2 - 2 3 1 0 R E V I E W A N A U L N

What a year! 3

Allsorts 4

Athletes 6

GrEAT! 8

25th Anniversary 10

Zig Zag 12

Supporters 14

KEEN Teens 16

KEEN + 18

Trustees 19

H ello and welcome to the annual review 2012-13! KEEN is a charity and an organisation of Oxford and Oxford Brookes

Universities that provides sporting and recreational activities for children and young people with special needs in Oxfordshire. Each week KEEN provides four different activity sessions as well as trips and special events in order to develop the skills for our athletes to develop their skills, socialise and have fun!

H W T A ! R A E Y A

2012-13 has seen a whopping 24 GrEAT sessions, 19 Allsorts sessions, 21 ZigZag sessions, 21 KEEN Teens sessions, 3 ice skating trips, 3 Christmas parties, 2 swimming sessions, a treasure hunt, a climbing session, a go karting evening, a visit to the funomusica, two viewings of the pantomime, two daytrips, one afternoon carol singing, one KEEN Olym-pics, one 25th anniversary barn dance, 143 athletes and 331 volunteers. That was 2012-13 and what a year it’s been! We’ve celebrated 25 years of KEEN in Oxford and continued, through the found-ing concept of pairing enthusi-astic young volunteer coaches with children with special needs one-to-one, to have a

significant impact on the lives of our athletes and their fami-lies. But before that there is some sad news to share. KEEN athletes Haider Iqbal and Laurie Fennell passed away in December and March respec-tively. Haider will be remem-bered for his huge smile, sense of humour and the joy he brought at KEEN. Laurie too loved coming to KEEN and his parents have asked me to thank the enthusiastic team that gave Laurie such fun over the years, especially at outdoor sessions, musical events and when receiving his medal at the KEEN Olympics. Haider and Laurie will be sorely missed at KEEN.

Special events 20

Coordinator 22

3 Haider Iqbal Laurie Fennell

Cha Slide, attempting para-chute games in a room where the parachute was just as big, and having an actual Quidditch team (yes, they really do exist in the muggle world!) come and show us how to be as good as Harry Potter at catching the snitch. At Easter, we finished term with a huge bouncy castle. Not surprisingly, this was a huge hit with the athletes, as were the massively popular Brookes Dancers who came for their second visit of the year. As for the summer term, once the rain had gone away, we were able to enjoy athletics, KEEN rounders, and just gener-ally being outdoors, even when the weather once again caused an issue in 4th week, leaving myself and Katy stood in the rain singing the Shark Song and Princess Pat whilst the athletes took cover under the pavilion. I have thoroughly enjoyed

A llsorts is our hugely popular sports session on a Saturday. Over the winter we stayed warm indoors at Blackbird Leys Sports

Centre, but as soon as the sunshine arrived we moved outdoors to the New College Sports Ground. Athletes have learnt new sports such as Quidditch and also improved their skills in football and basketball. Most importantly, everyone had a good time moving around!

We had a great start to the year at Allsorts, trying all sorts of sports including boccia, basket ball, curling and foot-ball. A massive thank you to Katy and Emily for filling in for me, to all the volunteers who came and helped out, and all the fantastic athletes. We also had visits from the Oxford University Quidditch team and the Brookes Dancers, whose sessions were fantastic! The highlight of the term for me was definitely the Christmas party; with a bouncy castle and a visit from Santa and the Christmas Fairy. I hope every-one had as much fun as I did! Jess Parkinson, Sports Coordi-nator Michaelmas 2012. Despite battling with the weather on occasion this year, we have been working hard at improving our skills, playing all the classics – football, basket-ball, hockey, curling, boccia and dancing. We’ve also had

some more unusual sessions, including doing a giant Cha

L A O S L S T R

being Sports Coordinator. I have loved being able to spend time with all of the athletes and it has been a privilege to watch them all develop new skills, and I hope they have had as much fun as me. Personal highlights include introducing the Mr. Men warm-up game and ordering athletes to tickle their coaches, as well as lain telling me how to run my warm-up sessions, Samuel Baker continually laughing at me because I could not stay on my feet on the bouncy castle and spent the entire session falling over, and witnessing Rebekah and Chloe’s amazing ways of scoring goals in foot-ball as a pair! Emily Jeffery, Sports Coordinator Hilary and Trinity 2013 4

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T A E L H S E T

Name:

Age:

Favourite session:

Best KEEN memory from this year:

Try and spot all 8!

