GCBN FAMILYNEWSLETTEREaster 2020 - Issue Number 22

WELCOME TO OUR NEWSLETTERKeeping you up-to-date with activities andevents, dates for your diary, and sharing allthe news from our volunteers and donors.

WE WILL CONTINUE TOSUPPORT YOUWho could ever have imagined that ourEaster Newsletter would be coming to youwith such a back drop of turmoil andworry across our communities?

In these unprecedented times all of ushere at GCBN send our best wishes andhope that you are all keeping safe.

In light of the fast-moving situationsurrounding Coronavirus (COVID 19), weare having to suspend some of ourservices for the time-being.

We do not wish to place you or yourchildren at any unnecessary risk by ourvolunteers visiting homes or schools tohave direct face to face contact withchildren and their families.

As you will appreciate, we were left withno option but to reduce the services wenormally offer to bereaved families.

However, please be assured if we canassist via a telephone consultation andsharing of books or other resources wewill do all we can to continue to supportyou and your families.

Simply email on gcbn@archie.org if youneed any advice, guidance or just totalk something through.

Similarly, if you have any fundraisingideas in this difficult period, please letus know. We rely on donations and thegoodwill of our supporters in order for usto provide our services.

Malcolm Stewart,Coordinator

COULD OUR PARENT SUPPORT GROUP HELP YOU?

£5000 from CNOOC£400 from GMB Scotland£1300 from Alan & Joes Nepal Trip£458 from Cluny Primary£125 St Margaret's School£400 Northsound Cash for Kids

Fundraising to date is going well with some greatdonations coming in, thank you's include;

We have also had quite a few gifts in kind such as craftmaterials, jars, salt, Easter Eggs and comfort teddies all ofwhich are much appreciated and save costs. We are also expecting some money from grants and othercorporate donations but I'll update you all once banked. In terms of upcoming fundraising events:7 June - Aberdeen Kiltwalk: The walk has been postponed,however, organisers are still allowing registrations and willhonour all money raised and they add 50% on top of yoursponsorship - so it really is worth considering!12 December - Christmas Bag Pack, Tesco Danestone I am looking at a potential recipe book, please contact mewith any recipes or ideas and a carol concert in Decemberagain please contact me if you would like to be involved. 

I have also applied to numerous supermarket tokenschemes, you can normally only do one store at a time butif you see any chance to get involved in these or any othersupermarket scheme please get details and contact me.Again if you have any work charity events or corporategiving suggestions please get in touch.

LYNNE'S FUNDRAISING UPDATE

Do you ever feel you are struggling toknow how best to cope with youngstersyou are caring for? For example, how todeal with birthdays, anniversaries andmany more daily situations?

A Parent Support Group meeting could bea space where you can share yourconcerns, struggles or examples of whathas worked for you - or just time for teaand a chat with others in similar situationto yourself. Hopefully we can offer andreceive support from each other.

Following a suggestion from parents, weare attempting to set up such a ParentSupport Group. Our first meeting washeld on Saturday 15th February where weagreed to run monthly meetings on a trialbasis until June.

However these have had to be cancelledfor obvious reasons. We will confirm newdates when the current situation eases.

All meetings will be held in PortElphinstone Community House , Inverurie..It is envisaged that meetings wouldfunction on a drop in basis - so folks cancome when they can within the times andstay for as long as they wish. Tea andcoffee will be available throughout! Why not give it a try? We would bedelighted to hear any of your ideas as tohow you would like the group to operate. n the meantime Marie and I look forwardto welcoming you at our next meeting. Joyce Taylor

NEW VOLUNTEERS

A big welcome to our newly

trained volunteers Chelsea

Bower, Lynn Rattray, Liz Norris,

Shabana Mohammad, Jane

Watson and Shauni Cheyne. Once

we are back up and running with

our full services they will make

such a difference given the

continued increase in demand for

our services. They are all really keen

to get going and assist families

through such difficult

times.

KIDS HAVE A BLAST ON OUR ACTIVITY DAYS

The teenage group had a great timeat laser tag with the individualwinner being Chloe and the redteam of Chloe, Calum and Mariecoming in first as group winners. Lynn was most put out after theconsiderable effort and running sheput in only to realise at the end hergun was not working concluding inher being robbed of the victory. The group then had a pizza feastwhere Calum outshone everyonewith his pizza eating skills with ashare platter all to himself which hemanaged to consume effortlesslywithout a sweat.

A massive thanks to our good friends at Dezible StreetDrummers who held a workshop for us on Saturday 14March at the Mastrick Community Centre. As always theevent was well attended by 20 children and young peoplewho had a great time.

GCBN IS PART OF THE ARCHIE FOUNDATION FAMILY OF FUNDS, A CHARITY REGISTERED IN SCOTLAND - NUMBER SC039521

I could never have envisaged when wepublished our last newsletters just a fewweeks ago, that we would be sharing withyou that we have had to limit some of ourservices. With this unprecedented situation, and theadvice given by the Government to limitcontact, we have had to take the very harddecision to suspend our home visitingservice, Activity Days and groups. We are going to do our best to continue tosupport you via phone, email, social mediaand by text.We can appreciate that it isn’t the same,but we will try and do our best in thesedifficult times. I know that the Coronavirus, has createdhuge anxiety and stress for so manypeople, and I can appreciate that you andyour family havealready had to manage stress followingyour bereavement. I want to reassure you that while we can’tprovide face to face support we can speakto you to offer advice and guidance overthe phone. While the one to one support activity workour volunteers are doing with your childceases for a period, we can reassure youthat we will continue to pick this up assoon as the situation settles down. We also know that grief and bereavementis not a short-term condition, and as longas children and young people and theirfamilies speak about their grief, this willcertainly help in the longer term. This is going to be a very tough time for allcharities, as sadly many of our fundraisingevents will also be postponed. However, wevalue your support and just want you all tostay healthy and safe. Best wishes,Anne Bone.

NOTE FROM OUR CHAIR

Paintings and drawings that we could thenuse for our thankyou cards and othermerchandise

Drawings that we might be able to use for GCBN Christmas Cards

Poems, sayings, drawings, paintings that wecould use on our social media sites to keepeveryone connected

Any recipes or favourite meals,  that yourloved one had, that we could combine to putinto a Memory Recipe book. The idea wouldbe for your child to just say why this was aspecial meal or recipe for the loved one, anda little bit about the person. If we getenough then we will try and get the bookpublished and it will bring some well neededfunds.

A Wee Idea...

If you find yourselves in the house with thechildren over the next few weeks, we wonderwhether your children and young people,might like to work with us to produce some ofthe following:

If your child can do any of the above then justemail it into GCBN@archie.org or send it intoGCBN, C/O Archie, Royal Aberdeen Children’sHospital, Westburn Road, Aberdeen AB25 2ZG.

GET CREATIVE TOHELP GCBN