June Newsletter
FUNDRAISING
We have been lucky to receive continued support from Sean Farrell who has donated via Charities Aid Foundation through out the year.
We applied for a grant from the Asda Foundation to be able to stock up on our non perishable snacks, coffee/tea for our Howdon and Wallsend toddler groups, and to buy more toys for families and the community to enjoy together - we are very thankful to Asda that we received £600.
We would also like to thank everyone who used Amazon Smile to support the Project. The scheme has now finished and we have received our last payment. If you would like to continue to support us why not use Easyfundraising. Visit easyfundraising.org.uk and select Baby Equipment Loan Service - Wallsend
At the Baby Equipment Loan Service & Toy Library we support Child Accident Prevention Trust Child Safety Week each year.
This year we have been talking to our members and toddler group families about child safety in the home. We have various leaflets available in the project, around child safety, if anyone would like any.
Thank you!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our volunteers for their continued support. Without your commitment and contribution as a volunteer we would not be able to run the Project.
We Welcome our new Management Committee Members Hannah and Charlotte who are bringing a wealth of experience and fresh eyes to the project.
Can we also make a special thank you to Janice Dunn who has stepped down from her role on the Management Committee. We look forward to seeing Janice with her daughter in the Toy Library and we hope she enjoys the toys on loan.
We have a new group in the centre on Monday mornings 10-12. Working with both Best Start North Tyneside and Footprints Day Nursery Wallsend we have a weekly session for new parents. These sessions, led by trained parent volunteers, are great for discussing parenting challenges such as breast feeding, safe sleep and infant feeding. Why not pop along for a chat & a cuppa.
Wednesday Drop In
The Wednesday 12:30-5pm drop in is proving popular. We hope that it is helping you to have a bit more flexibility using the toy library. We are very grateful that our members pass on our services to other parents/carers. If you do know someone who is interested in joining, can you please let them know that they need to book an initial appointment to get registered and that the drop in is only used for existing members. This will give us time to go through the registration and be able to have that proper one to one time to go through all that we offer.
2 year old Nursery Funding
We have had a few parents/carers talk about nursery funding for 2 year olds. Laura the Nursery Assistant manager from Footprints Nursery came into our recent toddler group to give information on this. This website here also gives you more information on the subject, hope it's helpful. www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Summer Holidays
Over the next few weeks we will be looking at staffing, holidays, opening hours and the days toddler groups will run during the summer holidays. We do know that we will have reduced hours within the project to accommodate staff holidays. We will send you all an email with this information once we have it finalised. We will always post on Facebook and Instagram regularly to update. We do suggest that if you are unsure or do not use social media to phone the project before you travel to be sure we are there.
Donations
We have had many people offer to give us toy donations. It's very kind but unfortunately at the moment we are not taking any in. This is because we just don't have the time to sort through all the toys and ensure that all the pieces are there, that it's in working order, safe to play with, and register it on our Lend Engine.