It’s been over a year since the last Volunteer Newsletter, but I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Funding and Income Generation Manager at Walthew House.

My name is Sarah Mollitt and I may have seen you if you were at the Walthew House Cup bowling event or the See Hear exhibition. I officially joined the team here on 1st April, and I’m looking forward to helping the charity to raise lots of money so that we can continue to support our local community who need us!

I previously worked at Bolton Hospice, but before that I worked at Henshaws Society for Blind People, so I have some experience of working in the sensory loss sector. I am very grateful to Shannon for helping me to ease into my new role, and she has already fully briefed me on our wonderful group of dedicated volunteers!

I work full-time so will be here every day – please come and say hello! I can also be contacted by email on fundingmanager@walthewhouse.org.uk 

Stockport Beer and Cider Festival 2022

Walthew House has been chosen as the Festival Charity for the upcoming Stockport Beer and Cider Festival that takes place at Edgeley Park from 16th-18th June 2022. This is a great opportunity for us to generate funds as well as spreading the word about what we do to support people living with sensory loss.

We need to organise volunteers to help on our charity bar, as well as selling event programmes, refreshments and raffle tickets. The Festival is split into the following sessions:
Thursday 16th June – 3.30pm-5.30pm (trade session) and 5.30pm-11pm
Friday 17th June – noon-5pm and 5pm-11pm
Saturday 18th June – noon-5pm and 5pm-11pm

Please can you let me know if you are able to help at any of these shifts? It promises to be a fun weekend (whether you like beer or not!)

Easter Raffle

Thank you to Laura, Chris and Graham who helped to chase up donations of Easter-themed goodies to make up our fantastic hamper prizes, as well as everyone who bought and sold tickets to their family and friends.

The raffle raised £1,134 for Walthew House, and the winners were all over the moon with their hampers – Judy Brown was volunteering at the time in the Resource Centre, so was able to collect her 2nd prize hamper straight away! Congratulations to our trustee Lynda O’Brien who won the 1st prize hamper.

Walthew House Cup

A huge thank you to everyone who helped at our annual Walthew House Cup event that took place in March. We raised £1245 this year (the most the event has ever raised) and it was great that we were joined by so many local businesses and organisations, plus the Mayor of Stockport too. We have had lots of great feedback about how well-organised the event was – I’m already looking forward to next year’s event!

Sharing stories from our volunteers

I am interested in putting together some case studies about some of our Walthew House volunteers, which can be shared with the wider community to highlight the variety of tasks that our volunteers get up to. By sharing why you got into volunteering and detailing what you get out of it too, it is hoped that we can attract new volunteers to come forwards whilst also shouting from the rooftops about how wonderful it is to volunteer here!

If you are interested in helping with one of these case studies, please let me know – I’d just arrange a time to sit down with you to have a chat about your volunteering and take a photo too if you don’t mind. Thank you in advance for your help with this.

Zip wire for Walthew House

We are gauging interest from our supporters to see whether anyone would be interested in taking on a zip wire challenge at Salford Quays whilst raising money for Walthew House! The largest zip wire event in the North West takes place on 16th and 17th July, taking off from the Imperial War Museum North, soaring 100ft in the air across the Manchester Ship Canal and landing on the Piazza outside Media City.

It costs £50 to take part, but then 50% of this is refunded when you submit your sponsorship monies after the event – so it will cost you just £25 for this once in a lifetime experience! We ask that individuals raise a minimum of £75 in sponsorship money for our charity. If you are feeling brave and are interested in this event, please let me know!

Volunteering opportunities

• We are having a stand at the Bramhall and Woodford Rotary Club Duck Race and Family Fun Day which takes place on Sunday 15th May at Bramhall Park. We are hoping to organise a tombola to raise some funds and need volunteers to help man the stand, which will be open 11am until 4pm (with set up from about 10.30am). Please let me know if you are able to help out!
• We are hoping to hold a bucket collection at the Trafford Centre on Saturday 2nd July as part of DeafBlind Awareness Week (this still needs to be confirmed by the shopping centre) – please let me know if you are able to help for a couple of hours on the day.
• Counter-top collection boxes continue to bring in a steady income for Walthew House, and also help us to spread awareness across the town. We need help arranging to collect these boxes from their locations across Stockport, so please let me know if you are available to do this.

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and we also have a private group on Facebook called ‘Walthew House Volunteers’ which you can join and keep up to date with all of our volunteering activities.

I look forward to meeting you soon, and thank you so much for your support at Walthew House!

Sarah