We’re delighted to say that we’ve been successful in our bid to the Dorset Police & Crime Commissioner’s Safer Dorset Fund to run a pilot project on Canford Heath. The project, Hunt the House: are your house numbers emergency friendly? will run between April and July 2016 on Canford Heath.  It aims to raise awareness amongst residents about how difficult it is for police and other emergency services to spot house numbers, especially in the dark and how locating a property promptly could save a life or prevent a crime.  The experience we gain from the pilot will then be shared Dorset-wide so as many people as possible will be made aware of the importance of having visible numbers.

A great selection of craft items were donated by generous Canford Heath and Creekmoor residents for the Dorset Scrapstore at their Win on Waste sessions on 20 February.

We welcome Forest Holme Hospice, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Routes to Roots, the Branksome and Rossmore Children’s Centres and Pound Puppy Animal Rescue to We Need That.

Their needs include wood, mobile phones, keys, artificial flowers, flower baskets, plastic flower pots, bricks, cardboard tubes, carpet oddments, corks, postcards, stamps, buttons, ribbon, wallpaper, card and envelopes, old towels/blankets and jam jars.  If you can help with any of these, please go to We Need That February 2016.

We ran our first fundraising event on Wednesday 10 February; a Literary Quiz at the Bricklayer’s Arms in Parkstone.  Competition was fierce between the eight teams, so close that we had joint winners which resulted in a tie-break.  The eventual winners were The Supremes, with the Black Pug Book team coming a very close second.  We were delighted that the evening raised £171.40 and would like to thank the pub for hosting the event, along with Brittany Ferries and the Co-op who donated raffle prizes.   

Do you have any unwanted keys lying around your home or workplace?  If so, you could be helping charity Routes to Roots who work with homeless people in Poole.  Take any unwanted keys to the office of Carter Shaw, 446 Ashley Road, Parkstone, Poole BH14 0AD. They will sell the keys and donate the money to Routes to Roots.

If you live in Canford Heath or Creekmoor then you can take your keys to the next donation session of the Win on Waste groups on Saturday 20 February.  Canford Heath 10-11am at the Coffee House Café, Adastral Square or Creekmoor 11.30am-12.30pm at Creekmoor Library.  If you live in Hamworthy you can take your keys to Hamworthy Library on Saturday 27 February between 10.30 and 11.30am.

Molly lives in sheltered accommodation and thanks to her efforts publicising our Christmas campaign to her neighbours and other residents, she collected five carrier bags of Christmas cards, three bags of wrapping paper, including two containing whole rolls and a tin of stamps. We’re sure that Diverse Abilities and Lewis-Manning Hospice will be delighted with the items.   Thank you so much Molly.

Creekmoor residents donated newspapers, biscuit wrappers, yoghurt pots, milk bottle tops, stamps, Christmas wrapping paper and calendars at their donation session at Creekmoor Library on Saturday 16 January. Organisations to benefit from the donations are: Lewis-Manning Hospice, Diverse Abilities, Forest Holme Hospice, Dorset Community Foundation and ourselves.

Twenty-three Canford Heath residents popped into the Coffee House Café on Saturday 16th January with 26 carrier bags of items which they had been saving from their recycling/waste bins.   These included newspapers, calendars, wrapping paper, stamps, biscuit wrappers, cleaning product items, cards, egg boxes, bottle tops and cardboard tubes.  The following organisations will benefit from receiving the items: Diverse Abilities, Lewis-Manning Hospice, Dorset Community Foundation and ourselves.

Four of the donors look over some of the donations.

Hundreds of cardboard tubes, yoghurt pots, calendars, wrapping paper, cards, egg boxes, fruit nets and bottle tops were saved from waste and given to Jon Stroud, Awesome Nights & Play Opportunities Manager at local charity Diverse Abilities by Win on Waste groups in Canford Heath and Creekmoor after their January donation session on Saturday 16th.  One kind Canford Heath resident donated all her craft equipment too.  The items will be used by the children and young people the charity supports at their craft sessions.

Monique (left), I2A Co-ordinator and Louise Jones, Community Relationship Fundraiser for Lewis-Manning Hospice, display the thousands of stamps at Poole Library which have been donated to the charity via our Christmas appeal.  The appeal asked people to save and take  their postage stamps either into charity shops run by the Hospice or into larger Poole libraries.  A whole collection was donated with some old and rare stamps.  It’s hoped that all the thousands of stamps will raise plenty of money for the vital work Lewis-Manning Hospice does.