STEPSNEWSLETTER

Welcome to our Autumn/Winter Newsletter andgreetings to all our new families who haverecently joined us; we hope you will be very

happy here at Steps. Best wishes,

The Steps Team.

Autumn/Winter 2019 Issue 3

Text STEPSto 70660 todonate £5

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EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY

Children’s Christmas Party : 16th DecemberChristmas Trip : 17th December

Boat Trip : 18th December

STAFF NEWS

Reka & Becky have joined asTrainee Conductors.

Mariann is currently onmaternity leave and has had ababy boy, Gabriel, brother to

Emma.

Megan (right) has qualifiedas a Conductor Assistant.

Jenny has joined Steps as our Learning & Development Manager

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This term thechildren have been

learning abouttravel, they have

found about trainsand how to throw

coal into the steamengine. They have

also been practisingsafe sitting and

walking.

It's aeroplanes thisweek!

It is lovely to see allthese clever Steps

Superstars

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 A pack of bears greeted the children and families who came to Steps. The staffall dressed as fluffy, yellow Pudsey bears, as a way of saying a massive ‘ThankYou’ to Children in Need for the grant that was recently awarded to our centre. Manager, Janet Russell, said, “We welcome families from across all of the East

Midlands counties and provide what many of our parents have described asbeing ‘a lifeline’. We count ourselves as being very fortunate to have qualifiedfor a grant of £99,999, paid over a three-year period, from Children in Need.This will go towards the £250,000 that has to be raised every year to pay for

the running costs of the centre.”On sale at the centre were Pudsey biscuits and the proceeds were donated to

Children in Need. Leader of the team of practitioners, Indila Simandi, said, “Weare so grateful to Children in Need and wanted to make a donation as a way ofthanking them for the generous grant. Earlier in the week Radio Leicester visitedthe centre to find out more about the service that we provide and to see whatthe Children in Need money will help to pay for. We were thrilled to have theopportunity to publicly thank the amazing organisation that helps to provide

vital funding for organisations suchas ours.”

Staff say THANK YOU to Children in Need

Thanks to Tomfor baking the

biscuits

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Janet Standen for her donation of £25 The Church of St Mary in Charnwood for their donation of £144.05

Healey Chemicals UK Ltd for their donation of £5,000 Tesco Park Hill, Loughborough collection tin £50.76

Kate Senter for her donation of £50Tesco Park Hill, Loughborough donated a £25 Gift Voucher

Mark Winkless raised £1,500 for competing in the Brighton Marathon 5 in Harmony Band from Swadlincote donated £100

Black Swan  donated an Easter Egg Goodie Box which raised £180 Diane Turner for her donation of £30

Tesco Extra Shepshed collection tin £18.60 Bull & Lion Public House Shepshed £133.42 donation

Isabel Coad raised £165 at the Steps Sponsored Toddle Macildowie for raising £779 at their fundraising day

Quorn Baptist Church Mother and Toddlers Group donated £100Leicester Wyvern Probus Club donated £50

Katy Widdowson for her donation of £136.80Loughborough University Community Fund for their donation of £750

Thank you also to The National Lottery for their grant of £10,000.

THANK YOUfor your kind donations

A big thank you to

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, trustee of the RandalCharitable Foundation, for providing the funds

to enable steps to pay for five new starters.The group is known as the Randal's Rhinos.

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Soar Valley Rotary Club for their donation of £250 Laura Beales for her donation of £180 Katy Widdowson for her donation £35

Paul Hill for his donation of £10 David Wilson Homes for their donation of £250

Mark J. Rees for their donation of £148 Hannah Wellbourne for her donation of £440

Barratt Design Living Community Fund Scheme for their donation of £1,000Persimmon Homes for their donation of £1000 

Valerie Jarram for donating her much-loved doll’s house that raised £250 for Steps at theQuestion of Brains auction

Catherine Waldram for donating her paintings that raised £80 for Steps at the auctionShepshed running club donated £200

Volunteer Anya Munslow helped to clean the covered play area before the start of the newterm.

Ann Smallman who heard about Steps on our Radio Leicester interview for Children in Need,kindly made knitted outfits for two lovely teddy bears and donated them to Steps.

Kathy and Nigel Gates, owners of Gates Garden Centre, near Oakham have kindly chosen Stepsas their designated charity for the next eighteen months. It is a lovely place to visit and you will

see their charity wishing-well near the entrance. This tells you all about Steps and is wherevisitors can make donation

In addition we would like to thank Mehmooda Duke of MDS Solicitors, Keith Bastion of Fischer

Future Heat, Freeths Solicitors , Cath Chell of Learn Well and everyone else for their kinddonations.

Thanks to Sienna-Deane’s Auntie Zoey for contacting Amazon, and thanks to Amazon for their

kind donation of £1,000. This was then used to purchase a staircase that can be customised foreach child.

