The Aldingbourne Trust are inviting people to join their coastal charity walk on Saturday 14th March, where you can enjoy a beautiful eight mile walk along the seafront from Littlehampton to Bognor Regis
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Abigail Rowe, Fundraising Officer at the Aldingbourne Trust says “This walk will provide an opportunity for the local community to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the South coast, with the proceeds going towards supporting adults with learning disabilities and/or autism.  Please join us if you can.”
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The Aldingbourne Trust completed their new Quarry Building at the Aldingbourne Country Centre, which has enabled them to offer an additional 175 training spaces in their café, conference rooms and shop to support people with learning disabilities and autism living in the local area. 
 
The Trust now urgently needs to develop their private space for the adults with disabilities that they support.  With over 60,000 visitors a year at the Country Centre it is important that there is a private area away from the general public for the people they support and train, spend their breaks, socialise with each other, receive advice and support. 
The Charity Walk will help the Trust to raise these much-needed funds to provide this inclusive space for the people they support and enable the Trust to provide more spaces to support adults with learning disabilities and/or autism within West Sussex. 
 
Join in the fun on the 14th March where the walk will commence at the Littlehampton Golf Club at 8.30am and finish at the Aldingbourne Trust enterprise Number 73 Aldwick Road, Bognor Regis for tea, coffee and cake.  We welcome all ages to take part, and dogs are welcome to take part too.   
 
You can register now at www.aldingbournetrust.org/fundraising-events , there is a fee of £10 per person to take part in the walk, which will go towards the Trusts current fundraising project.  You can also purchase a t-shirt to wear at the event to show your support, these are also available when you register at £10 each.  We would also welcome any additional fundraising through sponsorship and donations, if you would like any more information about how you can support their current fundraising project you can contact their fundraising team on 01243 544607 or [email protected] . 

Don’t play the fool this April 1st!  Instead, why not take part in ‘Wacky Feet Wednesday’ and support the Aldingbourne Trust.   
 
We are inviting schools and businesses to join us in the fun on Wednesday 1st April by wearing silly socks, funny shoes, socks and sandals, or by just using your imagination to create something wacky to wear on your feet.  By asking people to donate £1 to join in the fun, you could also have fun by holding your own competition to find out who can create the best ‘Wacky Feet’ footwear.   
 
We would also love to see your designs, so we invite you to send in your images to us or tag us in on our social media channels by searching for the Aldingbourne Trust.  But don’t forget to follow us too, so you can see and join in the fun with everyone else, along with your chance to win a family day pass to our Aldingbourne Country Centre.  
 
The Trust is currently raising funds to help us improve the recreational area at the Aldingbourne Country Centre, which provides an inclusive environment for the people we support.  We are working to improve the facilities so we can provide more spaces for adults with learning disabilities and/or autism across West Sussex.  
 
If you would like more information on our fundraising projects, or you would like to take part in Wacky Feet Wednesday, please visit our website www.aldingbournetrust.org/fundraising.  Or contact our fundraising team via [email protected].  
   
You can also visit our website to find out more about The Aldingbourne Trust, our award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live independent lives.   
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“I wanted to spend the day here because it is local to me. I’ve been many times with my daughters and use the plant nursery. They make a real difference to the people they support ensuring everyone has a choice and lives an independent life.  I had such a wonderful day”.  Said Melissa Wilcock, HSBC Hampshire.  


Many charities rely on the support they receive from corporate volunteers, so the Aldingbourne Trust were delighted when Melissa choose to use her HSBC annual volunteer day to come and help out on the farm.


“Melissa was an amazing help and really got stuck in with all the daily tasks.  She helped with mucking out the top fields in the morning, then later cleaned out the guinea pig hutches, and even got involved in a goat health check and hoof trim!  She had a really positive attitude and interacted brilliantly with the people we support at the Country Centre” said Jon Corke, Farm Manager.


Vicky Mearns, one of the people supported by the Trust said, “Melissa was really friendly, I really enjoyed working with her”.


