Fred Foundation

People are odd sometimes..

A friend told me the other day about a  friend of hers who is a hairdresser.  He  has a beautiful little girl who has autism.  Doing a new customer’s hair one day the usual salon chat lead to their respective families etc.   The hairdresser talked to his client about his little daughter, and all  the ongoing problems they were having getting the right educational support for her from the local authority.  How she  was in a special school that could not meet her needs and generally about the ‘battle’ t hat all special needs parents seem to face. 

They were both leaving the salon at the same time at the end of the day and his client turned to him and said “which way are you walking?” The hairdresser told him he was walking his way, at which the customer replied, ” just checking – i just wanted to make sure i go in the opposite direction so i dont have to listen to you going on about your child again…

An anxious child…

Very high anxiety at the moment, must think what to do..and what has helped him in the past.  He wants things repeated back to him exactly as i have said them the first time i reply to him - desperately trying to control his environment by getting me to repeat the same thing in the same order from dawn til dusk.  If i miss something out then he gets even more upset.

I musn’t feed into it and ultimately make his anxiety worse.  Will tackle it tonight when back from school, must speak to school too so we are all doing the same thing.

Dancing Queen (Cont.d)

I forgot to say my boy has a severe speech communication disorder – hence my Dancing Queen  joy this morning!

Dancing Queen

Driving along to school in the car this morning, he was panicking as the car radio cd was jumping tracks – i pulled over in a layby to clean the cd explaining i had to clean it   “What’s happening, what’s happening” he said and i tried to explain.  As he cried I asked him if he wanted the radio on or Abba – not really expecting a reply and through his tears he actually said “I want Dancing Queen!”  Can’t wait to tell my husband tonight.  Good boy i shouted as we roared off – late for school but singing Dancing Queen

It might be catching

I had to apologise for him the other week as he dropped something by mistake into a handbag belonging to a lady who was sitting next to us by the swimming pool.  Of course he straightaway dived into her handbag to retrieve it.  The woman (a mother)  leapt up in a rage.  She then half apologised when I quietly produced a National Autistic Society card which explains what autism is and asks people to show some compassion because social situations are not easily understood…She handed the card back a bit shamefaced.    She now uses the other changing room every week and keeps her children away from us all.

2009 Roundup

Happy New Year to you all!

As the Fred Foundation enters its third year, we would like to look back at what has been a great year for us, both in terms of fundraising, and also in our development as a charity.

But first an apology – it’s been a long time since we last sent out a newsletter – one or two things we wanted to announce kept getting delayed, and before we knew it the year had gone!

But, we do have important new announcements to make which we are very excited about.

We are delighted that we have been able to take on and fund education programmes for more children with autism in 2009, something that we are obviously planning to build on in 2010.  We have also forged links with leading autism schools to explore how The Foundation can fund pre-school education.  This will allow children to realise their potential once they attend those special schools.

We are very proud to announce that General the Lord Guthrie GCB, LVO, OBE, DL, a well respected voice for a number of charities, has agreed to become our Patron.   We will be working hard with him to expand our knowledge and spheres of influence.

Our website has had a huge revamp and now includes our newsletters and events diary.  It will also include a blog – A Day in the Life of a Parent of an Autistic Child, and we hope it will give you an insight into the ups and downs of living with autism.

You can still access the site from www.thefredfoundation.org  so please do have a look.  All of Martin Galton’s marvellous artwork for our event posters is also on the site. We would like to thank ad agency VCCP for making their staff available to re-do the web site and in particular huge thanks to Rooney Caruthers and Allan Ward.

This year has been another busy one for fundraising and there have been many who have contributed in lots of different ways, so here goes!

We are always grateful at The Fred Foundation to those who raise money without any help from us!  In this respect a huge thank you to Andrew Brown and his 5 friends from Universal Pictures, who bravely completed the 3 Peaks Challenge, climbing the 3 highest mountains in Britain in under 24 hours and raising a huge £9,000.  A marvellously funny account of the trip is on our website.  Thank you to Andrew Brown, Andrew Ryan, Steve Abraham, Neil Wirasinha, Richard Haworth and Carlos!

