Beechtree

Newsletter 2020

With the weeks of spring and summer becoming a memory and the days of mists and cooler mornings approaching it is a time to reflect on the times we have all had

2020 has been a strange year where we adapted to lockdown, got to know the delights of zoom, facetime, or skype. We spent many hours washing and cleaning, decluttering, and washing our hands- yet again! For some it was time well spent in the garden and getting to know the pleasures of slowly unwinding and enjoying life at a pace we had not known for some time.

Life was put on hold for many and some took the opportunity to try their hand at something new while others took up hobbies long forgotten. I think we all embraced the challenges of returning to work and to making the centre safe to open once again.

However, during lock-down we received the sad news that Terry O’ Neill had died

Most of you who live in and around Whitchurch will have met Terry at some point. If he wasn’t in the parks or gardens around town or at the numerous committee meetings that he was part of then you could find him in Trev’s the butchers- usually with a cup in one hand and his cap in the other!

Terry joined the Beechtree as the town council representative way back in 2013, then took on the role of vice chair and finally for the last 5 years, Chairman. He took on that role at a time when the centre was going through change but saw the possibilities opening up. Terry was passionate about the centre, its staff, volunteers, and the benefits that it brought to the people of Whitchurch. He will be missed by so many and in his memory, we will be naming our main room after him.

So, as we all emerge to take those faltering steps back into the world may we all stay safe, stay healthy and above all retain our sense of humour. Think kindly of others and remain patient as we all adjust to life now. Some of us have seen the effects of Covid-19 and how it touches the lives of so many whether directly or indirectly and our thoughts go out to those. (Penny Beddoes – Chief Officer)

We are delighted to be back at the Beechtree centre albeit on a smaller scale limiting staff in the building to maintain social distancing. In these challenging times the team have put Covid19 procedures in place. To keep everyone safe a mask must be worn, temperatures checked before entering with hand sanitiser and disinfectant being freely available. The good news is the cafe will re-open on the 2nd November Monday to Thursday with reduced hours and menu . We are pleased to say that safety is our main priority and all rooms used for events are fogged before and after use. The centre is abiding by the guidelines and looking into providing wellbeing activities and events in smaller groups. Tom Nielsen our Youth Worker continued to work through lockdown from home via popular Zoom sessions with the young people.

Tom has been updating Facebook with how this vital service was able to continue during lock down by setting up an online youth club. Beechtree Centre

“Working from home during lock down brought up Youth Group a lot of challenges for myself, Jan, Nic and our Young Leader Sophia but we persevered and set up our very own Digital Youth Club using Zoom. Youth Tom Nielsen work is an essential service for many young people and we felt the need to carefully balance the needs Youth Engagement Officer of the public health crisis against the need to provide essential support to young people at a time of heightened challenge.

Being back in the Centre has made me reflect on everything the Beechtree Youth Club has achieved in this time. Since the first week of lockdown we have been delivering 4 to 5 Digital Youth Club sessions a week. That’s around 20 sessions a month and to date 107 Youth Club Sessions in total during the pandemic.

The young people have enjoyed Q and A sessions, guided learning sessions with origami, experiments making slime (led by the young people) live tours of where members are, a Netflix Party, contests, quizzes and much much more!”

Young people have really enjoyed getting their fingers green in the Beechtree Community Garden. Since lockdown measures have eased they've been making use of outdoor spaces and bringing the garden back to life. Kelsey, Beth, Jade, Lloyd and Sophie have been growing lettuce, kale, radishes and swede. They've also harvested apples and baked apple and cinnamon bake which the youth workers dutifully scoffed. It's a hard job but someone has to do it."

Whitchurch Voluntary Community Car Scheme

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic the Voluntary Car Scheme is offering a reduced service due to limited driver availability. We have put safety measures in place for anyone who wishes to book a car to protect our drivers and passengers. As always hospital appointments take priority. Telephone 01948 664447 to check availability. The office will be open Monday to Friday between 10am and 3pm.

Please see new procedures for passengers that are in place: -

• A face mask must be worn. • Hands to be sanitised before getting into the car. • Passenger must travel alone and sit in the back seat to observe social distancing rule. • For hospital apt passengers need to be aware that drivers will not be able to enter the building if they need help they will need to make prior arrangements with hospital staff before their apt. • If passengers develop Covid 19 symptoms they must not put others at risk and cancel their transport and appointment. Please then telephone 111 for advice. • Drivers will be wearing masks, carrying hand sanitisers, wiping down seats and door handles before and after journeys.

