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2009 Season:
This has been an exciting year for the Trust – not only
was it our 20th season of providing holidays for people with
special needs but also the fund-raising and construction of
our new boat, The Rachel, was successfully concluded.
New Boat Appeal
The fund-raising appeal commenced in January 2008 after
our existing 6-berth family boat had begun to cause us some
concern, having bought her second-hand fifteen years ago.
Since then we have received 184 donations ranging from £5 to
£10,000 and we achieved our target of raising £150,000 in
good time to take delivery of our new 6-berth boat in
August, when she went into immediate service.
Rachel at the top of the Devizes flight.
Photo courtesy of the Bond family
Although only 6 groups have had the pleasure of cruising
on her so far, the feedback has been fantastic. Photos of a
couple of the groups are on our website at
http://www.brucetrust.org.uk/gallery
Very many thanks go to everyone who supported our Appeal or
came along to any or all of the many events we organised
during the year.
At the end of September the Rev. Michael Shaw blessed the
new boat, which was named Rachel by Rachel Bruce, David’s 91
year old mother, who launched her with the traditional
bottle of champagne! We were delighted on a warm and sunny
day to welcome 200 people who were either hirers past,
present and future or donors, volunteers and general
supporters.
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Rachel Bruce launches the new boat
50/50 Lottery
There are 278 entries in our lottery and to date we have
handed out in prizes in excess of £1,200.
Donated to the Trust so far through
this initiative: £2775.
17 of this year’s lottery winners were
hirers, 12 were volunteers and 7 were other supporters. We
will be having bumper prize draw in December – 1st: £120,
2nd: £60, 3rd: £30 and 4th: £15 – contact Danese if you
would like more chances of winning!
Statistics:
Since 1990, when the Trust was founded with just one
boat, The Rebecca, 10,837 people with special needs and
their families, friends and carers have enjoyed holidays
with us.
We have a high percentage of repeat bookings, currently in
excess of 60% which is a measure of our success!
This year:
29% had physical disabilities
25% had learning difficulties
7% had both physical and learning difficulties
12% were elderly/infirm
14% were young people with disabilities
13% were disadvantaged youth
75% were family groups
20% were from Day Centres
5% were from Residential Homes
Day Trips
This season over 540 people from local care homes and day
centres have enjoyed day trips on the canal. 20% of these
were elderly residents of nursing homes. |
Equipment
Each year we inspect all our ancillary equipment and replace
where necessary. Abingdon Vesper Rotary Club have generously
provided funding this year to replace all our life jackets
with the automatic inflatable type which are more popular
with our holidaymakers.
The life jackets being demonstrated
From Great Bedwyn we will be operating Diana
starting on Fridays; Hannah and Rebecca starting on
Saturdays and from Lower Foxhanger we will be operating the
new Rachel starting on Sundays.
Our hire charges will remain the same as during 2009:
Hannah or Diana: £750-850 per week
Rebecca: £700-750 per week
Rachel (new boat): £650-700 per week. You can check if a
week
is available on our web page
www.brucetrust.org.uk/index2.htm
Holidays for Individuals:
As usual, Gloucestershire DART will be hiring at least 5
weeks to enable people with disabilities to have holidays
afloat. See their web page for details:
www.glosdart.co.uk
Learning to steer on a Gloucestershire DART
week
Web
If you enjoyed a holiday with us this year and
have any good photos, please let us have them for inclusion
on our website. |