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H W ‘ E R E S ? N E K

Find your own photo online at www.keenoxford.org

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U G S S E E H T O V N U L R E E T

Answers on page 13

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4 5

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Michaelmas term kicked off with a fascinating night at the Oxford Natural History Muse-um where we enjoyed making our own fossil casts and dinosaur masks. We danced the night away at a spooky Halloween Stingray special. Diwali was an evening which particularly stands out in our memory with everyone enjoy-ing the story behind the Hindu celebration. We celebrated the festival of light by decorating glass candle holders, eating Indian treats, and releasing paper lanterns into the sky at the end of the evening.

We were joined by the compa-ny ‘dig ‘n’ grow’ for the penulti-mate session. Everyone en-joyed making their own festive table decoration to take home

G rEAT celebrated 10 years of social clubs for our over 18’s this year. We have had three pairs of brilliant co-ordinators who have

provided a wide variety of exciting activities.

r G T A E !

with them. Finally the term finished with a wonderful Christmas party with festive karaoke and games. Rachel Hurford and Rupert da Silva, Michaelmas Term Coordinating GrEAT in Hilary term was so much fun! We started off with a Pub Quiz featuring a very special ‘Nathan’ round. It was revealed

the secret to his luscious curly locks is eating all his crusts and a wide variety of hair care products. The second session was music night; we began by composing and performing songs based on ABBA and Rob-bie Williams hits before hear-ing a very special performance from The Ultrasounds. In third week we went bowling and a special mention goes to Ste-8

“ Today’s ses GrEAT mix of everyone en

theme of light. were a definite

phen for the top score. In fourth week Cannelle visited us and painted our nails wonder-ful colours; red was a very pop-ular choice amongst the male members! To celebrate Valen-tines Day, we went disco danc-ing at StingRay. There was lots of superb dancing! The follow-ing week Murder struck at the SCFC! We worked in teams to solve the murder mystery by interviewing suspects, taking their fingerprints and piecing together a torn up photo. The spookiness continued in 7th week as the fantastic Bill Spec-tre whisked us around Oxford on an incredible Ghost Tour. The grand finale of the term was an “eggcellent” Easter

party where we played party games, made bunnies, chicks and chocolate crispy cakes! Hannah Phillips and Jess Par-kinson, GrEAT Coordinators Hilary 2013. We started Trinity term at GrEAT with our usual pub quiz at The Mitre! This term has seen us take part in a wide variety of activities, we have

sion had a activities and joyed the The sky lanterns highlight!”

Harriet, Volunteer

had a games night with Special Effect, our very own ‘GrEAT British Bake Off’ in which Na-than took on the role of Paul Hollywood to judge our fantas-tically decorated cakes and taste our new cocktails! We

danced the night away to 60’s and 70’s tunes at StingRay Nightclub – we were even lucky enough to see a live band! In 6th week James and his twin Tim treated us to a musical delight, playing some of our favourite Disney songs fol-lowed by team karaoke! We spent a gloriously sunny even-ing playing games in South Parks with a yummy picnic! Our term as coordinators rounded off with the much anticipated black tie ball, boasting a two course dinner and disco! We would like to thank everyone who has attended GrEAT this term, we hope you have en-joyed it as much as we did! Jess Beasley and James Keasley, GrEAT Coordinators Trinity 2013. 9

KEEN's roots stretch back as early as 1984, when New Col-lege student John Simon set up a tennis coaching programme for local children with learning disabilities. It was on 3rd Feb-ruary 1988 that the organisa-tion we know today sprang into existence, as student Elliot Portnoy (also of New College) and parent Krzysia Gossage

joined forces to offer a wider range of activities that built on the same basic idea. In the early days, KEEN's flag-ship activity was a Saturday

Y R A S

T his year KEEN celebrated its 25th anniversary in style! Dan Warren gives a very brief introduction to KEEN’s origins and history,

whilst Kate Dickie and Katy Boncey review our 25th birthday bash.

