Cygnet Elms’ Hawaiian-themed fundraising day

Cygnet Elms, our high dependency complex care service in Birmingham for women with learning disabilities, recently held a Hawaiian themed fundraising day.

The event was held in memory of a former resident (TB) who sadly passed away from breast cancer earlier in the summer. Service users came up with the idea to hold a fundraising event in TB’s memory at a community meeting.

In the end a Hawaiian theme was decided on. Rob from Maintenance and Riccardo from the OT team held a workshop day to make a custom built Elms Tiki Bar as well as some wooden stocks.

Seetal, a support worker, used her creativity to draw characters from a film to go with the theme. Meanwhile staff and service users came together to design and create goods to be sold and props to be used around the unit for the event.

The event was attended by family, friends, members of the local community as well as residents from sister site Cygnet Cedars. Also in attendance were members of Cygnet’s senior management team – Nick Ruffley, Managing Director, Healthcare Division, and Jenny Gibson, HR Director.

In addition to stalls there were a number of activities including hula-hooping, raffles, bouncy castle, face painting, wet sponge throwing and animal handling.

A memorial bench to TB was also unveiled. Ann Pretugast who had known and worked with TB for over 15 years gave a heart-warming speech at the ribbon cutting ceremony. A memorial poem was also read out by a resident of Cygnet Elms.

The event has so far raised over £300 with donations still coming in. The funds raised will be donated to MacMillan Cancer Support as well as contributing towards some unicorn themed (TB’s favourite) flowers and wreaths.

We would like to thank all those who contributed and attended for making the day such a heart-warming success. Special thanks to all the staff and service users at Cygnet Elms and Cygnet Cedars.

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