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Branch News
WARNING: Please will anyone who is contacted by Mr
David Noakes offering GcMAFF as a treatment for autism (or anything else)
please contact either Mr E Feestone, Chief Pharmacist or Dr S Bridgman,
Director of Public Health (Guernsey) for advice.
This product is not
licensed for the treatment of any condition.
Injectable substances should
not be given without medical supervision,
or sold/given to the general
public without prescription.
FestiviTea Parties
The NAS are again running the FestiviTea Party scheme whereby you are invited to host your very own festive tea party to raise awareness of and money for autism locally. To download a free party pack full of ideas and resources, or to get some inspiration visit www.autism.org.uk/festivitea
Please let us know what you have planned, if you would like any help to publicise a larger event we will be happy to help. All funds raised can be sent to our Branch Treasurer by cheque made payable to NAS Guernsey. Please email for address and details.
Ian Jordan - August 2001
A well attended presentation by Ian Jordan entitiled 'The visual world of the autistic spectrum' has resulted in some fantastic feedback. Several families also benefited from assessment appointments with Ian to establish whether their child would suit coloured lenses and we believe that in the majority of cases there were very noticeable and immediate results regarding the childrens' reaction to wearing different lenses. We look forward to hearing about how people get on, and due to the interest level will consider getting Ian to make a repeat visit to the island in the future.
Summer Play Sessions
Over the summer we have run four play sessions for young children - each session included the use of our sensory toy library resources, messy play with sand or water, bubbles, musical instruments and refreshments. Good feedback from the parents/grandparents/carers attending means we will look to repeat these sessions but are aware that it is hard to find a convienient time for everyone! Thanks go to Anne Le Cheminant for her help with the sensory toy library resources - you can contact Anne at any time to view or borrow items - her home phone number is 264805 or you can email her by clicking here .
SPELL Training - August 2011
Unfortunately, because we had to hold this training during school summer holidays (due to trainer availability) the numbers were reduced slightly, but Catherine reports that the sessions were perhaps more interactive as a result. Some participants will go on to train as local accredited SPELL trainers in September which will allow us to hopefully devise a rolling programme of SPELL in the future.
Summer Party
Around 25 children enjoyed a not so sunny afternoon at Styx with all the usual play based activities and ice creams - maybe next year we will get better weather! It was lovely to see so many new faces.
Chris Mitchell visit - June 2011
Chris visitied the island in June to hold a series of workshops and an evening presentaton on Aspergers Syndrome. He was extremley inspiring and engaging and we have had some lovely feedback.
AGM
Our AGM was finally held on 17th January after being cancelled due to snow in late November. A new committee was formed with all exisiting members continuing and four new faces joining us. Catherine Hall took over as Branch Officer after Judith Pattimore stepped down. Judith will remain on our committee and now focus on a few specific projects. We all thank her for her hard work over the years and hope she will continue to be such a good source of support and guidance.
Emma Jones, disability officer, gave an outline of her positon and developing job role and finally we showcased our newly expanded sensory toy library and new library books.
Christmas Party 5th December
Once again we chose Styx as the venue for our famliy Christmas party. We had a fantastic turnout with over 25 children enjoying some festive fun and a party food tea.
Halloween Party 31st October
A good turnout of parents and children enjoyed an afternoon of fun, games, face painting and a special magic show by Lars Henningsen to celebrate Halloween. Decorating iced gingerbread biscuits was popular and plenty of hotdogs got hungrily eaten.
Sunset Ball
98 people enjoyed a fantastic evening on 18th September for our Sunset Ball held at The Guernsey Yacht Club. Huge thanks go to all those who helped make the event a success including:
- Mourant Ozannes for their generous sponsorship
- Mees-Pierson for sponsorship
- Bonboniera Balloons for free balloon decor
- Chris Taylor for his acoustic guitar
- Tim Langlois for doing the photography free of charge - please see his website to view and order prints! http://www.langloisphotographyshop.com/
- Ben Le Prevost for discounted chocolate favours
- Randalls for providing the alcohol for the cocktail drinks reception
- Eventure Limited for a discount on chair covers and sashes
- Guernsey Amateur Dance Association (GDA) for providing the dance floor free of charge
- Plus all the businesses who donated raffle prizes
The final total raised was £6,038.26!!