The Whitchurch Walking for health group started up after lockdown in August. Walkers now meet in the car park at the back of the civic centre and social distancing is maintained. The group meets every Wednesday 10 am with Long and Short walks on alternative weeks. Contact the Beechtree Centre for more information

It has been a pleasure to welcome back old friends and some new faces to the Lunch Clubs on a Wednesday. Our small seating area has opened up into the, adjacent, O’Neill room and along with socially distanced tables and temperature checks outside the building, the addition of a fogging machine has enabled us to spray an anti-viral mist that descends upon the building before and after lunch, ensuring a safe environment for people to relax and enjoy some home-cooked tasty food. There are a couple weeks of lunch club left before we start thinking about Seasonal lunches so if you fancy something different, give us a call”

“Due to demand from participants, and after a 5month break, Walking Football resumed in August at a new venue. The restrictions meant that we were unable to play indoors anymore but luckily Prees Sports and Social Club were able to provide an outdoor location. All participants are temp checked beforehand to ensure the session is as safe as possible and balls are sanitised. Sadly, we are not currently able to socialise over hot drinks at the café post game but at least we’re all getting some well needed exercise!

Crochet Lessons with Wendy

This 4week course of crochet for beginners started on Friday 16th October here at the Beechtree Centre 10.15pm to 12.15 pm. The lessons include all materials and are held in small groups to implement social distancing. If you would like to find out more, please telephone Wendy on telephone number 07789045842

Room Hire at Beechtree Community Centre

Are you aware we have rooms available for hire at very competitive prices? Discounts are available for permanent block bookings by arrangement?

The O’Neill Room is our main function room and is now set up for social distancing groups and the centre will be guided by the relevant government guidelines. Overhead projector, white board and flip chart are available (you would need to provide your own flip chart paper)

Our small rooms/counselling rooms are also available. Our Red and Green room are fit for purpose and social distancing can be maintained with 2 people. We also have screens for tables for extra protection.

Our Blue room is the smallest of the 3 and is suitable for anyone who needs some workspace to work alone. Internet and ethernet cables are available in all rooms for laptops.

Green Room

Red Room

For room hire prices please telephone the Beechtree Centre on 01948 258220 or email [email protected]

Friday 13th Nov 2020 Supporting the Beechtree Support Children in Need who You might be wondering how you can you help us after the support our Youth Project. This devastating impact of the pandemic. We are feeling the is a core part of our work we pressure of losing our café and room hire revenue over such a need to shout out about. Find long period and are working on ways to survive and protect out more at the centre and our staff so that we can continue to be here for www.bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/ our community. Have you thought of nominating us for a project/whitchurch- birthday fundraiser? I did this recently to mark my mum’s st community-services- 81 as I was so grateful for the support the Beechtree has association/ given me and it was easy. A PayPal cheque for £60 came through the post this week which will make a difference. Use smile when you are doing any Debbie Spiers – Beechtree Centre online shopping with Amazon.

AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service. Use the link Make a one off donation using the “Donate” button on our smile.amazon.co.uk and 0.5% from website at www.beechtreecentre.org which is a PayPal any eligible purchases is donated to facility just scroll to the bottom of the website page. us. The charity that runs the Beechtree is Whitchurch Community Services Association and every little bit will start to add up.

Thank you to our past and recent funders below.

Donations help with providing specific projects/ equipment and regular and new wellbeing projects. Facilitating these worthy projects can be expensive and your generous contributions will ensure we continue to provide a services in smaller groups into 2021. These generous donations help keep the costs down and where possible provide a free or minimal charge for our service users.

£750 – For our Community £ 500 for PPE Orchard project Equipment Terry O’Neill Memorial Fund - £115

Monday art is back! We are delighted that we have been able to start Monday art sessions again. We have a new tutor, Wendy who is leading the sessions for us and we have divided the group into two smaller groups to meet the covid-19 guidelines. Each group will attend fortnightly and bring their own materials to work on projects. Each artist works at their own table wearing a face covering and has access to sanitiser. Our meeting room is well ventilated, and we fog it before and after each use. Our art group is an important part of the work we do as it provides a supportive place to be creative with likeminded people and spend time with friends. Wendy is really enjoying getting to know people as she has recently moved to Whitchurch from Sussex. She is also running her own crochet classes here at the centre on Friday mornings, so creativity is flowing at the Beechtree this autumn!

Revive your vibration meditation programme here at the Beechtree A unique 6 weeks experience

Begins Thursday 5th November Cost £60

Sessions last 90 minutes

Contact Carolyn on 07557785961 or Email [email protected] for more details or to reserve your space

BBO update

We are in the process of getting the BBO project up and running after lockdown and working on how to do things safely. Debbie has been contacting our existing participants and updating with them to see how they have coped with lockdown and to find out where they are with their job search.

The job market has changed and participants who are job centre referrals are not seeing their work coaches at the moment as the focus has been on making sure that everyone affected by the lock down and redundancy is being signed up for Universal Credit and other benefits. The competition for jobs is strong and it is vital to make sure that people are not missing out so we have a greater emphasis on gaining work experience via training and volunteering as well as improving interview skills.