5 2 H T R E V I N N A

sports session very similar to today's Allsorts, although there were also specific weekly activ-ities organised by individual volunteers including rowing, swimming and horseriding. Zig Zag was also established soon after, inspired by a visit to London-based organisation the Chicken-Shed. GrEAT was founded in 2003 to help cater for an ever-expanding age range of athletes. Our most recent session, KEEN Teens, was set up in 2009. KEEN has had its fair share of brushes with fame. Whilst we've had a good deal of local press coverage, it was a 2003 charity calendar produced by LMH women's football and rugby teams that got our name into the national papers. In 1996, athletes met Greg Rusedski at Wimbledon after KEEN hosted (and won!) the Special Olympics Regional Ten-nis Championships. And Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu visited an early 90s Zig Zag session, and donned a KEEN t-shirt for the hokey cokey! After a quarter century of fun, in which thousands of student volunteers have supported

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In February, Headington Girls School was transformed into the best barn seen for miles around as we donned our best cowboy and cowgirl hats for a good old-fashioned hoedown to celebrate KEEN’s 25th birth-day! Everyone present used their best skills to lasso cows, hook ducks, and pin tails on donkeys. We tried on some of KEEN’s best costumes for a photo-shoot, before finishing with a giant hokey cokey fol-lowed by a specially designed

cake! Thanks to the hard work put in by everyone, particularly Nathan, Becky, Emily, Hannah and especially Katy, all had a darn-tootin’, foot stomping good time! Kate Dickie, 25th Party Team

hundreds of athletes, led by 26 coordinators, KEEN is still going strong. I hope there are many more tales to tell at our 50th birthday. Dan Warren, KEEN Coach KEEN 25th Birthday Party We started thinking about how we could commemorate KEEN's 25th birthday right at the beginning of the year, and a barn dance was suggested. After Christmas preparations began in earnest and several late nights later we were ready to celebrate at Headington Girls School. It was amazing to see so many people connected to KEEN together for one after-noon - athletes (past and pre-sent), trustees, volunteers and co-ordinators. Lots of games and activities were enjoyed by all - the ceilidh band we'd hired got us all up dancing and we played one of the largest ever games of pass the parcel. At the end of the day no birthday party would be complete with-out the cutting (and eating!) of a very special KEEN cake. Hopefully our next milestone will be marked in the same way! Katy Boncey, 25th party team

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It has been a spell-binding, magical and wonderful year at Zig Zag! In the fall, we weaved our way through the library of Roald Dahl, revisiting such clas-sics as James and the Giant Peach, George's Marvellous Medicine and the BFG. High-lights included making medi-cine with George, feeding Snozzcumbers to evil giants, soaring with James across the sky on his giant peach and out-smarting the awful Twits and mean Mrs Trunchbull. For Hilary term, our focus shift-ed, and we took our cue from Oxford's best fantasy novelists

like Philip Pullman, JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll and CS Lewis. To help adjust to the world of Northern Lights, we made our own Daemons; to save Sirius Black, we learned a host of new spells, including the classic Expecto Patronum to fight off the Dementors. To become proper dwarves in the Hobbit, we made our own beards and then practiced all sorts of dwarf activities (belching, snoring and belly-scratching). In Trinity term, Zig Zag turned musical, finding our inspiration from the Wonderful World of

“At Zig Zag sessions I’ve been to, the way the activities fit into the plot of the story being acted out

is fantastic” Kate Parrot, Session Leader

Z ig Zag is our drama, arts and crafts session aimed at our under 12’s. John Jordan and Becky Turner review a truly magical year of

adventure and discovery.

