LOOKING FORWARD!
Last February, we started to write our Spring 2020 Newsletter, informing you of our latest developments and plans for the future. Little did we know what was around the corner! It has obviously been, and continues to be, a very difficult time but we are still here, preparing for the next season but also available to take bookings between now and then from schools, clubs and groups which may wish to use our facilities, such as our halls or grounds, for Covid fully compliant activities. Sadly, we had to furlough, then lose our temporary staff but our permanent staff remain, looking after the site and dealing with enquiries so please feel free to contact us at any time. action@woodlandsadventure.co.uk
In particular, we would also like to thank our customers, schools and groups which postponed their visits until 2021. We can assure them that all our activities will be fully open as soon as the Government restrictions are lifted.
In the meantime, we continue to plan for the future. As reported last year, we had received the amazing news that one of our former Chairs of Trustees, the late Mr John Lloyd, had left a substantial legacy to our Charity. His wonderful gift has enabled us to undertake a large number of essential infrastructure works and introduce new activities which will ensure our continued future, enhancing the experiences which we can offer to our young visitors. We have already used part of the legacy but we will put the rest towards a new multi-purpose residential/day block which we hope will also be supported by generous charitable trusts. So, we can look forward to a bright future ahead.
Please read on..… the Newsletter continues as it was back in February but inevitably remains much the same.
OUR 2020 VISION – A NEW VISITOR BUILDING
Always ensuring that we follow current safeguarding regulations, we have only ever been able to accommodate 2 groups at any one time as each group requires their own dedicated facilities such as toilets and showers. Consequently, with ever increasing demand we have had to turn away bookings as we operate a first come, first served policy, whatever the number of visitors involved. The solution of having a further residential and day visitor’s facility became apparent and so we drew up plans and have now been granted full planning permission to use our underutilised indoor sports hall for this purpose. There will be a female and a male dormitory, each with 16 beds and was areas, wet room facilities for our disabled visitors and 4 beds for Leaders. A further fully equipped kitchen and refectory will allow us to take a third group on site so we will not have to disappoint so many groups in the future. We intend to use our own funds from the Legacy and hope to match that funding with donations and grants from generous charitable trusts. We hope that we will be able to start work on this exciting new development during 2021/2022. Please see the 3D image of the development below.
SWINGING HIGH!
Using Legacy money, our high ropes course has been greatly extended and improved. This activity now incorporates many new exciting elements and even more visitors can access the many different challenges it entails at any one time. Under the watchful eye of our experienced Instructors, participants are soon able to navigate their way from stage to stage, giving them a huge feeling of achievement on completion.
BOULDERING WALL
Visitors will enjoy our brand-new bouldering wall where they can climb and move along different routes choosing different levels of difficulty, whilst practising and improving their co-ordination and balancing skills. We are sure that this will become a very popular activity.
MORE IMPROVEMENTS
We are always looking for ways to increase the choice of activities available and improve our facilities for our visitors. The Wilmcote Charitrust and the Fitton Trust have kindly funded a Pool Table and The Cole Charitable Trust have paid for circus skills and tomahawk equipment. Through their customer donations, the Midshires Co-op gave us money to buy new changing room benches, and vanity units have been installed in the dorms thanks to The Grantham Yorke Trust. New beds and sheets were generously funded by Baron Davenport’s and The Richard Cadbury Charitable Trust, whilst Ash Green School has donated tents for our campers – another very useful addition.
SAFETY FIRST
Ever conscious of the need to ensure the safety of our visitors at all times, we send our staff on various regular training courses, kindly funded by The Roger & Douglas Turner Charitable Trust. The safety of our equipment is also a very high and necessary priority so we constantly replace our ropes, helmets, harnesses and water sport parts to name but a few. Our continued thanks go to The W E D Charitable Trust, The Lillie C Johnson Charitable Trust, the GJW Turner Trust, the Henry James Sayer Charity and the George Henry Collins Charity for these essential items. Canoe seats and paddles have been funded by the Roughly Trust and Miss J B Allbright’s Grimley Charity, and new zip line trolleys have come from the BAYC/Variety Club. The Lord Austin Trust has paid for a replacement mixer valve on our showers to regulate water temperatures and the Grimmitt Trust has bought a new block stop for the zip wire across the lake. We are very grateful to them all.
KEEPING TABS ON ALL OUR EQUIPMENT
It is not an easy task to keep an eye on all the hundreds of pieces of equipment at Woodlands Adventure – but it is a necessary one to ensure that every single item is listed and monitored for maintenance and replacement. The task has been made much simpler by the installation of a computerised Papertrail management tool which holds data on 1,400 items, speeding up our weekly and monthly checks. Our staff have also benefitted with the donation of office furnishings and equipment from Nick Canning Ltd. Our thanks to all.
We would like to thank the following for their invaluable and generous donations which help us to continually improve the facilities and Centre: R Barrow, L Null, G Breatnach, Rebecca’s Trust, The Fitton Trust, the Dumbreck Charity, Sir John Sumner’s Trust, The Dagny Raymond Charitable Trust, The Measures Trust, The Richard Cadbury Charitable Trust, The Goodenough Charitable Trust, E Hobbs, Whitegates Children’s Trust, The Lady Tangye Trust, the Loppylugs and Barbara Morrison Charitable Trust, Bite Size Pieces and the Joan Lamb Charitable Trust, The Ratcliff Foundation and The Michael Marsh Charitable Trust. We would also like to thank all of the anonymous donators for their invaluable support and express our thanks and gratitude to Gill Thomas from the Pioneers Magazines, for all the past, present and continuous support given to us.