Category Archives: charity

Official Opening of TAB

Official Opening of TAB
Sara Thornton , Thames Valley Police Chief Constable, officially opened The Abingdon Bridge’s (TAB) new office, in what was once the town’s Police Station. The opening coincided with TAB celebrating 21 years of working with young people in need of support in the town and the surrounding area. Further details of TABs services are available on their web-site

The event was attended by about 60 people including representatives from local churches, business supporters, local charities and young people using the services.
Official Opening of TAB
Seen here are Sara Thornton, Chris Bryan (Chairman of the Trustees), and Beverley Wheeler (TAB Manager and Lead Counsellor) at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Official Opening of TAB
Also a picture of the celebratory cake! (Thanks to Steve for the Report and Pictures)

Bath Street: From Art and Stuff to Loom Bands

Bath Street
Bath Street is the Abingdon town centre street that missed out on recent refurbishments: whether resulting from ABiTS (Abingdon Integrated Transport Strategy), or the refurbishment of the precinct. I remember Steve King campaigning on his Action4Abingdon forum to also get the Bath Street pavements done, but it did not happen.
Bath Street
The ABiTS York Stone paving only went as far as The Square, where you can find Art and Stuff, and the very friendly dog Grommet.
Bath Street
Retreat Hairdressing is down Bath Street and has old pavements.

Retreat Hairdressing are adding to Skye’s Loom to The Moon project which has already received lots of publicity, including: front page of this week’s Abingdon Herald and a large picture feature in the Daily Mail.

Skye, from Abingdon, is a 4 year old undergoing treatment for an aggressive brain tumor. The treatment involves surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, and is not easy. So Skye’s parent have set up a charity to research into better treatment for future children. They are using Skye’s Brainwave ‘a loom to the moon’ to raise funds. Lots of children have been making Loom Bands (the year’s big craze in schools) by weaving small elastic bands together. The aim is to join them together to reach the distance to the moon.
Bath Street
Retreat Hairdressing are hoping to get enough to go up their stairs, via the hand rail, before adding it to the Moon Loom.

Nasio Trust on The Market Place

Nasio Trust on The Market Place
On the Market Place today Oxfordshire Young People were fund raising at the Abingdon Nasio Music fun day. The Nasio Trust is a UK-based Charity supporting projects working with orphaned and destitute children in Kenya. Nasio have been holding events on the Market Place for a few years now.
Nasio Trust on The Market Place
I remember buying my first orange Nasio brick to help fund one of the Nasio Day Care Centres in about 2008, and got another brick today. The 2014 bricks are bigger and more squashy.

The Nasio charity began when an elderly lady called Irene found an abandoned baby and cared for it. The works has grown from there, and the trust run two day care centres, and also offer young people from Oxfordshire the chance to get involved with activities and fundraising, culminating in volunteering for one of the projects in Kenya.
Nasio Trust on The Market Place
The Land Rover on the Market Place is due to be shipped to Mombasa in October , and will be used to help transport sick children to the nearest hospital and help their work in other ways.

Yeah Baby 6

Yeah Baby 6
For the sixth year running The Yeah Baby free music festival took place on Abingdon Market Place – raising funds for local charities: Amber Phillpott Trust, Ronald McDonald Houses, Helen & Douglas House, and Oxford Children’s Hospital.
Yeah Baby 6
There were fun stalls: cakes, arts and crafts, face painting, play your cards right, and lucky dips. The Abingdon Fire Service was there with their engine, and Loose Cannon with beer. And bunting made by school children decorated the trees.
Yeah Baby 6
The main event was the music. Bands included: The Benbows with James Phillpott, founder of the Amber Phillpott Trust. Their song Highlife written for the event by James is downloadable for charity at 79p.
Yeah Baby 6
There were The Undercovers – who also played in Music in The Park.
Yeah Baby 6
There were also two big name bands: The DB band with Ex-Supergrass Bassist Mickey Quinn.
Yeah Baby 6
and Luciee Marie Closier from BBC’s The Voice.