As part of their corporate volunteering scheme, HSBC have an Employee Volunteering Competition, which Melissa was delighted to win as it meant she could make a donation on behalf of HSBC to the Aldingbourne Trust.  As she enjoyed her time on the farm, she has requested that the £1,000 goes towards helping the farm to continue to improve their facilities.


“I spent the whole day outside on the farm with the animals and the wonderful people who work there. The highlight for me was meeting the lovely people, some of them were really shy when I first met them, but I've made new friends and got to spend an enjoyable day in the fresh air! I'll definitely return” said Melissa.  


To find out more about Aldingbourne Trust and their award winning charity that supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism to live independent lives, please visit their website www.aldingbournetrust.org. 

Keith, Father of Sophie one of the people we support at the Aldingbourne Trust said - " The run went very well, It was a pleasure to raise money for such a good cause and it made all the training worthwhile."

Keith achieved his personal best 3:39:14 which is absolutely fantastic! 

​Thank you Keith for supporting the Aldingbourne Trust and raising an amazing £1000. This will truly make a huge difference!
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Dancers were treated to a Celtic night to raise money for the Aldingbourne Trust.

A packed hall joined in the fun at the latest Reel Tartan event at Eastergate Village Hall to help the charity and its work with adults with learning difficulties.

Several members of its community joined the event. The result of the night of revelry was a £180 cheque which the organiser, Polly Meynell, handed over to the trust last week.

She stages the event each year to help a charity in the area – and she chose the trust for 2019.

“It was a wonderful evening of live music, dance and fantastic food,” she said.

“All guests came wearing tartans and were treated to a feast of Celtic-themed foods from all around the British Isles courtesy of Mark Dunne – Chefs on the Move.

“The Causeway Celidh band, a local band from Midhurst, played to a packed hall.

“By the end of the evening, they were calling some of their most challenging routines which, to their delight, were enthusiastically and expertly followed.”

BEAUTIFUL artwork will be on show at a Bognor Regis studio’s first exhibition.

The No 73 Creative Arts Studio is staging the event to raise money to enable more people to be able to enjoy its facilities.

The studio is run by the Aldingbourne Trust as part of its work to enable people with learning disabilities to live independently.

The exhibition is taking place daily from 10am to 3.30pm, April 8 to April 10, at the studio at 73 Aldwick Road.

One of those whose work will be on show is Nadia Tourbay. She will have some four pieces of sewing showing animals like bees and giraffes in the exhibition.

She said: “I like animals and I like sewing. It’s very relaxing. I come to the studio all day on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“I’ve been in exhibitions before and it’s absolutely fabulous having your work on show and people looking at it.”

The studio has been open for some years but it has become too small.

Helen Rawlings, its lead creative arts instructor, said she expected 60-80 pieces of art to be on display in the exhibition.

“We have taken part in the Chichester Art Trail but this is the first exhibition we have held like this.

“We want to raise enough money to be able to expand. This will enable us to have a quiet area and have about four extra people a day,” she said.

“We can accommodate 10 at the moment but we have a waiting list.

“The studio is somewhere for our students to socialise and learn artistic skills.

“It gives them something good to do and have a finished product at the end of it which they can have people come in and have a look at it.

“This is a lovely, friendly environment and it’s good for the people here to be able to show their skills.”

As well as the art trail, the studio’s artists have taken part in the Chichester Flower Festival and have won many prizes in an art competition held by the Mencap charity.

They are also taking part in an exhibition by art students at the University of Chichester.

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SILLY socks saw a company’s employees put their best foot forward to raise money for the Aldingbourne Trust.

The team at Covers Timber and Builders Merchants in Chichester, pictured above, donned an array of silly socks to raise funds for the charity.

A colourful collection of socks from designs of spots and stripes to more intricate patterns were on display for the Quarry Lane company’s wear silly sock day.

Martyn Beck, depot manager at Covers Chichester, said: “We are always happy to support local charities here at Covers.

“Our wear silly sock day was a great way for the team to do something simple and have a bit of fun, but also raise funds for a worthy cause at the same time.”

All funds raised will help the trust to support people with learning disabilities and autism to live independently.

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