Dove Cottage Day Hospice Newsletter - April 2009 (Extracts from)

SUMMER FETE SUNDAY 17TH MAY 2009 at 1.30pm

The major fundraising event of the year, is our Summer Fete which is on Sunday 17th May 2009. We're all hoping for a nice sunny day so we can enjoy our lovely gardens where a full, programme of entertainment is planned, ending with our very own Songs of Praise at 4.00prn.

We already have many bookings for stalls which incIude painted glass, hand made soaps, cards, jewellery, stationery and gifts. We will also have the usual entertainments, Persiflage - the amazing saxophone quartet, Bouncy Castle, Maypole Dancing, Clown, Teddy Tombola and the Raffle which has a fabulous Flat Screen TV as first prize. Light snocks, cakes and drinks will be served together with a BBQ throughout the afternoon.

We look forward to seeinq you all at this lovely event.

If you would like to book a stall please contact us for a booking form, or print off a copy from here.

2009 Dates for your Diary-more info

Mini-bus

We are pleased to report that our new mini bus has been a tremendous success. Our volunteer drivers use it daily to help with the transportation of guests to the hospice. We are also able to arrange days out for our guests, such as shopping days and visits to garden centres.

The bus is also used to transport members of the local community into Dove Cottage to use our bathing facilities.

Trip to Matalan

One of our guests Ann recently went on a trip to Matalan from Dove Cottage. Ann had a lovely day and said the following about her outing; -

"It was great to be out mixing and doing 'girlie' shopping. It was total retail therapy for me! It was so lovely to be out doing something 'normal' and it made me feel normal! Rather than having to ask other people to look for things for me, it was great to be able to choose things for myself."

Raffle Tickets

I hope that you don't mind that we have included a couple of books of raffle tickets with your newsletter.If you can sell any at all for us it would be much appreciated. Obviously if you can't, please don't worry, just let us have them back using our Freepost address

Dove Cottage Day Hospice, FREEPOST MID20970, Melton Mowbray, LE14 4BR.

We will need all stubs and money returned by the date of the fete which is 17th May 2009. The draw will take place at 4.00pm. If you would like any more books, please let us know.

Chris's Corner

What a wonderful day we had when our new tearoom and charity shop opened on Saturday 28th March. Despite the horrible weather, people came in their droves to support us. We thought we'd built an ample car park but it was full to overflowing! I can't thank people enough who braved the elements to come along and also the staff and volunteers who worked so hard to make the day such a success. All very humbling.

As I write this/the weather has improved vastly and all of our guests are looking forward to going on lots of outings in our new mini-bus so give us a wave if you see us passing by!

If you know of anyone struggling to cope with a life-threatening illness, do encourage them to get in touch and we may be able to help make life a little easier. We usually have a few spare places and there is no cost involved in coming along. People can refer themselves. All they need to do is give us a ring and ask to speak to one of our wonderful nurses.

Do hope you will be able to make it to our Summer Fete on Sunday 17th May.

Regards

Chris

Chris Gatfield Registered Manager

Auction Success

Thank you very much to everyone who supported our Auction in March. We were inundated with items to sell all of which helped us to raise £1384 for the hospice. The auction itself was really well attended with bidders even standing on chairs outside to place their bids! We would like to thank our auctioneer Mr Paul Steward, Mr lan Smith for his IT support and each and everyone one of you that made this event so worthwhile.

Fund Raising Concert - Saturday 20th June 7-30

There will be a fundraising concert on Saturday 20th June at St Andrew's Church, Langar, Notts. The concert will feature The Bridge Singers who will provide a programme of light entertainment for the evening.

Wine and soft drinks will be available.

Tickets £7.00 available from Dove Cottage or the Tea Room or

Tel: Ann 01949 850230/JuIie 01949 860655

TEA ROOM/CHARITY SHOP APPEAL

Can you help us?

We are in desperate need of good quality clothing, jewellery, unwanted gifts, music, bric-a-brac etc to sell in our charity shop. Local collection service is available.

We are always looking for volunteers to help out in the shop and tea room - can you spare a couple of hours a week? Please telephone Dove Cottage for an information pack.

Do you still want to receive your copy of our newsletter? Are we sending it to the correct address?

!F NOT please let us know

If you would prefer to receive the next newsletter by email please do let us have your email address.

Email lisa@dovecottage.org and we will add your details to our mailing list.

Newsletter Articles

What would you like to see in this newsletter? Do you have a story or a tale to share or an experience that we can learn from?

Would you like some jokes or loqal information? Please let me have your thoughts and ideas and if you have something to contribute you can email me or bring it in to Dove Cottage.

Thank you!

Lisa