Promoting the work of the Friends in a fun way!

We had a very busy three days at the New Forest Show, talking with lots of people about our work supporting Lymington Hospital.

Ian Hynd (our Ops Manager) can be seen pointing at our 5 Ways display stands, information about our charity and children’s game.

Four trustees, Arthur, Mike, David, and Anne ran the stand with Ian and over three hot days we talked with lots of people.

It was a good opportunity to share information about the work of the Friends. This included a range of projects totalling over £1m, demonstrating stroke activity aids, promoting the new sensory garden project and explaining the five ways you can help (by donating, volunteering, becoming a friend, fundraising, and leaving a gift in a will or in memory).

How did we get on?

Over three long hot days, we:

• talked with over 250 people
• recruited three potential new ward friends and a Pets as Therapy (PAT) dog volunteer
• collected £150 with more donations promised,
• met new project sponsors
• and signed up 94 new hospital friends

Overall, a very positive result and we will look at options to return to the show next year. Also to consider other events where we can meet more local people and broaden our community support.

Donkey Poo Game!

To entertain the children and encourage parents and grandparents to view our display, we had a game to find where ‘Desmond’ the donkey was going to poo! The children had three goes each to guess the square and the winners received bags of chocolate-covered raisin donkey poo!

It was lots of fun and helped us chat with the adults.

A big thanks to Brighterway, Southern Health’s charity (who are sponsoring the Sensory Garden) for sharing their stand and providing a large fridge to store much needed water – and keep the donkey poo from melting.