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Headway Newsletter : November 2005
Editorial
It would seem that Headway has become "flavour of the month" (or should that be "year"?) as lately we have been inundated with offers for opportunities to raise funds. It is certainly true to say that Headway is now well known in our own suburb and even beyond, and we are very pleased that the years of effort in this regard seem to be paying off! The best news this month was the allocation of funding to heat our swimming pool which will enhance the excellent results being achieved by the physio department in Hydrotherapy (see Donations). Veronica
Welcome to…..
Nokuthula Madlala, Andre Burger, Struan Robertson and Bala Munisamy who have joined the Headway Family this month … and ….
we also extend a very warm welcome to our new Speech Therapist, Shobana Singh who joined us at the beginning of this month, whereupon she was handed a long list of people needing assessments and therapy! We have been without a Speech Therapist since the beginning of the year when Cheryl Govender left for overseas and have been unable to fill the post due to a lack of funds. Thanks to our recent grant from National Lotteries we are now able to address this gap in the services we offer. We look forward to Shobana being part of our wonderful therapy team.
General Meeting in November
As bulletined in the October Newsletter, our monthly meeting took place on the second Friday of the month in November instead of the first Friday to accommodate our speaker, June Prentice. June had told us that her talk was entitled "My Part in A Great Train Robbery" but she quickly dispelled any illusions that we were going to hear a heroic story related to her early career as a policewoman in London! She admitted that she had based the title on Spike Milligan's humorous book entitled "My Part in Hitler's Downfall", her claim being as false as his!! However, being the good storyteller that she is June recounted the story of her life in the force.
After completing a degree in Social Work, June found herself on a four month intensive training course at the Police Training School in London. Hours and hours were spent learning the law, First Aid, how to salute and to march and, most importantly, how to spit and polish those black uniform shoes until they were like mirrors! Visits to hospitals, prisons, remand homes and all the various law courts ensured that the training was comprehensive, and once completed Constable June Troughton was posted to the Leman Street Police Station in Stepney in the East End of London (Jack the Ripper-land!) where she was the only woman police constable. June said that, despite this being one of the toughest areas in all of London, she was very happy there and became firm friends with the hundreds of "ladies of the night" who nicknamed her "Baby Face".
After only 18 months as a uniformed constable, June was invited to report to Scotland Yard for promotion to the CID which required her to attend a Detective's Training Course. During her time in the CID, June had all sorts of interesting jobs and did manage to "nick" a few criminals! She also acted as escort to dignitaries on a number of occasions, was fortunate to meet members of the royal family and did, indeed, have a role to play in tracking down the perpetrators of a train robbery in which £1.5 million was stolen! We know there is another story in there somewhere because June left the force and went off to Canada - so how did she end up in South Africa? We shall just have to invite her back for another episode so that we can again enjoy her skills as a raconteur of note!
Therapy News
Occupational Therapy Department
This report from OT Debbie:
Christmas is just around the corner and to keep up with the demand of Christmas Shopping we are running Gift-making Workshops at Headway in which our attendees make gifts for themselves or their families. We are decorating spoons with beautiful beadwork, making Suncatchers, "Granny Grassheads" and much more. Special workshops have been scheduled for Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th December for parents or spouses of those who have survived a brain injury or stroke. PLEASE PHONE DARINA FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO BOOK YOUR SEAT!
We had an order for 250 Christmas Cards which was a brilliant work project needing a super-efficient production team. Our attendees rose to the occasion with aplomb and the cards look really great!
From the OT Department … we wish you a safe Christmas and a happy, prosperous New Year!
Physiotherapy Department
This report is hot off the press upon physiotherapist Gillian Adam's return from Budapest and is given the title:
Hydro and Hungary: I have just returned from England and Hungary, weary but refreshed - if that makes any sense! The course on Balneotherapy was presented by the International Society of Medical Hydrology at Szeged, a spa town two hours drive from Budapest, renowned for its paprika.
Balneotherapy (=Hydrology) is the use of water for medical purposes. This includes hydrotherapy (use of the physical properties of water for rehabilitation, including the use of tap water), balneology (immersion in natural thermal mineral water) and spa therapy which includes a cocktail of different treatments, all now based more and more on scientific principles. Thirty delegates from all over the world attended and the cross-pollination was fantastic. An inspiration was the access to disabled persons at the spas I saw and the fact that the state pays for treatments in the medical section. It was lovely seeing colleagues from England and visiting my previous workplace which is very similar to Headway.
