Holiday At Home

‘Holiday At Home’ (HAH) is an annual social event which has been running for the past 7 years, and is entirely funded by CrossLinks.  HAH events are intended for people who are unable to get away on holiday, and the events take place in the Water Eaton Church Centre (WECC), the home of CrossLinks.  No charge is made to the guests.

This year’s event was held last Saturday (12th June). Each HAH has had a theme.  Previous themes have included ‘An Outing To Blackpool’ for which a 20-foot Blackpool Tower was created in the WECC, and ‘High Tea on The Sea’, for which a scaled down cruise ship was created.  (Some of the volunteers are very gifted.) This year’s theme was ‘A Visit To Santa’s Workshop’.  About 70 people come along, for the snack lunch, sing-alongs, dancing – and lots of natter!

A team of nearly 20 people helped make this year’s event possible.  As in previous years, the team included many of the CrossLinks volunteers who run our regular clubs and activities, together with other volunteers who like to help out with this event.   A big “thank you” goes to all the volunteers.

Thank you, Graham

If you didn’t already know, a major redevelopment of The Lakes estate is underway, and the redevelopment project is being managed by a company called Graham.  We are very grateful to Graham for their recent donation to our charity, which is based in the Water Eaton Church Centre in one corner of the estate.


The photo shows three of our Trustees accepting the cheque.

Thanks, Graham

Another act of generosity

Once again, we’re very grateful to the St James Place organisation, which has awarded us a second grant.  Their previous grant was spent partly on an outing for our Friday Club and their carers to walk with alpacas, and partly on a boat trip on the river in Bedford.   We haven’t made a decision yet about how to spend the latest grant, but we’ll make sure it’s an outing that everyone will enjoy.  “Watch this space”, as they say.

We’re 20 years old

Did you know that we first opened our doors in 2003?  That makes us 20 years old.

If you have a particular memory of something you did with CrossLinks or something CrossLinks did for you, we’d love to hear from you.  You could contact us or put up a post on this website.  Alternatively you could put up a post on our FaceBook page.

We’re very grateful to all the volunteers and Trustees who have contributed to our successes over the years.  As a “thank you” to them we’re going to have a BBQ / party in June.  And we’ll be inviting all the current members of our clubs etc.  So if you have ever had a connection with us – whether as a user of our services, or as a volunteer – and you don’t receive an invitation in the next month or so to the June party, please forgive our omission and get in touch.  The more, the merrier.

Good news for our Friday Club

We’re very grateful for the generosity of the St James Place organisation, which has awarded us a grant large enough to offer a day’s outing to the members of our Friday Club and their carers.  The last outing we ran was to Cadburys World.  This time we’re investigating an event in the better weather when we can do something outdoors.  We haven’t booked anything yet.  But here’s a clue to the activity that’s top of our ‘to visit’ wish list:  it involves Alpacas!

“Watch this space” as they say.

We’ve got a new Trustee

We’re pleased to welcome Gareth Chapman to our Board of Trustees.  Gareth has supported us in lots of ways in the past, and he brings much experience and wisdom with him.

Dawn at last

Here at CrossLinks we’re pleased that four of our activities are now running:

Teddy Tots is available in the Water Eaton Church Centre every Friday term time morning, from 9.30 – 11.30am.  Bring your pre-school youngster along for a play; you get a cup of tea and a biscuit.  All for £2 a session.

The Disabled Club is holding monthly meetings in the Water Eaton Church Centre on the first Wednesday of every month, from 1.00 – 4.00pm.  If you’d like to know more and/or join in, please leave a message via the ‘Contact Us’ page.

Water Eaton Community Larder.  The larder is open from 2.00 – 4.00pm every Tuesday afternoon in the Water Eaton Church Centre.  Membership costs £10 a year.  Members can buy shopping for £3.50 per week for an individual, and help reduce perfectly good food going to waste.  Individual membership provides up to 10 items of non-perishables (pasta, tins, sauces etc) per week plus free fruit and vegetables.  If you’re interested, why not call in for a look-see?

MK Money Lifeline.  A drop-in is open in the Water Eaton Church Centre from 2.00 – 4.00pm each Tuesday.  Pop in to see if we can help you deal with money worries, benefit applications or budgeting advice.

 

Getting back to normal – slowly!

We’re pleased that the number of members in the Water Eaton Community Larder has more than doubled to 60+ since we started.  Now we’re looking forward to a time when we no longer have to let members into the Larder a few at a time  and when, instead of asking people to leave as soon as they’ve finished shopping, we can offer everyone the opportunity for a cup of tea and a natter.  As soon as the Government lets us, we’ll make the changes.
Also, we’re delighted that MK Money Lifeline (MKML) is back with us in the Water Eaton Church Centre. In case you don’t know, MKML provide free, confidential, impartial, money and debt support and advice. The drop-in is now available every Tuesday afternoon (while the building is open for the Larder).  It’s free – just drop in between 2-4pm

The Water Eaton Community Larder

A few weeks ago we partnered up with Bletchley & Fenny Stratford Town Council and with the SOFEA charity in the provision of a community larder. There’s a string of community larders across the country now. They have twin objectives: (a) to minimise the amount of perfectly good food that gets sent to the rubbish tip by large supermarkets, and (b) to make that food available to members of the community larder at a much reduced price.

As the poster – below – says, it costs £10 a year to become a member. On top of that you pay either £3.50 or £7.00 a week. For £3.50 you’re entitled to 10 items and for £7.00 you’re entitled to 20 items a week from the larder. The ‘items’ are non-perishable food (ie. food in tins, packets, cartons, etc.) such as tea, rice, baked beans, and breakfast cereal.

There’s also a counter of non-perishable items which are free (ie. they don’t count as part of your 10 or 20 item entitlement)., because typically they’re getting a bit near their ‘best before’ date. There’s also a counter of free perishable items ie. fruit and vegetables.

The larder is open every Tuesday afternoon from 2.00 – 4.00pm. in the Water Eaton Church Centre.

If you want to join, you can come along on a Tuesday. Alternatively, you could either follow the links in the poster, or ring the Council on 01908-649469, tell them you’d like to join, and one of their clerks will get back to you.