On Tuesday 26th April the Adult Service Team at Baytree were delighted to host a fundraising event for the Ruth Hayman Trust as part of their Star Challenge. The Trust supports ESOL learners (people who come to the UK whose first language is not English) with small educational grants. In the past Baytree learners have benefited from grants from the Ruth Hayman Trust to cover exam and tuition fees.
Everyone was treated to some wonderful home-cooked food and one of Sonia Pollocks’s delicious cakes and also had the opportunity to purchase gifts from our Spring Sale. Our home-crafted Bags for Life and colourful scarves knitted by my mother, Kyriacou and aunty Loukia were ‘warmly’ received and our jewellery stand manned by our Academic Manager Christina’s sister Lucy (Queen of Bling) proved most popular. A special thank you to our staff and especially Margaret Browne and Loretana Contucci for all their hard work setting up for the event and our wonderful volunteers, students Alexandra and Marcia from the Entry 3/L1 ESOL class who helped with the toy and clothes stalls and also Sacdia, a former employee at Baytree who looked after the book stall. We also welcomed back friends of Baytree, Ellie McLean of I Am Well-Being and her mother Eileen McLean, a former IT tutor at Baytree who provided relaxing seated massages and Saboon Alee with his natural, organic handmade soaps and perfumes which proved as popular as ever with everyone.
A highlight of the day was our Baytree ESOL choir singing their own unique version of Pharrel William’s song ‘Happy’ which was most apt on the day. Many thanks to their ever-patient teacher Loretana and Eva Parets our wonderful Drama volunteer who helped the Entry 1 learners with their performance. The trustees from the Ruth Hayman Trust, Sheila Rosenberg (Chair of Trustees) and Elizabeth Knight were most generous in their feedback of the event…
‘Thank you all for a wonderful fundraising event today.
We were really impressed with your organisation, the students, staff,
atmosphere and energy’.
We raised a very respectable £209 and I just wanted to thank everyone who took part for their contributions to such a wonderful cause and for showing once again that when it comes to fundraising The Baytree Centre staff, volunteers and learners can put on ‘a great show’ and rise to the occasion.
Thank you!
