Registered Charity No. -1118510 Helsby Golf Club Powered Wheelchair Appeal

Issue 1 September 2013

Letter from our Chairman

Dear Supporters 316 POWERED WHEELCHAIRS DONATED DURING THE PAST 30 YEARS Inside this issue: Welcome to the first edition of Helsby Golf Club’s “Powered Wheelchair Appeal” Letter from our Chairman 1 Newsletter. Even after our 30th Birthday has been and gone, we are still trying to find better Achievements to date 1 ways to tell you what, both we as a committee and our many generous support- ers are doing on behalf of our Charity. Wheelchair Classic 2 We hope you find it interesting and informative. Spring Dance 3 Let us know what you think. Also, any ideas for raising money or improving events would be really appreciated MEGA Day 3

Forthcoming Events 4 Alan Lee Chairman Supporters Fundraising 4

A bit about us What have we achieved? Our 1st Chair in 1983 316 powered wheelchairs for de- serving youngsters

Fundraising for 30 years The Appeal was founded in 1983 by members of Helsby Golf Club to raise funds to buy a powered wheelchair for Hilary Kenyon, a deserving child with special needs. Equivalent of £1.2m raised The Appeal is now run by a committee of volunteers from the Golf Club. Voted ‘Champion of Champions’ All the funds raised go towards the purchase of wheelchairs for local children in the by the Trinity Mirror Group & Scottish Power in 2011 North West. Operating costs are kept to an absolute minimum. The Appeal became a registered charity in 2007. Helsby is the most successful golf club in the Peter Alliss Masters One of the founding members, Bert Dyson, is still actively involved on the committee Crusade and has been awarded an MBE for his services to children.

The Appeal is part of the Peter Alliss Masters Crusade which raises funds for powered wheelchairs for children throughout the UK. Helsby Golf Club Powered Wheelchair Appeal 31st Wheelchair Classic Our main fundraising Although the weather Brotherton from Barnton event, the Wheelchair was not good, a great Northwich and Courtney Classic, took place on day was had by all with Taylor-Hayhurst from Thursday 13th June. We 164 competitors playing Widnes. were joined by the Man- in the golf competition. This was followed by the chester United legends In the evening our Cap- presentation of the tro- Frank Stapleton, Stuart tains, Brian Prince and phies to the winners of Pearson and Jeff Jarmila Lee together with the competitions. Wealands who together our legendary guests with author David Wilson The charity auction in the and sponsor Chris Lind- played in the golf tourna- evening was a very lively ley presented wheel- ment and presented the affair run by Kieran chairs to Aaron Lambert wheelchairs to 5 excited McCabe from the Forest from Northwich, Liam youngsters. Hills Hotel, Frodsham O’Neil from Beswick “Thank you all so much for funding ably assisted by Steve Manchester, Joe Blease my wheelchair which has given me Cunniffe from Helsby. the independence to get around from Middlewich, Jason college. Now I can get around with my friends a lot easier and faster.” OVER Courtney Taylor-Hayhurst £16,500 RAISED

Our thanks go to all of Helsby Golf Club and our Dave Nagle, Brian the following, without you other supporters who Prince, Keith Ainsworth we would not be able to played in the competition and Mal Dewsbury as raise the money to help and brought bottles for well as the committee so many youngsters the tombola and other members with special needs prizes Kieran McCabe who Helsby Golf Club for Ian Alderton, who trav- did a magnificent job the use of the course els from Norfolk each running the auction and the facilities year, who donated a And last but not least, Winners of the Men’s Trophy superb golf bag from the Chris Lindley, Manag- all the following local and 2010 Ryder Cup for our Chris Harrison & Neil McLeod ing Director of Jigsaw not so local businesses Special Raffle Law , this year’s event that provided the prizes From Thwaites sponsors All those who helped for the competitions, the on the day including raffles and the auction. All the members of

FDL Group Tesco Stores, Helsby Chelsea Football Club Jigsaw Law Ideal Gardens, Helsby Everton Football Club Palmers Jewellers Post Office, Helsby TaylorMade Crown Carpet Warehouse Serenity for Beauty PING Electrod UK Ltd The Make-Up Room Titleist Forest Hills Hotel Boodles, Chester Motocaddy Robert Gleave & Sons Chris Cousins Golf, HGC Footjoy Frodsham Brewery The Brickwall Hotel, Sedlescombe Cars & Bikes Winners of the Ladies’ Trophy Perfect Floors & Interiors Golf House Club Elie Paws and Claws Janet Richards & Val Pritchard CK Charles Craw’s Nest Hotel, Anstruther AK Design HE Coward Vauxhalls, Ellesmere Port Grove Fisheries From Helsby Lusso Hair Thwaites Brewery Martin Stoneley Tiling Alan Hunt Catering, HGC Chester Golf Centre Junction 8 Tile & Stone

Page 2 A Spring Dance with a Touch of the Irish Issue 1

The Spring Dance was dancing followed the Angel Haydn aged 11 held on 16th March. The Irish theme. By the end from Winsford who is Flaxmere Ceilidh Band of the evening everyone, severely disabled and provided the entertain- even the President, was attends the Russett ment for a very enjoy- on the floor joining in the School in Weaverham. able evening where the Ceilidh. She came with her Nan dress, the food, the Linda, who looks after We presented our 309th decorations and the her, and her Dad David. Powered Wheelchair to