I Z Z G G A

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Disney. Music took on a bigger role than before, as we sang our way through many classic songs from many of our favourite films! John Jordan, Zig Zag Session Leader Athletes, coaches and session leaders alike have all had great fun taking part in the varied activities which have made up our fantastic adventures. It’s been great to see several new athletes joining us this year. There have been too many great moments this year to name all of them. A highlight of

the year for many people seemed to be the opportunity to throw a bucket full of water over me on two separate occa-sions during the course of Michaelmas term. While those were certainly both memora-ble sessions, my personal high-lights include everyone crawl-ing through the giant tunnel

into Fantastic Mr Fox’s den, mixing George’s Marvellous Medicine, or the amazing range of hats everybody made to wear to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. There have been many more fantastic moments and I’m sure the list of highlights will only get longer as we finish the final few weeks of Trinity term. Becky Turner, Zig Zag Session Leader

“At Zig Zag sessions I’ve been to, the way the activities fit into the plot of the story being acted out

is fantastic” Kate Parrot, Session Leader

Answers 1. (from left) Marion Jenkyns, Kate Parrot, Rupert da Silva, John Jordan 2. James Keasley 3. Katy Boncey 4. Dan Warren 5. Jess Sansom 6. Nathan Webster 13

Agilent Technologies, All Souls College, Apollo University Lodge, Bartlett Taylor Charitable Trust, Brasenose College Chapel, Cannelle Beaute, Christchurch College, Cooper Trust, DLM Charitable Trust, Doris Field Charitable Trust, Exeter College, Headington School, Hertford College, Jesus College, Keith Rae Trust, Matthew Wrightson Charitable Trust, Merton College, Mr and Mrs J A Pyes Charitable settlement, New College, o2, Oriel College, Oxford Access Audits Ltd, Oxford City Council, PF Charitable Trust, OCF Red Nose Grants, Sandford Charitable Trust, St Catherine’s College, St Edmund’s Hall, St Clare’s College, St Magdalen Parish Charities, Thornton Trust, Van Houten Fund of Oxford University. We are also very thankful for the significant funds donated in memory of Harry Todd and money raised through the vast cycling efforts of Christopher Day, family days at B Wing at HMP Grendon, RYOC groups at Headington School and by running cake sales, in particular the support of staff at the Disability Advisory Service.

Contributions Alternatives Ice Hockey Team kept us on two feet at ice skating sessions. Bill Spectre spooked us on his GrEAT ghost tour. Brookes Circus Skills Soci-ety wowed us at KEEN Teens. Brookes climbing wall took us to new heights. Brookes Dance Society taught us their moves at Allsorts. Cannelle Beaute dazzled our GrEAT members. Carol Colinswood created our annual accounts. Charlton’s Transport carried volunteers to Allsorts 14 times and once to Bristol. Christine Ireland taught volunteers Makaton. Dig n’ Grow led GrEAT to green fin-gered success. Dhanjals

A huge thank you goes to those who fund KEEN. Without your support, KEEN simply could not exist. Find out who has

supported KEEN this year below.

U S O P P E T R S R

Transport ferried athletes to and from nearly 100 sessions. Fusion Leisure staff were very accommodating at the sports centre, ice rink and swimming pool. Headington School fan-tastically hosted our 25th anni-versary celebrations. Jesus ArtSoc helped us make sump-14

ble and very entertaining com-puter games to KEEN Teens and GrEAT. Special needs nurse Emma ran a challenging behaviour training free of charge. The St Clement’s Family Centre have been very accom-

modating hosts for many KEEN sessions. The Ultrasounds aca-

pella group wowed us at GrEAT and KEEN Teens. Trinity College Drama Society led a brilliantly interactive session at KEEN Teens. Wallingford coaches took us on two daytrips. We are very grateful to all.