New referrals are coming our way and with furlough hours reducing, the BBO staff team is getting back to full strength. Debbie has been working hard at getting our own volunteering opportunities running and we are delighted to have digital skills in place with two new volunteers – one of whom came via the BBO programme. Debbie Spiers, BBO Employability Officer ______Saturday Digital Skills 1-2-1 support

We have recruited two volunteers who are able to provide support and help on a Saturday morning at the Beechtree. If you would like some help with email, the internet or how to Zoom and use social media please get in touch.

The sessions are an hour long and cost £10 and are in a covid-19 safe space. Stuart and Sofia are both friendly IT professionals and are looking forward to meeting and helping you. We hope that we will be able to offer more support on weekdays, but this is an exciting new venture for us to be open on a Saturday. Call us on 01948 258220 if you would like to book a session.

More ways to volunteer and support our centre.

When ordering go through this app and choose us as your charity quoting reference number 265958

Make a regular contribution via a direct debit or standing order. Regular income would really help us right now to fund our work.

If you are on Facebook, have you “liked” the Beechtree page to keep up to date with our activities? We need you to share our stories and spread the word as this brings new supporters and opportunities especially for our funding bids.

Do you collect your used stamps? We will take them from you and when we have a large amount, we send them off to an organisation that pays us for them.

Volunteer for us! We have re-started our digital skills project run by volunteers. Maybe you can join us? In the spring we will need volunteers to help in the garden

Thank you for receiving and reading our regular newsletters. Keep supporting us and spreading the word and do contact us if you have any ideas for fundraising.

We can’t do coffee mornings and quiz nights at the moment and we miss seeing our friends face-to-face over a coffee in the café but we think of you and hope that you are staying safe and well until we can be together again.

NEIL THOMAS MBE BEECHTREE CENTRE PATRON

Neil is a retired English artistic gymnast. He has inspired many young British gymnasts and was a former World Silver Medal and Champion.

Born in Chirk Neil was successful at world and international level at a time when British gymnastics did not feature and is an important forebearer in the sport for later successes…. , along with other gymnasts since.

Success included three gold medals at two Commonwealth Games and silver in 1993 and 1994

Neil was awarded the MBE in 1995 for services to gymnastics.

Following his retirement, he now works as a Development Officer in the North West of England and retains his love of the sport as part of the Liverpool Gymnastics Club.

“I started at a local sports centre doing 1 hour a week on a Saturday morning, I was eight. I remember competing in the club and scoring a 10 for a round off back flick. I started at the local sports centre in Wem, Shropshire because my brother was playing table tennis there and my dad saw a poster advertising the gymnastics sessions which he though would suit me as I was always jumping about at home and standing on my head”

Tony White, a coach at a small school gym told Neils parents that he thought he had potential but he didn’t feel able to really assess it. He arranged for Neil to travel to Birmingham to see some of the national coaches there to get their options. It was the coaches in Birmingham that first saw international potential in him.

NEIL THOMAS’ GYMNASTICS CV

1983 England vs. Belgium- bronze overall; ENG vs. NED vs. GER vs. BEL vs. FRA – bronze Junior European Championships, Rimini ITA Thames TV Junior Gymnast of the Year – silver.

1984 Member of the National Men’s “B” Squad.

1990 British overall, vault and pommels champion Commonwealth Games - gold , silver team European Championships - bronze vault

1991 World Championships Indianapolis - floor final - 6th place; 12th overall

1992 British Champion overall + all apparatus European Championships Budapest - 16th overall Olympic Games Barcelona - 20th overall, 8th in a tie on floor/ 1st reserve; vault 8th in a tie-reserve again!

1993 World Championships Birmingham - SILVER MEDAL ON FLOOR

1994 World Championships Brisbane – SILVER MEDAL ON FLOOR London Open- gold overall Commonwealth Games in Victoria CAN – gold medal overall and floor

1995 World Student Games, August – last major event followed by retirement

1995 Awarded MBE

Good Luck Sadly, during lockdown we had to say goodbye to 3 members of staff due to contracts coming to an end. We wish Nikkita Hinkley, Gilda Nicholson and Wendy Wood all the best in their future careers.

Beechtree Café – Opening 2nd November 2020 New Opening hours 10.00am – 2.3 pm Mon -Thurs, Closed Friday, Saturday & Sunday

. Drop into our café we have a variety of winter warming drinks for sale including Mochas, Lattes and Hot Chocolate with all the trimmings. We have a variety of flavoured syrups to add to your hot drinks. Why not treat yourself to lunch from our varied menu, including gluten free cakes and vegetarian and vegan options.

Lunch club continue on Wednesday and offer great value £10 for a 2-course meal with coffee or tea. Ideal for sole diners or anyone who worries about being in a safe environment. You will be warmly welcomed, and all our food is freshly cooked on sit from local produce. Booking is essential to reserve your place telephone 01948 258220.

Beechtree Community Centre, Claypit Street, Whitchurch SY13 1NT Charity No: 1073546 Tel: 01948 258220 Email: [email protected] Follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/BeechtreeCentre

Facebook – www.facebook.com/Beechtree-Community-Centre

Website: www.beechtreecentre.org