DELTA - Chattering December 2006

Deaf Education through Talking and Listening

Chattering - December 2006

Dear All

Welcome to Chattering. I am Wendy Adderley and I am responsible for contact with families and members as well as developing community fundraising over the coming year. As many of you will know, I have worked for DELTA part time for almost 9 years in a variety of guises.

My last role was to coordinate the Parenting fund project for the last 2 years which saw us hold:

4 pre-school summer schools,
2 primary summer schools,
2 secondary weekends,
1 YDAG (Young DELTA Adult Group) weekend,
1 Music Day
3 regional teams established in the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside and the East Midlands
10 Information days.

On top of that we also held a weekend in Wales and 2 information days thanks to a grant from the Welsh millennium fund. All in all a very busy couple of years.

The grants from the Parenting fund and Welsh Millennium fund have now been spent and we are facing a lean time competing with thousands of charities for the same pots of money.

Julia Gomm was appointed at the beginning of this year as our Corporate Fundraiser, applying to the Big Lottery Fund, Children in Need, trusts, foundations etc to raise money to support our future work. However, these applications take time to complete and then more time for them to be assessed; in the meantime, we desperately need some money to keep our summer schools, information days and regional work going.

Summer School Appeal

Part of my job now is to compliment Julia, by trying to raise money through the community, in any which way I can, which is why I will be launching an appeal in the new year for help to raise enough money to cover summer schools and to carry on our regional work for the future

Summer schools are always are biggest outlay, but as many of you know who have attended these, they are worth every penny. We have estimated it costs in the region of £40,000 to run 2 pre-school and 1 primary summer school. That’s a lot of money to raise, but I hope with your support we can do it, watch out for ways in which you can help in our January issue. In the meantime why not try some Christmas fundraising?

Schools

Adopt DELTA as your school charity. The Naismith Family have persuaded their school to adopt DELTA as their chosen charity for their Christmas collection. Ask your school to do the same.

Carol singing

Christmas is always a good time for people to reach into their pockets for good causes. Why not get a group together to sing carols around your local pubs?

Welcome to Steve Matthews as Chair of DELTA

Steve is the first Chair of DELTA who is deaf which is a tremendous way of getting over our message and showing we practice what we preach. Many of you will know Steve as a helper at Lancaster summer schools. He has also helped at a number of information days and events over the years. You can read Steve’s story and his vision for DELTA on our website

DELTA Website

There is a lot more information now on our website, particularly for parents. Please take a good look, tell us what you think and suggest any changes or additions you would like to see.

I need your news!!

Please contact me with your news and any ideas you would like to share. This is your chance to keep in touch, parents, youngsters and all the family and also to let us know what you would like us to do more of.

A few seasonal Jokes to make you smile??!!

Q. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
A. Frostbite!

Q. Why does Santa have 3 gardens?
A. So he can hoe hoe hoe!!

If you can do better please write in!!

I’d like to share this picture with you. This was our visit to Lapland last year to see the real Father Christmas, what a fabulous experience. Roll on Christmas!