Bill Boles Adventure Day 2018

Bill Boles Adventure Day 2018

This year, the dreamdrops team went to Grafham Water Centre on Saturday, 11th August and invited some of the Young Carers from Cambridgeshire to join them, along with their leader, Andy. 

The day is designed specifically for the siblings of children who have additional needs, as sometimes they miss out on things because their brother or sister needs much more help and attention.  The Bill Boles Adventure Day is open to the whole family, and we additional support is provided for the children with additional needs, if their parents wish, so that the rest of the family can do things together and have a bit of a break. 

This year was great fun, with a BBQ for everyone followed by everyone being split in to two groups.  One group going out on a boat on Grafham Water and the other learnt how to climb the wall inside. The instructors at the Centre were absolutely amazing and got all the children involved – even one young boy who was severely disabled. They managed to get him climbing the wall too, and his mother was almost in tears, as this was the first time that she had ever seen him doing things that she thought these type of activities were restricted to able-bodied children only. They also went out on the boat, and it made everyone feel quite emotional to see them having such a wonderful time.

In between times, there were other toys and equipment for children to play with. Bikes, trikes, and ‘Splat the Rat’ that Martin Becker had made – it was a real work of art, and the children spent hours playing with it. The weather was glorious, and some of the mothers just sat out in the sunshine, enjoying a chat, whilst we looked after the children. Others went off with their children to the nearby playground, or around the obstacle course, and it was lovely to hear so much laughter coming from in there as you had to go round blindfold!

At the end of the day, every child received a ‘dreamdrops’ T shirt and a torch from Graham Water Centre.  It was a great day, with members of CCS NHS Trust staff giving up their time to come along and help the ‘dreamdrops’ committee members, which was immensely kind of them.

What a wonderful day!