Andrew Brown was also instrumental in securing our second premiere film night in March, this time a screening of Rock The Boat at The Apollo West End.  A great time was had by all and we raised £1,500.

Rooney and Janie Carruthers and Charles Vallance worked tirelessly and corralled a whole host of friends for a day of fun and cricket at the Batting For Fred day in September coordinated by Karyn Pankhurst from VCCP.  A hotly contested Twenty 20 match decided the winners of The Carruthers Cup, with a hog roast, face painting, fair ground games, a raffle and a lively auction all going towards raising over £5,000.  Many thanks not only to the winning bidders but to the contributors,  Francesca Zedda-James (Easy Living Magazine), Krishna Montgomery at Monty PR (Bliss Beauty products), Kate and Ian Cheshire (B & Q Vouchers), Monica Manoras at Channel 4 (T4 tickets and Chapters Restaurant vouchers), Miky Vallance (Jack Wills Vouchers) and Amanda Ahl (top massage therapist).  The Auction prizes sourced by Charles and Rooney had to be seen to be believed ranging from a signed England rugby shirt to a day’s top class fly fishing. Big thanks too to all the forcibly volunteered auctioneers on the day.  Lastly and by no means least, thank you to Mike and Rosie Balcomb and all from Brookland Village CC. Some really great photographs of the event will be uploaded to our website so check them out!

In early October, The Fred Foundation was thrilled to host an exhibition of art by autistic and special needs children on the theme of Summer.  Hosted by the wonderful staff at the Sarah Myerscough Gallery in Brooks Mews, Mayfair,   guests had a marvellous evening drinking The Fred Foundation Champagne, provided by Richard Askam of Intervino, and enjoying canapés provided by Ben Reynolds of the Reynolds sandwich shops, served with the help of Henry Martin. The exhibition was curated by our long standing supporter Martin Galton, who chose, framed and hung an eclectic selection of art which sold like hot cakes.  A fully illustrated programme, which included photographs of the art by Rosie Barnes plus flyers for the event was kindly produced by Jeff Taub at VCCP. The event raised over £2,000.  A huge thank you to Chiara Secchi and the children of The Chelsea Group of Children School and Margaret Amey and the children of St Mary’s School, Bexhill-on-Sea Special School.  Thanks also to Giles Baker-Smith who introduced us to the wonderful Sarah Myerscough Gallery.  Sarah has also kindly offered the gallery to the charity to hold another event next year which is amazing!

Anna Dow of the South London shop Tickled Pink, hosted a fashion show during the summer.  A combination of pink champagne, hot fashion and music raised £1,800.

Stuart Milligan, star of The Jersey Boys and all the crew at The Prince Edward Theatre arranged for a bucket collection at the end of a number of shows raising over £2,000.

The Willow Nursery, in Clapham did a sponsored ‘toddle’ in the heat of the summer and raised over £900. Thanks to Georgina Fowle for introducing us to Alice Irvine the Head and Georgie North.

Another nursery, Crescent III, took us on as their charity of the year and worked hard, with cake sales amongst other events to raise £1,207.50.  Thank you to the Head, Arna Skipwith, Jude Brown, Tina Laing, Chantal Waight, Domi West, and Christopher and Sophie Mills.

Staying with schools but moving up age groups, The Holy Ghost School continued its unflagging support by organising a whole school sponsored walk around Wandsworth Common on 18th May.  They raised over £950, a massive amount for such a small school and once again had a Fred Foundation fundraising stall at their Summer Fayre.  Thanks go to Head Miss Lawless, Miss Elwes, Mrs Jones and all the parents and teachers at HG.  Streatham and Clapham High School flew our banners and balloons at their summer fete and raised £950.  Many thanks to the Heads, Miss Mitchell and Miss Burke and also staunch supporter Jude Brown again and Fiona Brent of the PTA.

Waitrose, Balham, included us in their Local Communities Support initiative and we were voted top local charity that month raising £450 so thanks to all of you who put the little green counters in our direction.

