The Trustees awarded a grant towards the Charity’s Blaen Wern Farm Holiday Project. The grant helped to pay towards accommodation, transport to and from Liverpool, clothing and personal care items for five children from Merseyside to have a holiday at the centre in April.
Kids Konnect have exclusive use of the centre at Blaen Wern. There is a fully accessible indoor swimming pool and canoes based there for use on the farm lake. The kids can have tractor rides around the 160 acre farm. Days out at the beach, crabbing/fishing at the sea wall, a day at the Folly Farm Adventure Park and a fish and chip supper are among the many activities the children can enjoy.
Before the children arrive, each room is prepared with teddy bears and poems and welcome notes on pillows. This is so that the children feel less anxious and ready to start a week of activities. On the first night there is a welcome meeting, and scrap books are handed out so that memories can be recorded and taken home.
Photographs are taken each day and printed each evening, so that the children can add these to their books. Each evening after dinner the group gets together to talk through what they liked about their day, anything they didn’t and what they would like more of. Then there are movie nights, talent shows, singing and dancing.
These holidays give Kids Konnect the opportunity to identify those children (and their families) that need their support after the trip. For example, on the April trip, Child R arrived with just the clothes he was wearing and his shoes were at least 3 sizes too small. Kids Konnect purchased new clothes and shoes for him, and for another 4 children on the same trip. Six families were identified in need of help and Kids Konnect now provide food hampers for them weekly, purchased school uniforms; and for two little boys who were sharing a cot, new beds were bought.
The Trustees were pleased to help give the children a wonderful holiday and memories that will last forever. It is fantastic that Kids Konnect go above and beyond to support the children and their families long after their holiday.