Editor: Gillian was the only delegate from South Africa on this course and we are proud that she was representing Headway. We look forward to hearing more and sharing her experience with you, as Gill will be addressing one of our Friday morning General Meetings early next year. Gillian received the exciting news just before she left SA about the heating of the pool soon becoming a reality. She flew off overseas on something of a high!
CPR Training
While Gillian was overseas, a group of staff members spent a Saturday morning learning how to carry out the necessary first aid and resuscitation in the event of any problems at Headway and, in particular, to cope with any difficulties which might arise during Hydrotherapy. We are very proud of our certificates!
Fund Raising:
We continue to be very satisfied with the success of fund-raising this year and efforts have continued unabated during the month of November! Read on:
The Headway Buskers
Some might say that singing Christmas Carols in November is a little premature but fundraisers have no "skaam" and, anyway many of the shops put up their festive decorations in October - how premature is THAT? Our 5 favourite shopping centres readily accepted our requests for the Headway Buskers to present a seasonal programme and we made our first sortie to Sanlam Centre in Pinetown on Tuesday 8 November. We had barely got through the first carol before the shoppers were stopping and popping their donations in our collecting drums (it was the quiet paper stuff again - we subsequently discovered there was even a R200 note in there!). An unbelievable R1 002.60 was collected in just over an hour.
The following Tuesday a very small group of Buskers gathered outside Pick n Pay at Village Market Westville, our numbers drastically depleted because this was Higher Ground Camp Week (see report elsewhere in this newsletter) and many of our attendees were away having some R & R. It didn't seem to matter and the few shoppers managed to make Headway R627.15 richer that morning. On Tuesday 22nd we travelled across to Hyper-by-the-Sea in Durban North and did battle with the noisy intercom and stressed shoppers, collecting R663.80. Knowing that the closer to Christmas it gets, the less generous the public becomes towards Headway (it's an expensive time for everyone and we very much appreciate that), we were delighted when our Busking at Westville Mall on the last Tuesday of November yielded R992.75!
Our thanks as always to hardworking volunteer Mavis who directs the music, to Rose McA for her sublime musical interludes when she plays her flute (and gives the singers a chance to catch their breath!), the singing volunteers Jenni, Sue, Marie and Kirstie (and a guest appearance by Rea) and our Tuesday attendees who touch the hearts of the shoppers and move them to part with their money for Headway.
P.S. There is one more busking "gig" - at Kloof Village Market on Tuesday 6 December.
Scrapbooking Jamboree
This very successful fundraiser took place on Saturday 5 November with almost 60 scrappers spending a very happy day at Headway House getting in touch with their creative side. After a rather wobbly start, mainly due to the overwhelming number of absolute beginners, everyone eventually settled down and began to enjoy the experience. It must be pointed out that the original idea had been to aim the day at experienced scrappers who could learn one or two new techniques, with a small beginners table of (say) 6 people. As the bookings began to roll in we guardedly changed the number of beginners that we felt we could cope with to an absolute maximum of 10. What a joke! Of the 58 who signed up, 75% of them were beginners! The fact that we coped on the day was mainly due to the marvellous camaraderie that sprung up at each table with the more experienced scrappers helping the novices and to the patience of the team of organisers and demonstrators led by Mandy Muller of Crafts from our Hearts.
The success of the day was also guaranteed because of the generosity of the organisers. Every person was given a "Goodie Bag" and there were prizes galore handed out at regular intervals. Our generous local SuperSpar once again came out tops with scrumptious eats for morning tea - platters of sandwiches, muffins and cream cakes. Spar also put on a delicious cold buffet lunch complete with milk tart and strawberries for dessert and an unlimited amount of wine and fruit juice. Talk about value for money - all the scrappers were expected to pay was R100!
As always with this sort of event, there are a lot of people to thank: Rose McA and Nomah from Headway who toiled away in the kitchen the entire day. Mandy Bond and Claudine who assisted the scrappers, took photographs and sold raffle tickets (and even Headway craft!); Maryna of Occasions for selling tickets and the enormous amount of hard work she put in on the day; and Lyndie of Namaste who also put in hours of preparation and worked flat out on the day.
Lyn and Jessice of Paper Magic are also thanked for their work in demonstrating the art of Quilling at the Jamboree; and thanks to all of the above for so generously giving their time and donating valuable prizes. To Lorraine of Crafts from Our Hearts; to Scrapbooking materials suppliers Nellie from Classic Scrapbooking and Clare from Chiswick; to Westville SuperSpar …. a big thankyou for the prizes they donated. We are also grateful to Petals & Twigs of Westville Mall who made up 4 lovely floral bouquets for presentation to the crafters.