Dr Wendy Lawson
We were pleased to see a good turnout for Wendy's evening presentation and daytime seminars when she visited the island in June. Postive feedback shows that people enjoyed getting a first hand insiders perspective on living with autism, and we are sure that a lot of the anecdotal stories will stay with you and be passed on.
Flag Day
We had a hugely successful day collecting on Saturday 17th April, Tuesday 22nd April and Saturday 24th April at Safeway, Bridge Co-op, St Martins Co-op, Alliance and M&S St Martins and L'Islet. The final total is £1,738 - wow!!!
A huge thankyou to everyone who helped out and to everyone who donated.
Easter Egg Hunt
We had a really successful Easter Egg Hunt with 31 children taking part and also enjoying a huge bouncy castle, Easter craft activities, toys and some yummy cakes. A big thankyou to everyone who came, we hope you enjoyed it. We will be repeating this type of event in the future as it really seems to work, Western Community Centre is already booked for Sunday 5th December for our Christmas Party.
Film Night
On Monday 22nd March 23 of us enjoyed a meal at Fermain Valley Hotel with a private screening of the film 'Adam' in the cinema afterwards. For those of you who couldn't make it the DVD is now in our library and available for borrowing.
EasyFundraising
We have now registered the Branch with Easyfundraising which is a website where retail stores and suppliers donate up to 15% of any purchases you make on their site to charity. Sites include Amazon, The Book People, Lego, HMV, numerous florists, Baker Ross, Boden, Fat Face, Play.com and Additions Direct as well as many holiday, hotel and travel companies.
This means that through sites which you may already use, and for no cost to you, we can raise funds for the Branch.
All you have to do is register yourself with the site, nominate us as your fundraising cause and then access all your favourite shopping websites through the easyfundraising site. You can also click the banner above to be redirected to the site.
Please pass this on to all of your friends and family as together this could be a really effective way of raising money for our Branch to use for local projects.
AGM
At our AGM on November 30th we said thankyou to retiring committee members Kate Everitt and Carol Sandrovich and welcomed Peter Webber and Samantha Edwards onto the committee.
Members then enjoyed a presentation by Anne-Marie Craig and Kate Trow from the Speech and Language Therapy Service who discussed recent changes to the service following a review into provison. There were plenty of questions from parents and the meeting ended with people having the opportunity to browse a large range of new books in the library whilst enjoying the refreshments provided.
Christmas Party
We had a family Christmas party on Sunday 29th November which provided a good chance to get together and children on the spectrum and their siblings to meet one another and play. A party tea and plenty of coffee and cakes were enjoyed by all, and based on the good feedback received this is something that we hope to repeat in 2010.
NAS Guide to Christmas for Parents and Carers
Christmas can be an especially difficult time for children with an autistic spectrum disorder, so the NAS has published a guide to try and help to make things just that little bit easier. Click here to download it in pdf format or visit www.nas.org.uk/christmas
FestiviTea Parties
The NAS have come up with a new fun initiative for December called FestiviTea Parties. You can throw a FestiviTea Party wherever you like in December - whether at home or in the office with friends, colleagues and family and raise funds for NAS Guernsey as well as improving the awareness of autism amongst the local community.
To have a FestiviTea Party all you need is:
1. Tea
2. Cake
3. People
You could supply tea and cakes to friends for a small donation, hold a kids tea party or have a bring and buy cake sale at work - anything involving tea, cake and people which raises money will count!
If you are planning on holding your own FestiviTea Party please let us know so we can include details of your success in our next newsletter.
More details including an information pack are available from the NAS site by clicking here
Library
We have just restocked our library with a huge amount of new titles. Lots of the books have arrived with more on the way. Click here to view the library list which is available at every Branch event or by contacting Mrs Catherine Hall on 246025
NAS Christmas Cards
We will be selling the range of NAS Christmas cards this year to raise funds for our Branch. There are a range of lovely designs which hopefully means there is something for everyone including traditional snowscenes, black and white photographs, animal designs, nativity scenes and the winning cards from two competitions run by the NAS. There are also of course two Thomas the Tank Engine cards which are lovely for children to send.
