July 2010 Newsround

The British London 10K Run is almost upon us again! On 11th July at around 8.45 am, a team of The Helen Foundation runners and their supporters will assemble outside the Inn The Park in St James's Park, London to set off for the run. We then all meet up from about 12.00 pm in the Tattershall Castle, a floating pub on the Vauxhall Embankment.

Come along and join us - or sponsor a willing runner. Why not Roger Kirk or Ben Galloway who has gallantly organised it yet again for this fifth and final time?! It's easy, fast, secure, will give you a sense of enormous well-being and every penny really does count! Here's how: firstly visit Justgiving.com, then type "The Helen Foundation" into the 'Find a charity' box and hit Go, then click on the 'The Helen Foundation' link that will take you through to our charity's dedicated space, and then either look through the details of top fundraisers or type a friend's name into the 'Sponsor a friend' box and hit Search!

And if you are a UK tax-payer you can also elect to Gift Aid your donation which costs nothing extra to you but makes your donation go a whole lot further to the charity! Many thanks to everyone who has already donated to the Foundation over the course of the past 4 years - and many more thanks in advance to those of you who are able to dig deep again this time round!!

This will be fifth and final time that we shall be organizing this particular fund-raising event for a Foundation team to take part in, so we really want as many friends and supports of the Foundation to join us as possible. For more information, please check out the separate "British 10K London Run 2010 - Join Us!" article that we posted up on the website a month or so ago...

Bob Cross, Headteacher at Stokeinteignhead Primary School, said: "As a small school we endeavour to integrate all aspects of arts within the school curriculum and the Gold Award from the Arts Council recognises all the good work we do. ...What is especially pleasing about this award is that it also recognises the work we undertake collaboratively with organisations such as the Helen Foundation. Each year we award the Helen Foundation Arts Trophy which the children strive to achieve as it is such a prestigious award."

We have just received this lovely feedback from Bob Cross at Stokeinteignhead School analysing children's views of their African Drumming workshop with Denise Rowe.
- all would like the workshop again with just one " maybe!"
- things they learnt included - the drum being made of goat or cow skin; different calls within the rainforest; playing a hand drum; tapping different parts of the drum made different sounds;
- things they found difficult - didn't have long enough(!); playing the actual drum; nothing(!)
- favourite thing included - playing the drum; actually learning to play the drum; playing a drum game, it was great fun

Pupils from Decoy, Collaton St Mary, Ipplepen and Widecombe Primary schools came to this unique historical setting and toured the castle and grounds to help them develop ideas. Working with popular artist Steve Newton, they then used various materials to create unusual and highly individual framed masks. Following this project, the children's work goes on display in the Castle for the summer holidays on normal admission days. This exciting event has been made possible by a unique joint partnership between Teignbridge Decorative & Fine Arts Society, (with help from the NADFAS Patricia Fay Memorial Fund), The Helen Foundation and the National Trust. Why not visit the Castle and have a look at the mask exhibition at the same time?

Grace Bouchard, 14, is off to the Youth Music Theatre this summer, courtesy of a grant from The Helen Foundation. Grace, a student at Teignmouth Community College, successfully applied for a bursary to help with the costs of the course. Grace writes: "Thank you so much! I'm really looking forward to the course and will write you a report all about it for your newsletter. Really BIG thanks."

Doddiscombleigh ("Doddi") School have just enjoyed a fantastic adventure at Embercombe, the nationally renowned sustainable development community set in a beautiful valley in Devon: www.embercombe.co.uk.

Some of the older children spent a day and a night there as part of a wider school project and worked with Helen Foundation-sponsored artist Lucy Rockliffe to make dragons out of clay. Lucy also worked with younger children back at Doddi. Great project!

The Newton Abbot Learning Partnership (secondary and primary schools working together) have just completed a very ambitious project funded by The Helen Foundation and other partners exploring their local community. Called Our Sense of Place, the project was co-ordinated by DAISI (Devon Arts in Schools Initiative) and combined exploratory work in the local environment involving teachers, artists, librarians, park rangers and museum staff. There was an enormous response from the students involved and a real sense of celebration at the final coming together of all the strands of the project. Dance, drama, sculpture, batik, collage, photography - these were just some of the media used. Well done everyone! Pictures - and video link! - in our next newsletter.

June saw probably our busiest ever month for workshops - often 2-3 days long - in schools across Teignbridge. Here's just a sample:

- Wood and stone-carving at Haytor View
- Junk band at Exminster
- Mosaics at Ide
- Decorated pebbles for a mosaic at Bishopsteignton
- Indian Dance at Rydon
- Dr Seuss inspired art at Ilsington
- Mosaics at Abbotskerswell

The Helen Foundation was the recipient of a very generous donation of £3,000 from the Teignmouth Rotary Club this month. The outgoing President, David Potter (pictured handing cheque to Foundation Chairman Roger Kirk), nominated THF as his local charity of the year and the money was raised by a special golf tournament at Teignmouth Golf Club organised by Rotarian and golfer Roger Handover (pictured first left). Roger Kirk says: "We are very grateful to Teignmouth Rotary and Teignmouth Golf club who have all been so generous to us, to David for his nomination of the Foundation to receive the money raised and to Roger Handover, a staunch supporter of the Foundation since its inception and who worked so very hard to make a success of the charity golf day."

The lovely Hayes family at the Cellars Bar in Teignmouth are running their renowned free musical festival at the pub over the Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July. Featuring a host of local bands, this free festival is a must see! There will be collections for the Foundation and a fantastic raffle with a Muse poster with a Glastonbury 2010 ticket signed by Muse! Don't miss out!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL OUR READERS AND WARM THANKS FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT. THE NEXT NEWSLETTER WILL BE IN SEPTEMBER.