MEGA Day—A Right Royle Celebration

On 7th August, Helsby Golf Club Golf Tournament hosted the supporters of the PWA who were joined for the 12th year The sun shone and the course running by members of MEGA was in superb condition which (Merseyside Entertainers Golf As- led to some great scores in the sociation) for a fun day of golf fol- golf competition. lowed by an evening of entertain- The winning team was - ment provided by the stars of MEGA . Brian Stott, Marcus Lightfoot and Neil Johnson from Helsby with Special guest Ricky Tomlinson of Bryan Kramer from MEGA. ‘The Royle Family’ fame helped our Captains, Brian Prince and Jarmila The runners up were - Lee, present wheelchairs to Jordan Dave Harries, Paul Crombie, Neil Duke from Prenton and Connor Graham and Reg Bowden Webb from Widnes, bringing the (MEGA). total number of chairs donated over the last 30 years to 316. We were pleased to see that visitors to the club went away Jordan has just left school and is with the prizes for nearest the pin hoping to take up an opportunity and nearest the line; Richard offered by Everton FC as an ap- Brown from Warrington GC and prentice learning how to be a coach Paul Staunton (MEGA). for disabled people. His new chair will give him the freedom and inde- We have welcomed Paul to the pendence to be able to do this. club for a number of years as the organizer of the MEGA players Connor is also sports mad and last but Richard is a new supporter of year won the Young Sportsperson the Appeal joining us at events of the Year for Widnes which was for just 12 months. We hope to presented at the Rugby Ground. see him on future occasions. Ricky then compered a superb A great time was had by all and evening of laughter and music with the day raised £2,000 for the the renowned comedian Mick Appeal. Miller, vocalist and guitarist Gary Murphy and singer Joe Wall. The The Winning Team music duo the Chimes rounded off the evening with music to dance to.

Page 3 Forthcoming Events Helsby Golf Club Powered Wheelchair Appeal Black & White Evening - Our next event is the to be held on Satur- day 7th December 2013 at Helsby Golf Club. This is a fun evening with everyone wearing black and white with a touch of red. There Chairman will be a meal followed by entertainment and dancing. If you would Alan Lee - 01244 300308 like to attend, please put your name on the list on the Golf Club no- Appeal Secretary tice board in November or contact Penny Ainsworth, Appeal Secre- Penny Ainsworth—01928 723817 tary. The Chinese Banquet will again be held at the Fortune Palace Res- Email - [email protected] taurant in Delamere on 19th January 2014. The 8th Annual General Meeting of the Powered Wheelchair Appeal will be held at Helsby Golf Club on Thursday 6th March 2014. All supporters of the Appeal are welcome. Dates for next year:- We are on the Helsby Golf Club Website—visit the Powered Wheelchair Spring Dance – Saturday 26th April 2014 pages on www.helsbygolfclub.org Wheelchair Classic – Thursday 12th June 2014 MEGA Day – Wednesday 6th August 2014 Black & White Evening – Saturday 6th December 2014

Fundraising Events by Supporters

The Merseyside Electrical Traders Association holds a charity golf tournament each year. They have been kind enough to donate the proceeds of the event to the PWA for Roddy Snedden the last few years and this year we received a cheque for £3,000. Our thanks go to Roddy Snedden of Electrod UK and the other members of the Association for their generous support. The Moore Foundation is a charitable trust set up by Moore Finance of Warrington to provide financial support and practical relief to local children’s charities and worthy causes. The PWA has been the recipient of support from the Trust and in July a fur- ther cheque for £2,500 was presented to Alan Lee, Chairman by Nigel Garner, Chair- man of the Foundation at their annual charity golf tournament held at Warrington GC. We would like to thank Nigel & his team for their continued support.

The Aqueduct Marina at Church Minshall held their annual Boaters Bash and Family Fun Day on 20th & 21st July. Each year the owners, Robert and Andrea Parton, choose a different charity to support over the weekend. This year Anya and Geoff Harris rec- ommended the Powered Wheelchair Appeal as we had presented a chair to their son James in 2002. They now have a narrowboat at the Marina, which has been adapted to enable James to spend time on board in his wheelchair. They had a great weekend in the sunshine and raised £1,009.50 for our Appeal. Our thanks go to all those in- volved.

Our thanks also go to Steve Jervis and the staff at DHL in Preston Brook who raised £247.50 by running raffles in the offices. A further £247.50 was received from the DHL UK Foundation through their Match It! Programme which matches the fundraising efforts of their em- ployees. The Corporate Division of the NatWest Bank based in Warrington for their cheque for £250 which was presented to Helsby Golf Club Captains, Brian Prince and Jarmila Lee, by Alex Walters at the Wheelchair Classic in June. Many congratulations go to Gareth Dyson who completed the 3 Peaks Challenge in Wales in July in the great time of 12 hours, raising over £100 for the Appeal.

The next Edition of the Newsletter will be in the Spring 2014. If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see, please let me know. Penny Ainsworth, Appeal Secretary.