You can view the cards on the main NAS site, BUT PLEASE EMAIL ALL ORDERS TO INFO@NASGUERNSEY.COM or by calling Jo Horsepool on 07781 122234. By ordering through us we raise funds for our Branch - orders must be in by Monday 2nd November. A small selection of cards will be on sale at upcoming Branch events but these will be limited.
Don't Write Me Off - New NAS Campaign
Don't Write Me Off is the National Autistic Society's brand new UK wide campaign to ensure that the benefits system works for people with autism, supporting those who cannot work and helping those who want to work into employment. For more info click here
More details about how we are going to get involved with this campaign locally will be available soon.
Carey Commercial Sponsorship
Many thanks to Simon Tanguy for nominating our Branch as the local charity which Carey Commercial Limited supported as part of their sponsorship for the inaugural Channel Islands Stock Exchange International Business Summit held at St Pierre Park last month.
On their stand, thanks to the creative minds of Matt Palmer and Ben Snook, they organised a very colourful and popular “Sock Exchange” to raise additional funds to the £500 we were given as part of their exhibitor’s fee. We also had plenty of awareness raising materials displayed too, so all in all about £650 was raised which we intend to put towards education and training programmes
'What teachers know that parents can use - strategies for Asperger Syndrome and high functioning autism'
On Monday 7th September, Glen Major, a specialist teacher, and Mary Hartshorne, Speech and Laguage Therapist and Head of Expert Advisory Service of ICAN, made a presentation for us aimed at parents.
Donkey Derby 2009
The weather was fantastic for a very busy day at the Donkey Derby. Our children's arts and crafts stall saw lots of visitors and it was great to see so many of you there to say hello.
Stephen Cornwell 'An Asperger Journery Through the Neurotypical Universe' Talk
We had a fantastic turnout for a fascinating talk but visiting speaker Stephen Cornwell on Monday 15th June. We will hopefully continue to bring over various speakers several times a year as they are very popular.
Trainwalk Family Fun Day
A big thankyou to everyone who braved the weather and turned out on Sunday 7th June. Depsite the rainy showers we were able to go ahead and provide an afternoon of entertainment including Trainwalks around the Scultpure Trail, arts and crafts with White Rabbit Parties, bouncy castles, face painting, raffle, tombola, stalls and train rides. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was lovely to see so much support for the charity.
Particular thanks go to:
- Peter de Sausmarez for allowing us to use the grounds of the Manor and the Sculpture Trail
- Mark Webb from Marks Marquees for providing a fabulous marquee as well as tables and chairs free of charge
- Big Kidz for providing the bouncy castle and slide at a considerable discount
- All the companies and individuals who donated prizes to the Grand Raffle and tombola
- Lorraine Greening and Daniela for providing their fantastically creative face painting skills free of charge
- All the stallholders (Tres Jolie, Creative Memories, Usborne Books, Party Art Temporary Tattoos, Bobbin 4 Beads , Phoenix Trading and Karla Hill) for creating a mini market
Communicate Charity Shop
Communicate is a new Guernsey charity for young people aged 14+ with communication difficulties. One of the primary aims of the charity is to help young people develop the social and life skills necessary to get them into meaningful employment.
Communicate has now opened a new charity shop on the Bridge, (in the old Bridge Motor Shop premises) and not only aims to raise funds but aims to give young people the opportunity to gain valuable and appropriate work experience in a real business environment.
You can help by donating goods, volunteering your time or just by visiting the shop and buying something!
Sarah Bamford can be contacted on 07781 112085 if you can help.
Easter Egg Hunt -Good Friday 10th April
Our annual Easter Egg Hunt was again held at the 8th Guernsey Sea Scouts headquarters in Le Douit Boudin on Good Friday. Several ASD kids along with their siblings and friends enjoyed making Easter crowns and then hunting for eggs in the field before exchanging them for a chocolate egg. We then munched on hot cross buns and hot dogs and had a small raffle.
Several of the older kids used the time to play Yu Gi Oh! in one of the side rooms.