FACES and St John’s School are this Year’s Member-chosen Charities

Thank you to every member who nominated and voted in our recent charity selection process.  We are pleased to say that we have counted up and the two charities with the most votes and hence the local charities we will support over the next 12 months are FACES and St John’s School in Bedford.

Both are well-known locally, but for those that would like some more background, we share a little about them below.

St John’s School

St John’s School and College in Bedford is part of Bedford Inclusive and Training Learning Trust. It caters for pupils who have severe and complex learning difficulties, from Early Years through to post-16.

Their curriculum is personalised and is divided into different pathways to ensure each pupil receives the curriculum best suited to their needs. Staff provide learning opportunities to ensure pupils achieve highly, develop their skills and personalities to enable them to become the best. The school aims for each pupil to become as independent as possible, develop effective means of communication, build self-esteem and confidence and form positive relationships with others.

The facilities at St John’s include a hydrotherapy pool, an Interactive Sound and Light room, dedicated ICT facilities, nature garden, rumpus room and a food technology room. Pupils are encouraged to think, explore and participate in the world around them.    

Amanda Rizzo, Assistant Head Teacher from St John’s School said to us:

“On behalf of all the pupils and staff at St John’s I would like to express our sincere appreciation and delight at being voted by Club Towers members to be one of your supported charities over the next year.  Charitable donations are vital to us as a school in order to provide the specialist equipment and resources our pupils need. We are thrilled that this amazing support from Club Towers will enable us to enrich and enhance the learning and resources for our pupils.”

FACES

FACES (Family and Children’s Early-help Services) is a well-established, local and independent charity offering practical and emotional support to families under stress. They support local children and families faced with difficult issues such as mental and physical health problems, domestic abuse, poverty, child sexual exploitation and behavioural issues via a range of quality-tested services and family support groups, many led by a team of dedicated volunteers.  They do this by recruiting and training volunteers who work alongside their Practitioners in delivering a unique menu of tailored services directly to a family, in their own home. 

Michaela Martindale, Chief Executive Officer from FACES, commented:

Thank you so much for letting us know that FACES have been chosen as one of your charities of the year. We are really grateful.  This supports comes at a time when all our services are stretched. We are supporting more families than ever through our projects and answering innumerable calls from the public in response to the cost-of-living crisis and other issues. This money will enable us to improve our existing services and give us the opportunity to expand further to meet the needs of the local community.

We start the fundraising year on a high after recently announcing that we raised over £14,000 for last year’s charities, The Elisabeth Curtis Centre, Riding For the Disabled and St John’s Hospice in Moggerhanger.  This brought our fundraising total since the Club opened to over £50,000; an incredible amount raised by members and staff.

We now look ahead to another exciting year of fundraising and supporting two local children’s charities. Our first event is our cake and coffee morning on Saturday 23^rd September.  Next up, in a first for the Club, we will be running a 24-hour racquets event where we have two members playing squash and tennis for 24 hours respectively from 5pm on the 5^th October to 5pm on the 6^th.  More details to follow shortly, but there will be lots of opportunities for members to get involved and support the event across the 24 hours.

Thank you again to those members who nominated and voted.