THE JANUARY TEA PARTY 2007

 

 The Annual Tea Party again broke all records with in excess of 60 people attending. The record turn out must in part be due to the magnificent spread prepared by the Committee and helpers. An advantage of having others collect goodies for you  is that if you ask different people no one realises how much you are eating but, despite frequent forays to the smorgasbord of delights, there was never any danger of supplies running low.

The meeting was focussed around a series of awards and started with apologies for absence. The award for most original excuse went to Mark Davies who had travelled all the way to the South of France to break his arm. Come on Mark we know you are quite capable of breaking limbs here in the UK; next time just say you don’t want to come!

General Judith explained how our Audrey had been honoured in a Poole Civic Reception and awarded a Volunteer Achievement Poole Pottery plate. The meeting was pleased but not at all surprised to hear this and agreed it was well deserved. Audrey said that she had accepted it on behalf of the whole branch and later our guest of honour Jools Cook from National Office confirmed how energetic and active the branch was in the national context.

An anonymous poet immortalised the occasion in verse.

 

“Our very good friend Audrey Beall

Has the Borough of Poole approval seal

We praise her with reverence

And pay her due deference

If we could get up again we’d even kneel"

 

The main business of the afternoon was introduced by Jools Cook, Head of Branch & Group Volunteer Development, who spoke of how she had identified from the committee minutes how successfully the branch managed to involve young people in the fund raising and running of events.  Jools thought that it was a model to which other branches should aspire and, to this purpose, it had been she who nominated the branch for the OSCARR which had been awarded in 2006.

The list of young people recognised was truly inspiring and as Jools commented gave rise to hope as these were the fund raisers and organisers of the future. We thank them for this as well as for paying our pensions! 

Graham Anderson, Sara Anderson, Michael and Charlotte Beall, Stephen and Julia Beall, Holly Broomfield, Mark Davies, Claire Pelling, Richard Davies, Matthew Hardy, Kate Morris, Lucy Hardy, Debbie Heys, Melissa Horlock, Andrew Mills, Amy Pennington, Elaine Lewis, Alexandra Seaman, Robin Shukla, Kevin Sloyan.   Michael Beesley also received an award for his work with Sixth Formers at Poole High School where he is a teacher.

The formal part of the afternoon over and with no room for any more sandwiches or cakes, the meeting was entertained by a young Jazz Trio.  Despite it being their first public performance “Steve, Dave and Sam” treated us to a number of well known standards including “Wonderful World, “Misty” and “Ain’t Misbehaving”.  Mark the names and remember you saw them here first.

                                

Audrey  receiving her award from the Mayor of Poole

The "Young Ones" with their certificates and Audrey with her award

 

The 60's Dance Night

The 60s night was a great success and enjoyed by all.

Every body thought the band Blayz were fantastic and we hope to have a repeat performance next year, if Keith the manager at Poole Stadium Social Club will allow us to have his venue for free again!

At a rough estimate the evening raised around £600 so well done to everybody involved in organising the event.

The boat trip that might have been!

On the Bank Holiday Monday the 28th May the branch had organised a boat trip around the Islands of Poole Harbour.  The boat, named the 'Dolphin', is a boat specially adapted to take wheelchairs. For those who have good memories we have used this before on a trip to Wareham in 2004 and the trip was shown on the website.

Like most of Bank Holidays in this country the weather is somewhat unpredictable and can almost be guaranteed to be inclement.  This day excelled itself as being forecast as a bit wet, windy and cold.  That was basically true except for wet bit.  As a result the boat trip was cancelled after due consideration by the skipper.  It was probably for the best as I suspect had we congregated at the Harbour and seen a choppy sea we would have opted out anyway.

It was planned to have a picnic onboard as it was a 2 hour trip and no planned landing for fish and chips.  Can you imagine trying to hand round sandwiches and soft drinks on a very choppy sea let alone eating and drinking them.

However our intrepid leader, Audrey Beall, was not to be defeated and  being as all the food had been prepared it was decided that the picnic would take place at a land based location.  I would add that as it was very cold an indoor environment would be more suitable so Val Spence, another member of our merry band of sailors (Ha, Ha!), offered her residence as the picnic venue.

We all trooped over to said residence at Ringwood for the picnic and had a thoroughly enjoyable time and put the world to rights by discussion.

Many thanks to Audrey and Val for the organisation and the food and drink.  The fact that the boat trip was cancelled wasn't because we were a load of wimps, honestly!

                                                                    

 

 

 

                          

You may notice in the first picture that some people are leaning over a bit, that wasn't to fit in the photo, it was to try and create the impression of the 'boat' listing, how sad can you get!   It would have been more effective if we had all leaned the same way!  Mike says he's not to blame this time as he didn't arrange it for us, just remember the trip to Bradbury rings!

 

 

 Walk to D’Feet MND

Sunday 17^th June

Photograph by kind permission of the Bournemouth Daily Echo

As if some unlooked for side effect of Global Warming, the red and white horde again descended on Sandbanks.  Forewarned perhaps by some racial memory of the previous year, the locals were conspicuous by their absence but any thoughts they harboured about keeping their money were in vain.  They forgot the return journey

Many supporters, some experienced, some new, set out to tackle the promenade. Organised with customary efficiency by General Judith they set out keeping to the left but soon spread out to provide group protection from the dangers of marauding cyclists.

The highlight of the morning was an impromptu display of wheelchair acrobatics by Mike Hardy. Upset at missing the early morning photo call with the Echo, he was showing off his kerb crawling, sorry kerb mounting, skills to Barbara and Don. Losing control of his joy stick he failed to pull out of his victory roll in time and ended sprawled over the pavement. His excuse was that he was trying to draw out the crowds to play on their sympathy and raise the profile of MND but I am not so sure.

Val provided the usual quality refreshments at the half way point and refreshed we set off homeward.  

As an exercise in raising public awareness the whole event was an unqualified success, and organised to the last letter. Fund-raising was very much a secondary aim but thanks to the generosity of friends and family and the people of Poole the very gratifying sum of £301 was collected. This year Sandbanks, next year The Mall in London?  What about that for a challenge Judith?

 

Rebecca (Becky) Garret