This month we should have been holding our annual event – The Big Ball of Courage. Of course, due to Covid-19 this has not been possible. As we usually take this as an opportunity to share our progress, I want to let you know how we’re doing!
Despite Covid we are cracking on with the planning details for the Kids Village site. As we prepare to build, ecological studies have been completed. We’re now just waiting on some tricky access details to be finalised; we’ve assessed 10 different options for access to the site and our chosen option is being finalised with Historic England. 2021 remains our goal to start building!
The design of the lodges continues to evolve too, and I can’t wait to start injecting magic. We’re looking to use the help of a panel of children from our Kids Village Best Friend ‘Make A Wish UK’ to inspire our special touches. The images attached are things I’m inspired by.
Our bespoke reservation system has now been built. This is our own system with the ability to easily manage bookings online for both us and the families. The reservation system is built with the future in mind and has the ability to grow in line with our big ambitions. We want to thank Paul Howes for his care and expertise developing the system for us. We continue to adapt the system with advice from our Kids Village Best Friend charities who work with families on a daily basis. Our newest Best Friends are Reuben’s Retreat and Promise Dreams; you can find a full list on the ‘What we do’ page of the website.
I’d also like to welcome GB Gymnast Alice Kinsella to Kids Village, as our newest Ambassador. We’re so excited to have Alice as a part of our team.
We’re continuing to build relationships with ambassadors who can share our story!
We are very grateful to have been able to go on our challenge trip in March this year, and really pleased that we raised over £80,000! Our fundraising plans continue; watch out for a new unique fundraiser in December – more information to follow on this soon. We refuse to let this global pandemic beat us and will fight for our cause whatever the world throws at us. A huge thank you for the continued support from both individuals and businesses.
We hope that you will continue to be our cheerleaders and help us to keep working towards getting Kids Village up and running.
Sam Fletcher
