The children of Topsie Rabbit Kindergarten have completed the first term in their new premises and been as busy as ever.
They continue to visit the residents of St Martins Grange; in December they made paperchains for Christmas, in February hearts for Valentines Day. The next visit planned for March will include an Easter egg hunt around the grounds.
They had their annual Remembrance Service with Revd Andy Muckle and a Harvest Festival in St Mary’s Church with Revd Eve Pegler.
They held a joint Macmillan coffee morning with Childminder Sarah Nixon and Wyke Primary School raising money for Macmillan and Keely, a child who attends Topsie Rabbit and is fighting cancer.
Special visitors Anne Kings and Hilary Drake who are Dementia Champions joined the children and Revd Eve in a Christingle Service in the setting. The children came dressed as Elves raising £35 for the Alzhiemer’s Society.
Topsie Rabbit has launched their biggest fundraiser yet to buy a defibrillator for public use in The Square. Sarah Snook, Manager of Topsie Rabbit said she has been overwhelmed by the community support. The Co-Op held a raffle raising £250, then Waitrose and Asda both accepted Sarah’s application for the green token scheme: Waitrose have raised £364 and Asda is still ongoing. Mayflowers, who are located 2 doors down from Topsie Rabbit, won the Elf Trail competition and Sandy, owner of Mayflowers, donated the prize money of £50 to the fund. She also donated money for every balloon sold for Valentines Day.
Farnfields Solicitors saw our appeal and contacted Sarah. They have been fundraising for a while to get a defibrillator outside of all of their offices. Topsie and Farnfields met in January and Sarah is delighted to be working in partnership with them. Farnfields will install the defibrillator on the outside of their building in The Square just a few yards from Topsie Rabbit. The latest fundraising was by the Crafty Ladies crochet group who on 9 February sold the items they had made in the entrance of Waitrose splitting the funds between The British Heart Foundation and Topsie Rabbit’s defibrillator appeal. The fundraising is going so well that Sarah approached Olivia Palmer, Head of Wyke Primary School and along with The Red Heron Club a second defibrillator will be purchased from the fundraiser.
The children are also busy with the planters on the Town Meadow and Gillingham Gardening Society have visited Topsie Rabbit to discuss how they can help the children with equipment.
Next new event for the children will be Woodland Fun at Wyke Primary’s Forest School. Sarah said “I love working with the community, it adds so much more depth to the learning experience of our children. When we pass St Mary’s Church in the minibus the children shout with excitement ‘our church, our church’, now that is a true feeling of belonging.”