tuous masks. Paula Diaz Roga-do introduced us to FIMO. In The Pink acapella group shared their talent at KEEN Teens. Linacre College allowed us to have an absolute ball in their hall and grounds. My Life My Choice hosted StingRay eve-nings for GrEAT members. New College wonderfully allowed us to use their sports ground for Allsorts. Oxford Philomusica clowned around with us at the Funomusica. Oxford Playhouse invited us to the very amusing Pantomime, twice! Oxford Uni-versity Brass Band supported our annual carol singing. Ox-ford University Parks kindly allowed us to run the Treasure Hunt on their grounds. Oxford

University Museum of Natural History hosted a most fantastic evening at GrEAT. Rona Her-rington processed the KEEN payroll free of charge. Santa graced us with his presents. Special Effect brought accessi-

“ I decided to do my bike ride in aid of KEEN because they are a

fantastic organisation who provide a brilliant range of

activities for local children” Chris Day, Sponsored bike ride across America

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Support KEEN by donating At www.justgiving.com/keen

By direct debit or fund transfer to 40-52-40 / 00017531 By cheque payable to ‘KEEN’

To me two of the great things about KEEN are the dedication of its volunteers and the sheer diversity of activities it offers. No session illustrates this better than KEEN Teens: in addition to popular sessions such as cookery and music, this year has seen athletes testing their engineering skills in bridge- and boat-building chal-lenges, demonstrating their artistic flair in photography, tie-dye and bracelet-making and even decoding cryptic messages in our Tomb Raider and Morse Code sessions! When they weren’t busy show-

ing off their own talents, they en-joyed the dulcet tones of the male a capella group and the acrobatic feats of the Brookes cir-cus skills society. None of this would have been possible without the commit-

ment of session organisers who invest so much energy in mak-ing every week a fantastic ex-perience. These efforts, along with the participation of our ever-willing athletes, have made Teens a firm part of the

O ur social club for teenagers has had another brilliant year! With fun arts and craft themes including birdhouses and string telephones, we have been putting our creative skills

to the test! Read on for session leaders William and Katy’s memories of the year just passed.

E K N E E E T S N

KEEN calendar. I, for one, can’t wait for the year ahead! William Hallan, KEEN Teens session leader. Our newest session KEEN teens is still going from strength to

strength. Now in its 5th year we've seen an influx of new athletes and some exciting original sessions in the last few terms. Some of my highlights have included: Watching the acapella group The Ultrasounds - they gave us a fantastic live performance that got everyone up and dancing, watching the Oxford Brookes circus skills society juggling with fire! As well as the Tomb Raider ses-sion where we cracked clues and hunted for treasure (particularly exciting as we were visited by ex co-coordinator Chris Jones!). In the penultimate session of this

“I enjoy going enjoy play musi I enjoy play mu

enjoy see the

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Martina Doran, KEEN Athlete

year we had a great time cre-ating lava lamps and firing wa-ter bottle rockets outside in the sunshine. Hopefully next year we will plan some new sessions even bigger and better than this year! Katy Boncey, KEEN Teens session leader.

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to KEEN today. I cal chairs sic. I band

Martina Doran, KEEN Athlete

“

Climbing In December athletes and vol-unteers went to Brookes climb-ing wall for a brilliant afternoon with some members of the Brookes climbing society. We all had a go at scaling the dizzy heights and after attempts at different routes up the wall we played a game on the boulder-ing wall where we pretended that sharks were in the sea

Swimming (To the tune of the Shark Song) We went swimming, doo-doo doo-doo do-do Splash splash splash, doo-doo doo-doo do-do

Massive floats! doo-doo doo-doo do-do Slippy slide! doo-doo doo-doo do-do

Lots of fun! doo-doo doo-doo do-do Thanks O2! doo-doo doo-doo do-do

T his year at KEEN we have spread our wings to try new and exciting activities, from scaling walls and racing around in Go-Karts to

performances at the Funomusica and Pantomime.