Amazon’s GeneralManager

Rugile came intoSteps to see thestaircase in use

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We should like to thank the following for their help and support: Rapid Relief, Ashby Hastings Scouts, St. Botolph’s school, family members and local people,

those who donated gifts, food and drinks and everyone who made a donation.”A few hours of sunshine was all that was needed for Steps’ latest fundraising event to take

place on Saturday 15th June. Despite a week of heavy rain, it was decided not to postpone theevent, to keep fingers crossed and to go for it! A short course was identified which could be

completed by whatever means were appropriate. The patron of Steps, Rosemary Conley, explained, “We wanted to give all of our children thechance to participate so some were in wheelchairs, some were carried and others toddled! Wealso wanted to involve the local community and children from our neighbouring St. Botolph’s

School were invited to take part. It was lovely to welcome them and their families.” Catering at the lunchtime event was provided by Rapid Relief, a national charity that providesfood for homeless people, goes to disaster areas such as Grenfell Towers and supports local

charity events. Team leader for the Loughborough branch, Mervyn Burke, said, “We love gettinginvolved with charities such as Steps and want to help support community events such as this one.

We will be returning to Steps to provide the catering for their end of year barbeque nextmonth.” Also at the “Toddle” was a tombola stall with many prizes kindly donated by localpeople, together with Ashby and Shepshed Tesco stores. There was a cake stall and a ‘StepsSale Shop’ where you could buy anything from a notebook to a pair of shoes; the proceedsamounted to over £1,000. This is an amazing achievement when you consider the extreme

weather, which we’d been having. Regular readers will know that we have to raise £250,000every year to run our service that supports children and their families from at least five counties.

A BIG Thank You to everyone involved in the

Steps Sponsored Toddle

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Thank you to the Pied Bull in ShepshedA pub in Shepshed has been holding weekly quizzes to raise money

for local charities. Regulars at The Pied Bull in Shepshed pay £1each week to take part in the popular quiz night and at the end ofthe year the money is divided between five local charities. Steps

was nominated by Claire Hutt and £450 was raised.Claire's daughter, Lilly-Rose attends the Centre along with her

Mum and grandmother. Claire said "I would like to thank everyoneat the Pied Bull for the money that has been raised for Steps. Each

year Steps needs £250,000 in order to provide their unique andspecialist service. Steps is a charity that is dedicated to helpingchildren with life-long conditions affecting their movement to

have the best start in life and to maximise their potential." Claireexplained that her daughter has benefitted enormously from

attending the sessions at Steps. A stroke at a young age left herwith delayed development in achieving simple things such aswalking and talking. This also affected her fine motor skills.

Committee memberWayne Smith fromthe Pied Bull and

Claire Hutt receivinga cheque for Steps

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On 8th October the annual A Question of Brains corporate dinner-with-a-difference was againheld at Leicester Tigers to help raise funds for Steps and a staggering £77,218 was the result!

Organised by our Patron, Rosemary Conley, and our Clerk to the Trustees, Peter Legg, thisprestigious event takes place each year and combines fine dining with a fun,

brain-teasing quiz night.There was a Grand Raffle for a £1500 diamond necklace kindly donated by Goldsmiths and anauction with some stunning lots including a holiday for two in Austria. One of the attractions ofthe evening is the mega tombola when every ticket wins a prize and there were over 700 prizes

donated this year. A highlight of the evening was a cabaret performance by Belle Voci, billed as ‘asinging duo extraordinaire’ who were finalists in the BBC TV programme, ‘The Voice’. Leicester

Tigers stars, Geordan Murphy and Matt Poole were auctioneers and Anne Davies from the BBC EastMidlands Today programme was the host.

 Rosemary said, “Since 2012, A Question of Brains has raised an amazing £520,000 for Steps.Everything is donated and all costs are covered by our generous sponsors. Next PLC again took the

lead as Headline Sponsor with other significant support coming from Charles Street BuildingsGroup, Fischer Future Heat, Goldsmiths, Heidi Kjeldsen Jewellery, Kangaroo Marketing and Design,

Leicester College, Leicester Tigers, Lionel Heap Photography, Nick James Vocals & Guitar andRosemary Conley Enterprises. Unlike many charity events, at A Question of Brains every single

penny raised goes directly towards the £250,000 that we need to find every year to provide a freeservice for our children and their families.”

 Bryon Dixon OBE, founder of Micro-Fresh International described the event as ‘a trulyinspirational and uplifting evening of fun entertainment, great food and all for a fantastic cause!’If anyone would like to book a table or donate a prize for next year’s A Question of Brains, which

will take place on Tuesday 6th October 2020, please go to the website atwww.aquestionofbrains.org or call Peter Legg on 01530 249396.

A BIG Thank You to everyone involved with

Quiz winners and Steps parents,Lynette & Stephen Hilton

Kathy Gates, owner ofGates Garden centre.Kathy chose Steps as

their designatedcharity to raise fundsfor over an 18 month

period.

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The Smallman & Son Foundation provide an amazing gorgeous holidaycaravan for our families to use. We have had some lovely stories from ourfamilies about their stay. We are sure that the families of Steps will cherish

making memories at Terry Lee Lodge for many years to come. The caravan hasa live-in resident teddy bear called Fluffy Bear. Fluffy goes out on trips with

our families and they then write/draw about what they have been up to in hisvery own diary.