And love and thanks to Mandy Muller who came up with the idea of the Scrapbooking Day and who was tireless with her enthusiasm and organising and whose generosity bowled us over (she has probably had to take out a loan to pay the cell phone account she must have run up during the booking period!).
Just to finish off - there was a unanimous request that another Scrapbooking Day should be organised soon and a group of new friends at one table was heard to say "And we are booking this table at the next one!". Oh, by the way, over R6 800.00 was raised!!
Editor: The Highway Mail was fantastic at giving us plenty of pre-publicity but we had to laugh when they used the heading "Come get your Scrap" for one of the articles! You get the impression that the page compiler didn't have a clue what Scrapbooking was all about!
Carols by Candlelight
When Atholl Senior Primary School made the offer for us to make some money selling refreshments at their Carols by Candlelight evening on Friday 25 November, the over-stretched (and very small) fundraising team at Headway was almost inclined to refuse! But how ungrateful would that have sounded? So Debbie and Ryan took on the project and served tea, coffee and hot chocolate (along with 400 mince pies donated by Woolworths!) to many of the families at the event. Our dear friends at Westville SuperSpar gave us coffee and milk and over R400 was raised and, of course, the profile of Headway was also given a boost!
Raffles and Crafts
It would be true to say that it has never been known for anyone who comes in our door at Headway House to NOT be confronted by a plea to buy raffle tickets. We presently have a varied selection of raffles on the go including our large patchwork picnic quilt/throw made by our Sewing Group in bright jewel colours. Other current raffles include a Crocheted Shawl, a Rainbow Cardigan, a Teddy Bear called Rose (complete with parasol), and a pair of cuddly His and Hers Reindeer. Also on display are Christmas Crafts, and sales will continue right up until our closing date.
Other Fundraising Projects this month included the usual Collection Tins, Raffle Ticket Sales, Room Hire, Book and Craft Sales (and even Garden Produce Sales!), Funny Money, Miscellaneous and Shop Sales - but these will be reported on in full in the next Newsletter.
Thanks a million!
To express our gratitude to all those who have helped Headway in a significant way we hold a annual Cocktail Party in November. The list of people to invite gets bigger every year reminding us how fortunate we are to have so much support from so many people. The Headway Thankyou Cocktail Party was held on Wednesday 16 November and a most enjoyable time was had by all those who came along that evening. We guessed that the heavy rain that day would put some people off venturing out after dark and indeed attendance was affected, but the ambience was not influenced at all! It was great to see Megan Kaminski of Victor Daitz Foundation, Cynthia Miller of UBUNTU and Chris Beekman of Beekman & Associates who is currently carrying out our audit at no cost to Headway. There was also representation from 31 Club, Ons Hoekwinkel and Westville Rotary Club and a great variety of people who have helped us in so many ways. As always, in order to keep costs to a minimum, the staff rallied round and made all the snacks and we thank them all for this excellent effort. (My husband said that our food was as good as the cocktail snacks provided by Durban Country Club at a function he had attended the previous week! Editor)
Thanks for Donations this month
The balance of the amount due to Headway for the "Tries for Charity" initiative was presented to us this month. Rocky van Eyssen (who is doing some fund-raising for Headway) and Veronica, were invited to join the Sharks marketing team for lunch at The Cargo Hold at Ushaka on Friday 18 November. Present were representatives of the 11 other charities benefiting from the project and various amounts were given to each of those charities (you will be pleased, no doubt, to hear that the SPCA received the biggest cheque followed closely by Reach for a Dream). We were very happy with our R6 000 especially when you consider that we had already been presented with the R3 000 from the first try back in June. It was good to be able to personally thank members of Round Table (who raise two-thirds of the funds), Greg Petzer whose company Astrapak raise the other third, and Allen Kruger and staff of Natal Sharks who manage the project. We are holding thumbs that we will be chosen again next year (but have been warned that there are many other worthy causes waiting in the wings for inclusion!).
Generosity towards Headway continues and we thank the following for this most welcome support: The Victor Daitz Foundation for a magnificent donation of R24 000 to assist us with running costs (and the funding to heat our pool - how generous is THAT?!!); Cowies Hill Women's Institute "Cuppa Collection" (R50.00); and Bert & Glenda Jager (R200).
Tributes in memory of the late Keith Williams…
Although we, at Headway, did not know Keith personally we were very touched and grateful that his family believed us to be worthy of support in his name. Tributes were received from many people with donations totalling over R3 000. Our sincere sympathies and gratitude go out to the Williams family.