E K + N E

below and we had to get all our limbs off the floor. Thanks to the Brookes climbing society for an amazing afternoon! Hannah Phillips, Coach. The Pantomime The Christmas break saw us visit the Oxford Playhouse not once but twice to see Dick Whittington. With a dastardly villain, fair heroine and dashing

hero, all the elements were there for a wonderful treat, and it did not disappoint! The ath-letes loved the comedy num-bers and liberal sprinkling of sweets and water over the crowd during the performance!

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“A huge thank amazing and

you are giving to would miss out

What can I say? Another fantastic KEEN year is coming to a close. On behalf of the Trustees I would like to thank Nathan and Sue for all of their hard work to make KEEN such a success. However, our most sincere thanks must also go to all of our fantastic Volunteers. Without their tireless enthusiasm, endless hours of dedication and boundless energy, KEEN simply would not function and would not be such a great and sometimes even life changing experience for our Athletes. THANK YOU. Paul Maryan, Chair of Trustees

Trustees from top left: Rob Elkins, Paul Guest, Julie St Claire, Mandy Maryan, Anna Myers, Peter Quinn,

Kate Sankey, Hugh Vinter, Katie Young.

Rupert da Silva, KEEN Coach Funomusica Having heard what a success the Funomu-sica was last year, I was excited to go this Easter! The theme was ‘clowning around’, and true to form, we were treated to a brilliant selection of classical music and accompanying slapstick comedy from the wonderful musicians of the Oxford Philo-musica. I’m already looking forward to next year’s concert! Kathryn Aveyard, KEEN Coach

Go Karting This year, KEEN went Go-Karting at Ban-bury indoor race track. Volunteers watched as the athletes stepped into their race gear and sped around the track in style, setting some very impressive lap times. After lots of cheering and excite-ment, athletes and volunteers listened as the result of the fastest lap time was an-nounced. The evening finished with every-one taking to the podium for a fantastic group photo. It was a fun-filled evening which athletes would love to have the chance to repeat in the future! Jess Sansom, Coach

Swimming (To the tune of the Shark Song) We went swimming, doo-doo doo-doo do-do Splash splash splash, doo-doo doo-doo do-do

Massive floats! doo-doo doo-doo do-do Slippy slide! doo-doo doo-doo do-do

Lots of fun! doo-doo doo-doo do-do Thanks O2! doo-doo doo-doo do-do

you to KEEN. It’s an wonderful experience these children who otherwise”

Emma Tyreman, Parent

R T T S U S E E

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KEEN Olympics 2012 Regarded as the biggest event of the KEEN calendar, the 2012 Olympics (the very first held indoors) proved a great suc-cess! We started off with a huge duck, duck goose before moving on to some Allsorts classics: athletics, dance, curl-ing and football! This was fol-lowed by a tremendously chal-lenging obstacle course, the medal ceremony, and a mas-sive hokey cokey! A personal highlight of mine was the mad scramble trying to find a pair of scissors to cut the ribbon! A

huge thank you to all the ath-letes and volunteers who came along and made it such a great day. Particular thanks to the session leaders (Nathan, Katy, Rupert and Hannah), to Kate

for helping me in the hunt for the scissors and of course to Chris for making the whole thing possible! Callum Campbell, Sports Co-Ordinator Trinity Term 2012 Ice Skating We have been dancing on ice three times this year with KEEN! With help from the en-thusiastic skaters of Oxford Alternatives Ice Hockey Club we have stretched our ability to move across the frosty ground at Oxford Ice Rink and broad-ened our ice-skating horizons with the use of sledges, pen-guin skate-helpers and willing arm-holds. Rebecca Dyar, Coach Treasure Hunt, June 2013 On Saturday the 1st June, KEEN took to South Parks on a beau-tifully sunny day to undertake our annual treasure hunt. We were transported to the land of Oz where we had to help the Tin Man find his heart by play-ing his special love game (which was very similar to kick-ball!), the Scarecrow find her brain by searching for yellow objects to build the yellow brick road, and the Lion to find his courage by undertaking a series of team challenges. A

A longside our weekly activities we have had a variety of special events throughout the year. These have included two daytrips, an

ice skating session every term, as well as our annual Olympics and treasure hunt!

