Hello, Rachel the Family Coordinator here. What a busy week we’ve had!
Wednesday saw Team Sunshine reunited with some of our families as we hosted our first Sunshine Family event in two years. The whole team have been super excited for this event; we’ve all missed seeing the families due to the restrictions of the pandemic so this was an amazing opportunity to catch up with some familiar faces and greet some brand new ones.
We were lucky enough to be able to use the fantastic facilities at Better Leisure Trampoline Park on the West Road in Newcastle. Better Leisure have always been big supporters of Team Sunshine and we’re delighted we got to host our event here. The accessible facilities and top notch soft play set up meant all the kids had a blast – whether that was dashing about or taking some time to chill out in the different areas.
We’ve been working closely with George the Centre Manager who has been fabulous at ensuring our children and their families can enjoy the event safely whilst having ample free parking and disabled changing facilities. Better have got excellent covid secure procedures and set up which meant families could feel secure knowing the facilities were clean, well looked after and as safe as possible. It’s amazing when we work with organisations who share our ethos and go above and beyond to ensure a positive experience for our children and understand their needs.
But the event wasn’t just an opportunity for the kids to have fun at a soft play; it was also a chance for parents to get together. It’s so important that we’re able to support our families in as many ways as possible, and from the research we conducted a few months ago, we know how much our parents enjoy meeting other families and sharing experiences, advice and support with each other. It’s safe to say our parents are fonts of specialist knowledge; whom we at Team Sunshine learn new things from every time we get to chat and catch up! It was lovely to see some of our families who we’ve supported in the past – to hear how the last year has been for them (and to be in absolute denial about how grown up all the kids are getting!) The team were also delighted to be able to meet some our new families who’ve received equipment during the last year, and put faces to names. It’s always an absolute privilege to be able to hear about the positive impact the equipment has had.
Lauren was ready with her trusty phone and iPad to capture some lovely photos and videos of our families enjoying the session and get some feedback from parents. Hopefully we’ll be able to share these remarkable stories with you all very soon.
We’re hoping that this event is the first of many Sunshine Family get-togethers and we hope to see many more families at future ones! If you’re a family we’ve supported or are in the process of supporting reading this and thinking, “oh, hang on, this is something I’d be interested in being part of,” make sure you request to join our exclusive ‘Sunshine Fund Families’ Facebook page to find out about our future events and special offers just for our families. If you don’t have any social media accounts you can always sign up for our newsletters and for updates by emailing us here at the charity on: rachel.kaczmar@reachplc.com or use the subscribe feature on our website www.sunshinefund.org
Rachel x
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