More Thankyou's
E S & J Fabricators donated a set of exercise weights, lifting bars and clamps for our physiogym; Glen Schnell of Westville Pharmacy gave us a large wicker picnic hamper (for a later raffle); Smith & Nephew donated Assistive Devices for the OT department; two boxes of T-shirts were received for our shop from It's Africa; Flexible Packaging donated electronic equipment; Ray Oliver delivered desks… and the rest of the list is so long it would take almost the entire newsletter! Thanks everyone!
Higher Ground Camp
It is hard to believe that this amazing venture was launched a whole year ago, Headway being the pioneer group who attended that very first camp in November 2004! The eagerly-awaited second camp for our brain injury survivors was held during the week of 12 to 19 November. This report from Higher Ground Director, Emma:
The second annual camp for adults with head injuries was a fantastic success. Twelve campers, many from Headway-Natal, came away with us for seven days of relaxation, adventure and most of all fun. A number of Headway attendees took a brave leap and attended camp for the first time - everyone brings something special to camp and we so enjoyed having Paul Fouche, Pharozia Fynn, Maurice Lagesse and Nicky Draper (all new campers) with us. Old friendships grew stronger, new friendships began, talents were discovered, challenges were overcome and many memories were made. There were many highlights and for us they included the girls 'Miz Higher Ground' play at our Talent Show (Nicky, Mandy, Roxy, Pharozia and Berenice put on an excellent performance) and the guys performance of the 'Good Samaritan' (Paul and Patrick beating up the poor guy on the road was fantastic). Other highlights included the Dinner Dance on the last night where campers were spoiled with a candlelit dinner served by the counsellors, many hikes into the sugar cane (for Alistair and Lucky this meant whether in sun or rain!), the obstacle course and so many more memories we'll never forget. Our Mini-Camp (a weekend holiday) is the last weekend of May 2006 and then the main camp next year is the same time (November) and place, so keep it free and we look forward to seeing you all again, as well as lots of new faces!
Praise for Higher Ground from Mandy Fisher, one of the campers:
Higher Ground camp is the greatest time any living person can ask for. You are given freedom within boundary limits, you can sing, praise, dance, play sports, and beat other people at card, board or mind games… well try to beat them any way! With an open, fun inspiring atmosphere from morning till night and from night till morning, counsellors (who are really like extended family to me now after all the fun and joy we've experienced) are caring and give love willingly, and chefs that prepare food that tastes like home, who could ever disagree with me when I say Higher Ground camp is the place to be?! I encourage anyone who is going to go to a camp that Higher Ground is arranging to get up already and pack! All you need is old clothes, comfy shoes and the positive thought of all the fun you can - and will - have with the fabulous team at Higher Ground. They deserve hubassive amounts of respect and some fabulous campers to enjoy the ride. Love Mandy
UBUNTU Day of Caring
Headway once again benefited from this annual event in which teams from companies and businesses get out into the community and spend a day carrying out hands-on projects for the various charities they support. We were allocated a team from the SA Navy and got quite a surprise when they arrived on Wednesday 16 November to find that two of the team were members of the fairer sex! They worked so hard painting the Sewing Room and Team Teaching Room and have promised to come back to varnish the wooden tables and chairs on the pool terrace. Thanks Guys and Gals!!
Xmas Eve
Here is an opportunity to support Headway and get into a festive mood at a Christmas Eve Celebration at Westville Country Club. The club manager, Tim Dickens had heard about the Headway Buskers and thought it would be good to have us along to sing carols at the club at their traditional Christmas Eve function (he is paying Headway a very reasonable "performance fee" and we will be able to have our collection drums prominently placed for further donations).
Mavis is looking for more singers as there are a limited number of Headway Buskers available that evening so - PLEASE - let us know if you can sing with us on Christmas Eve! Song sheets are available (so don't worry about not knowing the words), red Headway T-shirts can be borrowed (or bought for a reasonable amount) and if you sing you are entitled to a plate of the delicious spit-roasted lamb and salads. If you don't sing but want to come and join in the festive fun, it will cost R30 for the meal. We are delighted that another opportunity to raise funds has been presented to us. Contact the Headway office.
Appeals
Side Plates (feedback!): Thanks to all those people who REALLY read the newsletter and prove it by responding to our appeals - quite a few side plates arrived on our doorstep much to our joy!
Christmas Cards: An early reminder to ask our readers to donate used Christmas Cards to us once the festive season is over. Using them to make Headway cards is fantastic therapy and the results good and gaining in popularity!
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