P S I C E E L A E V S T N

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With thanks to Tilly for the photos

car park early for a fun trip to Marwell Zoo. When we arrived at the zoo we went round in small groups, the group I was with was lucky enough to see feeding time at Tropical World

which happens 4 times a week! During the day a couple of groups joined forces and all of the members had a fantastic day walking around. We saw 16 types of animals including anteaters, pen-guins, frogs and fish, rhinos, giraffes and meerkats. Also spotted was an athlete wearing a realistic monkey mask! It was a day of excitement and one of the best day trips I have been on. Jo Knowles, Coach

fantastic time was had by ath-letes and coaches alike and of course, most importantly we managed to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, soaking her with sponges and water pistols! Jess Beasley, Coach @Bristol Day Trip On the 2nd of March 2013 KEEN set off on its annual un-der 18s day trip. 40 athletes and 45 volunteers in very bright KEEN t-shirts headed to @Bristol - a science museum and planetarium. My highlight was definitely making stop mo-tion animation movies just like Wallace and Gromit. The plane-tarium show was also great fun as we learned about all the constellations in the night sky. After a busy afternoon of ex-periments including blowing giant bubbles, building bridges and making shadow puppets we all boarded the bus back to Oxford and finished the day with a very loud sitting down Hokey Cokey! Katy Boncey, Group Leader GrEAT Daytrip to Marwelll Zoo Sunday 19th May saw KEEN volunteers and GrEAT mem-bers, descend on the ice rink

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I have put off writing this entry as I can’t bear to realise that this tremendous year is coming to an end. It has been a year of huge variety, from

playing volleyball with giant balloons, to being...

R O C D R O A N I O T

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…dragged in a sledge on the ice rink, attempting a floating obsta-cle course, chasing the Wicked Witch of the West through Uni-versity Parks, carrying bales of hay into a school hall, recreating Disney musicals, launching water rockets and taking over a muse-um for the night. There have been countless wonderful moments which will not be forgotten; the 25th Anniversary Party Hokey Cokey, the athletes’ enthralment during scenes at ZigZag, karao-ke with GrEAT, smiles during duck duck goose at Allsorts and photo challenges at KEEN Teens. It has been an honour to be so involved in such a fantastic organisation. Those involved should know they make a profound difference to the lives of young peo-ple with special needs and their families.

I am immensely grateful to those who have made this a 25th year worth celebrating. Thank you to parents for your encourage-ment, to trustees for your important work behind the scenes and in supporting me as Co-ordinator. Thank you to all the groups who have visited to entertain athletes and volunteers alike across the year. Huge thanks to all the athletes and members who, with your smiles, enjoyment and company, have made this year such a pleasure. Finally thank you to the volunteer coaches for giving so enthusiastically to KEEN and caring so deeply for athletes and members. I have been lucky to have such a committed group of volunteer coaches and special thanks go to; Katy Boncey, Kate Dickie, Becky Turner, Rupert da Silva, Emily Jeffery, Dan Warren, Hannah Phillips, Jess Beasley, Anna Newton and Will Hallan.

It is now my pleasure to announce that next year’s KEEN Co-ordinator will be Dan Warren! Dan is a veteran KEEN volunteer with huge dedication to the charity and to young people with special needs, who I am sure will lead KEEN in 2013-14 meticu-lously well. Dan has already been heavily involved in KEEN behind the scenes, including creating the current KEEN website, as well as so enthusiastically leading during each of our weekly sessions. I look forward to returning to see him in action next year at the big events but will miss the athletes, members and volunteers immensely until then. I wish Dan and everyone reading all the best for 2013-14!

Nathan Webster, KEEN Coordinator 2012/3

Photo by Mizan

Design and editing by Jess Beasley, Rebecca Dyar and Rupert da Silva

16-17 Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DH Office: 01865 264173, Mob: 07847 110371

keen@keenoxford.org www.keenoxford.org Patrons: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dame Fiona Caldicott