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Aviva Community Fund Update | December 2021

Aviva Community Fund Success!

We have had amazing success with our first ever Aviva Community Fund Project! We have not only met our initial target of £2,000 we have reached our stretch target of £5,000!

The first £2,000 will fund communication support at our events and activities over the next 12 months. The remaining £3,000 will fund activities for our early years group right the way up to our Youth group.

A massive thank you to everyone who pledged their support to our project from our amazing regular supporters to the Aviva employees who chose to pledge to our project!

Lollipop Christmas Party

Christmas Prize Draw | Tickets now on sale!

Get your tickets for our fabulous festive prize draw! We will draw the winners at our Christmas party on 12th December. All the details are below…

 

BSL

Online Tickets

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. **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! https://gofund.me/08f908a3

Paper Tickets

Paper tickets are available at Lollipop activities (the toddler group on 18th November and 16th December, I Can Play! Music Workshop on 21st November) and will be available to buy at the Christmas party itself on 12th December.If you would like some tickets to sell to friends and family contact Becky (admin@lollipopyork.org.uk) who can arrange for them to be posted to you.

Prizes

Thank you to all the businesses and organisations who have kindly donated prizes this year!

First prize: £100 CASH!

Second Prize: £50 Designer Outlet shopping voucher

Third Prize: Family ticket to Go Ape!

 

There are many more prizes to be won and the list keeps growing! …

Enter now and good luck!

Online

Aviva Community Fund Project | November 2021

Lollipop is fundraising through the Aviva Community Fund! Click here to go to our project page to find out more and to pledge to our project!

What will your pledges enable us to do?

In order to ensure our activities are accessible for all our members, using their preferred method of communication, we provide a range of communication support for ALL Lollipop activities.

This is a huge but vital expense to the tight budget of the charity. If we reach our target, this will allow us to secure communication support to deliver our inclusive Events Programme for the next 12 months.

Depending on the need of individuals attending the activities, we will provide the following support:

  • British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters
  • Speech-to-text-reporters (STTR)
  • Lip-speakers

Who will benefit from the funding?

Some of the funds will help support our Early Years group, who are now meeting face-to-face once again.  Many of our youngest members (some of whom were only born in lockdown) are only just meeting other children of a similar age for the very first time – which is pivotal to their learning and development.

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“I feel that it is essential that my daughter has the opportunity to meet and play with other deaf children on the same level as her hearing friends so that she knows why her hearing loss should not make her feel different or hold her back in any way.” 

“My son has felt so welcome and enjoyed making new friends at Lollipop.  This is his only contact with other hearing-impaired people and has been a really positive experience for all of us.”

“My daughter has enjoyed each experience with Lollipop.  Lollipop makes my daughter feel better about wearing her hearing aids.” 

The money raised will also be used to provide support to our junior and youth groups, at various monthly activities. Our youths have requested to go swimming, ice-skating, pizza making, and would also like to attempt a climbing wall and an escape room…They love a challenge!

We also run a mentoring scheme supported by deaf mentors to help deaf children and young people develop skills for the future. Research shows that good social and emotional resilience is important for all children. Helping deaf children and young people to develop this is at the heart of Lollipop’s thinking.

“Having a mentor increases my son’s independence as he is then not reliant on those close to him in everyday life. He loves going to Lollipop and has made lots of friends there, he definitely has a feeling of belonging to the group which has increased his confidence, self-esteem and improved his social skills.” 

We listen to our members to make sure that we are providing what people need and have a close working relationship with professionals working in York and North Yorkshire. Our members are keep their fingers crossed that we reach our target!

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Pledge here:

https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/communication-support-for-deaf-inclusive-activities#start

Thank you!

Leeds

Christian Sutcliffe Leeds Half Marathon | 5th September 2021

A huge well done to Christian Sutcliffe who has completed the Leeds Half Marathon in support of Lollipop!

We’re a charity close to his heart because his partner, Chelsea, used to be a Lollipop member:

“Ever since meeting my deaf partner I see the daily battles D/deaf
people encounter. When I visited Lollipop, seeing deaf children mix with
other deaf children it was heart-warming to see their faces light up.
I want to make it easier for deaf people to succeed. This is why I want
to make a small difference to the young deaf community.”

Christian has raised nearly £600 so far! You can find out more about why he decided to fundraise for
Lollipop and show you support at: https://gofund.me/5369fb44

 

Rutland

Luke Zwalf’s Ironman Update | 11th September 2021

In our previous posts about Luke’s fundraising for Lollipop (here) and (here) we gave you all the details about his 112+ mile cyclothon at York College in June and his training for the Ironman Wales in September. Recently Luke has had the disappointing news that the Ironman competition has been postponed to September 2022, and while he still intends to race next year he has signed up for a half Ironman in Rutland on Sunday September 11th 2021.

Luke is extremely grateful to Lollipop supporters for their donations and while he is going to have to wait a bit longer to reach his ultimate goal of completing a full Ironman, he is determined to put his training to good use at Rutland! Luke has raised over £1,200 for Lollipop to date, let’s help him reach his target of £2,000!

Sponsor Luke here!

 

York College

Cyclothon update! | 15th June 2021

In our previous posts (here and here) we told you about Lollipop parent Luke Zwalf and his fundraising plans to compete in IronMan Wales in September and to organise a cycling event at York College where he is the Head of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Luke’s daughter, Freya, has been a member of Lollipop since she was 4 months old, and she’s now 15! We visited the college this week to catch up with Luke while he spent the day on a static bike in the entrance hall, with colleagues joining him throughout the day.

