Dear All,
As the year draws to the end we just wanted to give everyone an update on what we have been up to this past year.
Our family discos have been sell outs. Each and every one differently themed, it’s been great seeing so many families being able to join us and we are looking forward to continuing them next year. We hope to see more people attending the All Disabilities Matter disco’s that follow on from the family discos. The discos are paid for out of our town council allowances and The Big Club. I cannot thank The Big Club and its members enough for supporting and accommodating us in all our ventures…..you are truly the hub of the community, thank you.
The money raised during our events means we have been able to support our community in lots of different ways. Over the year we have helped struggling families buy white goods, helped grieving families with funeral costs, and supplying food packages.
We donated money to help St Oswald’s Nursery with their sensory wall and supported William Cooksey the inspirational, young 101 year old who cycled 1000 miles and raised over £5,000 for the NHS.
It was lovely to be involved with Aycliffe Radio at this years Easter event in the Town Centre, five hours in that bunny costume was hot work!
We were also privileged to help out with a Durham County Council scheme to help the people of Ukraine and with the combined efforts of people of Newton Aycliffe we were able to send three full lorries over to Ukraine to help them in crisis.
We have donated money to Great Aycliffe Town Council to help them decorate their sleighs on Christmas Eve and continue to provide our own sleigh to tour with them, thanks to Gav at J&C Coaches, who always does an amazing job!
And finally, Christmas Time….the most wonderful time of our year. What can I say, the companies and people on this town are totally amazing and it just shows what you can do when you all pull together. The article in last weeks Newton News says it all and we can only apologise if anyone has not been mentioned by name, the Christmas Extravaganza was truly a team effort. What the police failed to mention is that their team came and supported the event on their weekend off!
The free event could not have gone ahead without the funding from all the amazing companies out there. GATC and the Durham County Councillors both have funds available to help with large community events, a big thank you to the Durham County Councillors for your support, and to BPJ Draughting Ltd who came forward with the final funds to help us buy the last lot of sweets to make sure every child visiting got a present from Santa.
For those who saw the Grotto it was amazing, and our sincerest thanks to Palram and Newton Press for all going above and beyond. Thank you to Inspector Sarah Honeyman for all your hard work, dedication and laughs, we hope you liked your Community Spirit Award. Finally, PC Mike Welch, these grottos would never have even started if it wasn’t for you, your community spirit and your love of Christmas (big kid) has continued to make these events bigger and better. We have met some truly amazing people who we are now privileged to call friends.
We raised an amazing amount of money, £1000 worth toys have been donated to Community Action Lifeline, £1000 of food donated to St Clare’s food bank and Junction 7.
We have donated to NASSL our local animal sanctuary, the Scouts, the Brownies, Shine Choir, 5 Acres, Prickly Haven and the Cancer Support Group.
We invited the local nurseries to attend the grotto with free transport and a treat from Santa. Our street collections have been amazing and it’s been so lovely to surprise the young and old alike with a visit from Santa and his sleigh. The proceeds of the street collections will be donated to 5 Acres.
All that’s left is the Christmas Eve Tour, the best night ever!Community Spirit has got some very exciting times ahead but everything we do is because of the support from the people of Newton Aycliffe.
We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and we cannot wait to see you all again in the new year.
Thank you, Jo & Nev Jones
