As we begin to feel the chill of these Autumn mornings, spider webs glisten silvery with dew and our evenings start to draw in, the super-hot summer that we melted our way through is but a distant memory!
At Home-Start we had some wonderful experiences with families over the summer months, bringing volunteers, parents and children together to make new friends and enjoy each other’s company. We share a roundup of family events we have held over the summer:
Family Summer Party
We were delighted that the rain (and scorching heat) held off enough for us to enjoy a family summer party picnic at Coombes Community Centre. The children enjoyed time on the soft play equipment and Linda Bance and Liz Meissner entertained us all with wonderful musical instruments and songs. We were grateful to Hertfordshire County Council and Royston Town Mayor Fund who helped with the funding needed to run the event.
Family Outing to Audley End Miniature Railway
Later on in the summer we joined together again to enjoy a wonderful day out at Audley End’s Miniature Railway. A huge thanks must go to Pico Technology who helped us with the funding that made this event possible. Around 20 families including 47 children, supported by volunteers and staff enjoyed a ride on the train, hunting for fairies in the woods, playing in the park and watching a special show. One mum said:
“Thank you so much for today. It was lovely, I had a few tears in my eyes as I left. Thank you so much to everyone at Home-Start”.
Other people that helped this trip be the success it was included Cllr Jeff Jones, who kindly lent us the Buntingford Community minibus to help transport families and Jim Rawles from Royston & District Community Transport, who acted as our driver for the day. A very big thank you to Jeff and Jim!!
Other Planned Activities
Other activities that took up our summer included some picnics in the park, a tidy up of the resource cupboard (boring, but necessary) and we were very grateful to the volunteers who gave their time to help with this. We also had a failed visit to The Royston Fire Station, a planned trip that had to be shelved last minute as the busy firemen were called upon to attend to one of those numerous local fires that the hot weather brought us.
Volunteer Training
In the first couple of weeks of September we held a new course for Family Support Group volunteers. 10 new volunteers attended the training and will be soon starting to help at our two family support groups.
New addition to the Team
The last piece of exciting news that has happened over the summer is we have got a new member of our staff team. We are delighted to introduce Kate, a new Co-ordinator who is going to be taking forward the development of a new Family Support Group in South Cambridgeshire. Kate, who joined us in the middle of September already feels like one of the gang. She will be working closely alongside Jo and Jackie over the next few weeks, so look out for her friendly face!
Home-Start Annual General Meeting
We held our AGM on the 4th October at Icknield Walk School, Royston and welcomed all who attended. It was a lovely evening and when the mum who had come along to share her family’s experience of Home-Start support, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