Luke’s day started at 8.30am and he got off to a great start; by the time we arrived at 9.30 he had already clocked up 20 miles! The aim for the day was to cycle 112 miles, which is the length of an IronMan cycle course, but it was clear that he was going to exceed this target early on. He decided to keep going, no matter how many miles he had cycled, until 4pm.

Luke was joined by colleagues who had signed-up for 15 or 30 minute sessions and he had someone cycling with him throughout the whole day. Staff and students stopped by to chat and to donate, and Luke did an amazing job of keeping going when the bike was no longer a comfortable place to be!

Thank you Luke! 

Luke is still to complete the IronMan competition  – sponsor him here! https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LukeZwalf

 

 

york

Cyclothon at York College! | 15th June 2021

Fundraising Cyclothon

In a previous post we told you about amazing Lollipop parent Luke Zwalf who is competing in Ironman Wales in September (previous post). The race includes a 112 miles bike race, a 2.4 mile swim in the sea and a marathon! As if that madness wasn’t enough Luke has decided to warm up with a cyclothon in the atrium of his workplace, York College.

The cyclothon will be the same 112 mile distance as in the Ironman race but on a static bike. Luke’s colleagues will be taking it in turns to compete against him on another static bike to try and finish the 112 miles faster! This sounds like a brilliant and fun idea and we can’t wait to visit the event on the day!

To sponsor Luke in his static bike race and the Ironman visit his fundraising page…

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LukeZwalf

online

Fundraising Online Quiz | Friday 21st May 2021 8pm

The next Lollipop Monthly Virtual Quiz is on Friday 21st May at 8pm and this month it’s going to be a little bit different!

As regular quizzers will know, our quizzes are hosted by Virtual Quiz Events who are having a bumper drive to deliver more funds to charities and fundraisers, with their ‘Magic May Fundraising’ event.  All quiz events for charities/fundraisers in May will have the 1st, 2nd & 3rd place prize winnings added to the charity’s donations, meaning that instead of receiving 60% of the quiz entry sum, the charity will receive 80%. We would love it if our generous supporters could help us make this our biggest quiz ever to raise as much as possible! Spread the word to your friends and family! The entry fee is £3 and not only will you be having fun but you will be supporting Lollipop at the same time and in this current climate we need it more than ever, so THANK YOU!

 

Step 1 – For new players, please register to play before the quiz starts by clicking below.

Register to Play

Step 2 – Search for Lollipop under Available quiz Events and click on March’s date to enter and pay for the quiz.

Step 3 – Your quiz entry will be listed in the Pending Quiz Events tab. Simply press PLAY to enter.

For those of you that are already registered, please log in and skip to Step 2.

Online

#CaptainTom100 Swimathon!

Captain Tom 100 Challenge

Last weekend Lollipop’s Service Manager, Heidi Davies completed a 101 length swimathon for her Captain Tom 100 challenge!

Friday 30th April 2021 would have been Captain Sir Tom Moore’s 101st birthday and the one-year anniversary of the extraordinary celebrations following the conclusion of his famous 100 laps of his garden that raised millions for the NHS. Captain Tom’s family pledged to celebrate his life with an event that everyone, in the UK and around the world, could get involved in to celebrate his generosity of spirit, the hope and joy he brought to millions, and his sense of fun. This is why the Captain Tom 100 challenge was created.

As a regular swimmer before the pandemic Heidi decided to catch up on all the swimming she had missed now that pools have reopened! There are still stricter limits on pool sessions so Heidi swam her 101 lengths over a few days at Yearsley pool. It’s a 50 yard pool (approx 45 metres) so we calculate that 101 lengths totals just over 4.6km! Heidi has raised a fantastic £140.45 for Lollipop and her fundraising page will be open for a little while longer. Thank you and well done Heidi!

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HeidiDavies3

Wales

Luke’s Ironman for Lollipop!

Lollipop Parent to Compete in Ironman Wales!

On 12th September Luke Zwalf will be competing in Ironman Wales. The race includes a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride followed by a marathon! Before this takes place he will kick-start his fundraising at York College in June where he will be cycling the 112 miles on a static bike in the college atrium and his colleagues will take it in turns to compete against him! All this is to raise funds and awareness for Lollipop for which we are extremely proud and grateful!

Here Luke talks about why he has chosen this challenge and to fundraise for Lollipop:

 

“Lollipop were one of the first charities who supported us when Freya was born profoundly deaf in 2006. As a York based charity we were able to easily attend sessions and their support through the early months and years of squealing hearing aids to the operations for cochlear implants and to Freya’s first years in a mainstream school have all been invaluable. As a now confident, resilient, fiercely determined 15 year old who makes us proud each and every day, she is almost oblivious to any impairment and without question some of that is due to Lollipop”.

 

We will follow Luke’s training and post updates on our website as the events get closer. To sponsor Luke in this amazing challenge you can donate to his Virgin Money Giving page https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/LukeZwalf and share this link with your friends and family. If you’d like to check out the course Luke will be swimming/cycling/running follow this link to Ironman Wales https://www.ironman.com/im-wales-course

 

Good luck Luke, we are all behind you!

Watch out for updates on Luke’s training and fundraising over the coming months!

 

Our Sponsors

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.