Also thanks to Manuela and Campbell McDermid who ran the Glasgow and Edinburgh 10ks for us and raised over £200

Some friends keep on quietly supporting us and they know who they are!  I have already mentioned Ben Reynolds, but just want to thank him again for organising a free coffee day at his sandwich shop, which raised over £600 plus supplying canapés at the Rock The Boat screening. Thank you Matt Lord at Union Coffee who supplied the coffee!  Ben has opened a new Reynolds shop on Charlotte St and collection boxes are both there and at his flagship shop on Eastcastle St.

Thanks again to Roz Bristowe for all her advice on charity fundraising this year.  She plans to go on helping us and for that we are very grateful.

We would also like to thank the Mori family for their unstinting fundraising efforts, especially the Mori children who held a table top sale in the snow outside their house!  Roberto still fills his Fred Foundation collection boxes in his wonderful Gallo Nero Deli in Islington!

We have raised funds from silent auctions – many thanks to Charles Vallance for organising the Lucky Voice golden ticket which was snapped up and also Grace Letley for organising VIP tickets to Status Quo at Wembley.

Susan Newell ex-curator of The Wallace Collection gave another excellent tour and promises another guided tour in 2010, this time around the Ceramics Collection of the V & A.

Tadgh Marsden cycled miles with his Mum along canal towpaths in Lincolnshire this summer to raise money for us, whilst Andy and Rob Hill, Michael Bains, Elliot McCafferty and Duff Borer raised £500 in a sponsored cycle ride.

The artist Brian Williams has donated a portrait or a sitting – all funds will go to The Fred Foundation.

So we look forward to 2010. We are delighted that the advertising media company Mediavest, after helping in various ways in the past including sending a Fred Foundation themed Christmas card to all their clients in 2009, has decided to adopt us as their corporate charity and a number of events are being planned by their staff.

As usual we have a number of ideas for this year including another Comedy Night organised by the fabulous John Moloney, with a date and venue yet to be confirmed.

Young Mimi Smith has gone and volunteered to climb Mount Kilimanjaro so the 3 Peaks boys had better watch out, plus rumours abound of her throwing a big party in aid of The Fred Foundation.

Other ‘brave’ challenges include Duff Borer committing himself to The London Marathon in April and Matt Gower of Mediavest swimming the English Channel in June.

Our new website allows you to make suggestions and comments, so please let us know what you think and if you have any ideas for other events. As you can see we are game for anything!

And now a bit of news about the boy who first inspired the charity. He continues to do well and as many of you know has recently moved with the family to start a country life in Buckinghamshire (not far!).  He has yet to start his secondary special school in Bucks as they have been snowed in for three days but he has shown he is a total daredevil, sledging every day with gusto!  He was even more interested in Christmas this year and opened every single present which is a huge change from the sad little boy whose pile of presents was still in the corner of the room at the end of Christmas Day a few years ago.

Mum and Dad are still very much involved as fundraisers for the charity and on that front nothing has changed.

Once again thanks again to everyone – onwards and upwards for 2010!

Felicity Ellacombe

Trustee

The Fred Foundation

hello@thefredfoundation.org

www.thefredfoundation.org

Welcome…

As well as giving access to lots of information about The Fred Foundation and what we do for autistic children, we will share the experiences of one family’s life with an autistic child – snippets only.

Some snippets long and some short.

We hope you will be interested in some of the highs, lows and general everyday happenings in the life of one child with autism.  There are many such children out there – all of them very different…

Welcome to our world.

Universal Pictures 3 Peaks Challenge

We made it back in one piece….well almost.

The challenge started well as we got to Ben Nevis, Scotland, on time at 5pm Saturday, but then it started to go downhill (pardon the pun) for some:

Casualty 1: Andrew Ryan – He made it up and down Ben Nevis despite apparently fracturing a bone in his foot (some say a minor blister), before having to retire thereafter to Mediterranean sandals and back seat. Read more »

This Year Summer Has Been Extended

5th October 2009