"Back home after anamazing weekend withthe family. Memories tolast a lifetime and ableto spend 4 whole days

with our girls".

"What a wonderfulweekend we had at the

caravan. Beautifulweather, beach

adventures and dinohunting".

Steps families can book a holidayfor next year - please contact

Indila for available dates

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Tesco Gives ‘Bags of Help’ to Steps.  Steps received the news earlier in the year that ithad won a £4000 grant in the recent ‘Bags ofHelp’ event which, was held in local Tesco stores.Janet Russell, said, “We were thrilled to receivethe news that we had been awarded the grant.£4000 will enable us to make a difference to thelives of the children who attend Steps and totheir families. We offer our unique service free ofcharge so to receive this award from Tesco hasgiven us all a big boost. Every little really doeshelp!”

Tony’s goodwill gesture to Steps Tony Bonner of PC Clinics was asked if he could completea site survey at Steps of all of the IT equipment, frombroadband to phones and everything in between. The company carried out the survey free of charge. Thiswas followed by the installation of a complete newsystem. As a goodwill gesture, Tony said, “It would giveme great pleasure in offering an additional service toSteps free of charge in return for your business. I wouldlike to donate to you;• hosting for your website & emails, normally£150.00/year.• advertising on our digital network RRP £59.95/week • Digital signage screen for your reception (supplied andinstalled) RRP £2,000."

Smarties Challenge! Laura Beales, our Parent Trustee  has organised aSmarties Challenge for our families and friends ofSteps. Please all join in by filling an empty tube ofSmarties with 20p or £1 coins and drop them intous at Steps.

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Turn your online shopping into donations for Steps!

Did you know that every time you buy something you could be raising money for Steps? Over 2,700 well known retailers, including Amazon, John Lewis, eBay and Tesco will

donate a small percentage of what you spend to say thank you for shopping with them. For Amazon type in smile.amazon.co.uk instead of Amazon as a search engine and it will

take you through to the normal Amazon shopping site, but will ask you to select acharity who you would like to nominate. Type in Steps Conductive Education Centre and

every item that you purchase will give 0.5% to Steps! Just visit www.easyfundraising.org.uk or www.stepscentre.org.uk and follow the simple

steps to sign up. Easyfundraising has already raised over £7 million for over 55,000good causes across the UK. Spread the word to family and friends and businesses to let

them know just how easy it is!

How you can helpIf you have any great ideas of how to raise money for Steps then please talk to Janet,

or email Trish our Project Manager and Fundraiser at fundraiser@stepscentre.org.uk

Trish is responsible for fundraising and writing bids for grants for Steps. If anyone hasany ideas of potential grants or companies that may be willing to support Steps, then

please contact Trish who will be happy to discuss these ideas with you.

We can turn your unwanted items into funds for Steps .Items such as gold & silver jewellery, costume jewellery, damaged

jewellery, watches, banknotes/coins in foreign or unchangeablecurrency, old mobile phones, cameras, game consoles & accessories,mp3 players, laptops, tablets, loose/single stamps, first day covers,

postcard collections.Please drop any items you have into the centre.

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WE'VE LAUNCHED

OUR LOTTERY PAGEBUY YOUR TICKETS FROM OUR PAGE - WE GET 50%

We now have a Charnwood Community lottery page! Support local causes and win prizes of up to £25,000! 50% of tickets sold from our page go to us! PLUS 10% goes to other local good causes! Tickets only cost £1 per week! Support us and win prizes - WIN WIN!

To start supporting visit:www.CharnwoodLottery.co.uk

and search forSTEPS

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British Gypsum Sponsored Bike Ride

Each year British Gypsum organises a sponsored 100 mile bike ride and this yearPhil Johnson, grandad to Evelyn, one of our superstars has nominated Steps to

receive the monies raised. The bike ride will take place on June 13th 2020 starting from Barrow Upon Soar

and  finishing in Skegness. They intend to smash their target of £20,000 and hopeto get 100 riders and are looking for participants. If anyone is interested in signing

up please speak to Janet at Steps.If you would like to find out more or donate to the ride please visit

www.justgiving.com/barrow2skeg2020

They will also be holding a raffle so if you have any suitable items please dropthem in at Steps. There is also the option for corporate sponsorship of the ride with

company logos displayed on T-shirts; a donation of £250 is suggested for this.Please speak to Janet to find out more.

Evelyn has been attending Steps for two years, Evelyn's mum Helen said

"The Steps team is brilliant at supporting my daughter and providing guidance onhow Evelyn could be the best she can be. They gave us exercises, lent us walkingaids and provided us with Makaton communication cards, all for free from this

charity-run organisation".

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We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter. If you do not wish to be contacted inthe future then please let us know and we will delete all details that we

hold. Our contact details are info@stepscentre.org.uk or telephone Steps on01509 506878

Thank you, Season’s greetings and all good

wishes from the Steps Team

Find out lots more information on our website

www.stepscentre.org.uk

Make sure you follow us on our Facebook page to seewhat's happening each week!

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