girls of Shooting Stars are performing regularly throughout the year too, with a major effort being made in the Paradise Room at the Pleasure Beach on August 9 from 19:30 (you can book your place from us on our phone line). You are all wonderful and we are grateful to all for your generosity. Next month we launch our on-line auction page on FaceBook so watch out for it, as there will be chances to snap up some bargains.

See you again soon

Katy

The Voice is produced by Bruce Ainge - Charity Trustee and Editor-in-Chief. Photography is by BCA PhotoDesign unless stated otherwise.

All Copyrights acknowledged. All Rights Reserved. Enquiries: telephone 01253 318210

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