After a couple of previous successful attempts at fund-raising for specific charities (2010-2011 aptcoo and 2014-2015 maggies), the “ontheroad” crew (myself and Kev!) have decided once again to donate a sum of money for each goal we see on our travels in this coming season to a local, deserving charity. With Kev being recently diagnosed with Parkinsons’ disease, my initial idea was to raise funds for Parkinsons’s UK, but Kev thought that a children’s charity would be a great idea, and maybe look at Parkinson’s UK in the near future.
Think Children, based in Newark, is the charity we are “goal-grabbing” on behalf of this season. Think Children offers support to vulnerable children aged 4-11 years old, who are showing emerging social, emotional and behavioural issues. Support is one to one, giving the children a chance to talk in complete confidence to an adult who is neither friend, teacher or relation, thus offering the children the chance to talk comfortably about things they may otherwise not wish to talk about.
The charity has a couple of well known local sporting patrons and should (I hope) benefit from any publicity, however limited, that the “ontheroad” blog can provide.
Middlesborough FC striker Patrick Bamford is a patron of the charity. Patrick was born in Grantham, and raised in Norwell, a village just outside Newark. His fellow patron is GB Olympic Gold medal Hockey star Shona McCallin MBE, who also has local connections, her hockey history commencing after joining a Newark Hockey Club at a very early age.
Middlesborough FC striker Patrick Bamford is a patron of the charity. Patrick was born in Grantham, and raised in Norwell, a village just outside Newark. His fellow patron is GB Olympic Gold medal Hockey star Shona McCallin MBE, who also has local connections, her hockey history commencing after joining a Newark Hockey Club at a very early age.
Think Children was founded in 1981 as the Juvenile Treatment Unit, and renamed in 1996. Think Children is registered charity number 1146301 and all Think Children facilitators have enhanced DBS checks and are fully insured. Although based in Newark, Think Children is not just for children from Newark, it offers help across all of Nottinghamshire including the City of Nottingham. Their website www.thinkchildren.org.uk is well worth studying – all aspects of the charity are covered in detail.
I hope myself and Kev can get somewhere near to last seasons goal tally of 1300 – I can assure you if we fail, it won’t be for lack of trying!! Even 1000 goals will see us donating around £300 between us. Any other contributions will be most welcome, but as I have already mentioned in an earlier blog entry, we will not be asking for donations, although any support would be most welcome.
