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2007 Season:
Our eighteenth season exceeded all our expectations with 87
weekly bookings, 57% of which were repeat bookings.
Statistics:
9,170 people with special needs, together with their
families, friends and carers, have enjoyed holidays with us
since 1990 when our first boat, Rebecca, went into service.
This year:
31% had learning disabilities
33% had physical disabilities
6% had both physical and
mental disabilities
6% were elderly/infirm
8% were young people with
disabilities
16% were disadvantaged youth
61% were family groups
25% were from Day Centres
14% were from Residential Homes
People:
To help us manage our continuing success, an additional
part-time administrator has been recruited to help Danese,
so I am sure all our supporters would like to welcome
Valerie Dalgleish to our team.
Roy Mason has continued to deal with maintenance and
improvements to ensure call-outs are minimised.
The remote steering device being used this
year (Hewson family)
Fundraising:
Our 50/50 Club now has 148 members and a list of winners is
on
our website. This initiative, run by Mike Lang, has
contributed £876
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towards running costs since it was introduced last May but
we are always looking for more members!
In January there will be a bumper draw with prizes of £75;
£50; £25 with monthly prizes thereafter of at least £40, £20
and £10. Do contact us if you would like to join in the fun
and help us raise money.
Thanks to Chris Trigwell, St Mary’s Kintbury Drama Group and
the Kintbury Players raised over £1550 through their
respective performances of the annual pantomime and the ‘07
Revue.
Perhaps the most unusual fundraising event was when “7 in a
Bar” raised £1,000 by singing a mixture of barber shop and
modern music whilst cruising on Diana from Bedwyn to
Devizes, calling in at every pub and serenading passers-by.
Day trip with Abingdon Vesper Rotary
Abingdon Vesper Rotary have kindly enabled
us to purchase a dozen inflatable life vests – more
comfortable to wear, particularly for wheelchair users.
Some of our Voluntary Helpers have also given up their time
to enable local groups to enjoy day trips on the canal.
We ran training courses during March and April for 38
trainees in order to enable 19 new hirers to bring their
groups of disabled people.
2008 Season:
We will be operating Rebecca on a Friday to Friday basis,
Hannah and
Diana from Saturday to Saturday at Great Bedwyn, with Rachel
operating from Lower Foxhangers on Sundays.
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If you wish to have a holiday without
booking a whole boat then
Gloucestershire DART are continuing to offer holidays for
people with special needs – contact us for details or see
our website.
Keith Goldring skippers Hannah up the Caen
Flight
For the thirteenth year running Canal Breaks
for Special Children will be offering day and overnight
trips to individual children and their carers.
Despite rising costs, we intend to keep our hire charges the
same for the fourth consecutive year. We are only able to do
this because of the hard work and commitment of all our
volunteers who help with turnarounds and fundraising. I am
sure all our hirers appreciate their efforts.
Hire charges for 2008:
Hannah and Diana: £750 per week
Rebecca: £700 per week
Rachel: £550 per week
Web:
Please remember that you can check if a week is available on
our web page www.brucetrust.org.uk. If you enjoyed a holiday
with us this year and have any good photos, please let us
have them for inclusion on our web site.
Voluntary Helpers:
The boats are ‘turned around’ by our amazing team of
Voluntary Helpers – please contact us if you can spare a few
hours on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning between April
and October.
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