Writing a Will is a task many of us have on our to-do list but never seem to get to, whether through lack of time or lack of finances to be able to afford a solicitor’s fees.
Free Wills is an online, or over the phone, service that allows you to write a legally binding Will for free, in plain English, that will be checked by a solicitor before completion. It is a quick process, for most people taking about 15 minutes.
By becoming a partner of Free Wills Lollipop can give it’s supporters a way to access making a Will. Following the link above will take you to a special landing page at Free Wills especially for Lollipop supporters, and as part of the Will-writing process you will be prompted to decide if you would like to leave a gift or donation to Lollipop in your Will. After the Will is written you can also access it and make changes free of charge at any time.
To find out more you can visit Free Wills – a link to their frequently asked questions page is below.
This means we have £4,000 to enable us to run activities for the coming year (Sept 2024 – Sept 2025) which is wonderful news!
We will shortly be polling our members to find out which activities they would most like to try with their Lollipop friends. We aim to provide the experiences that members are most interested in – in previous years this has meant we have been climbing, go-karting and swimming, plus much more (see our Recent Activities page)! Often these can be activities where members have felt they haven’t been confident to take part previously, and Lollipop provides a safe space to try new things, with communications support and deaf awareness, often with exclusive use of the venue or modifications to the activity to give the best environment possible for our members to gain confidence.
Thank you to Ovingdean Hall Foundation for their wonderful support.
In August Emma Moore competed in GB Ultras Race Across Scotland to raise funds for both Lollipop and The Island.
Emma is a personal trainer and British Athletics run coach, and while setting herself this personal challenge she wanted to make it as worthwhile and motivating as possible by raising money for two York charities. After running her longest race of 100 miles in 2022 this was a further challenge she was eager to take on. You can read more about Emma on her own website:
Unfortunately Emma had to retire from the Race Across Scotland at 60 miles due to injury, but 60 miles is no mean feat, it’s an incredible achievement still! We are so appreciative all of the dedication and grit she put into the training. After a well deserved break we hope we see her again!
Emma raised an amazing £2020 in total to be split between Lollipop and The Island.
York company EPH Creative recently held a family fun day at their premises near Wetherby…
…and Lollipop was the lucky beneficiary of funds raised on the day! We are so happy to receive such an unexpected donation, which will help us continue to plan more exciting experiences for our members in the coming months! EPH Creative are the UK’s leading supplier of props and furniture for events. They have a huge warehouse of amazing props that they design, manufacture and hire out for events, photoshoots, exhibitions and attractions! Matt East, co-founder of EPH creative explains why they chose Lollipop:
“My name is Matt, and I am the father of Oscar East, who has been attending the York monthly meet-ups for quite some time. Oscar loves these meetings, enjoying the chance to connect, learn, and receive support from people who truly understand him. After meeting your impressive team at the Christmas party in Bishopthorpe last year, I was inspired to recommend Lollipop as a charity to support at my company’s annual fundraiser on April 26th. The suggestion was enthusiastically accepted, and I am thrilled to share that our event was a great success, raising £1000 for Lollipop.”
A huge thank you to everyone at EPH Creative for their generosity!
We are thrilled to announce that Lollipop has been selected as the chosen charity for this year’s Acaster Malbis May Festival, taking place on Saturday 18th May.
It looks all set to be a fabulous fun-filled occasion with live music, street food, bars, dancing, stalls, activities and entertainment for all the family! Huge thanks to everyone on the Acaster Malbis Community Events Team for choosing to support Lollipop with the proceeds.
See the flier below for full details of what you can expect on the day. Events tickets and charity raffle tickets ON SALE NOW at https://shop.acasterevents.co.uk/products so pop it in your diary and give yourself something to look forward to this summer! We can’t wait to see you there! 🙂
All of this money will go towards funding even more exciting activities to encourage our members to try something new, express themselves freely and realise their true potential!
It definitely feels like all of our Christmases have come at once and we are SO incredibly grateful for everyone’s support!
Lollipop has been part of the Co-op Local Community Fund for the past year…and what a year!
Between 23 October 2022 and 21 October 2023, Co-op Members could officially support Lollipop by buying selected Co-op branded products and services. We were officially linked to the York community of stores but members could raise money for us by shopping at any Co-op store across the UK.
We were truly delighted to receive a WHOPPING £3018.91 from the scheme and would like to reiterate our HUGE THANKS to Co-op members and the Co-op Community Fund for supporting us and their local community.
Here’s Anna and Deb showing their appreciation at the Hull Road branch earlier this month 🙂
Tickets are now on sale for our fabulous festive prize draw and raffle! Once again, we have some fantastic prizes on offer and are immensely grateful to the participating organisations for their generous donations. Details of all the prizes you can win are listed below…
The easiest way to enter the prize draw is to visit our GoFundMe Prize Draw page. Tickets are £1 each. Simply donate to the page to buy entries into the draw. For example, donate £10 to buy 10 tickets. GoFundMe do not allow us to include all the information about the draw and prizes on our GoFundMe fundraising page, so all the details are further down this page!
Please put your name and contact details on the donation to ensure we know who to enter into the draw! We will only contact you using these details if you have won a prize. Help us to sell as many tickets as possible by sharing this link with your family and friends!
Paper tickets are available from Cheryl (parentsupport@lollipopyork.org.uk). Please email her to request tickets to be sent to you in the post. Tickets will also be available to buy at the Christmas party itself on 9th December.
Prizes
Thank you to all the Yorkshire businesses who have kindly donated prizes this year to help raise vital funds for Lollipop!
A HUGE thank-you to Tesco and everyone who used their little blue tokens to vote for Lollipop in the Tesco Community Grants (now Stronger Starts) scheme. We are thrilled to have received the most votes meaning we get a WHOPPING £1500! Here’s some of the Lollipop team being presented with the all-important cheque at Tesco Clifton Moor!
A massive thank you to Emma Moore for choosing to raise money for Lollipop and The Island by running over 200 miles in the GB Ultras ‘Race across Scotland’ in August 2024.
We’re totally in awe of Emma’s strength and stamina and very grateful to her for taking part in this incredible challenge to help raise vital funds for us. We’ll be following her training progress and wishing her all the very best every step of the way!
Lollipop is primarily funded through The National Lottery Community Fund. We are also funded by BBC Children In Need with further support from many local and national organisations.
