Over the past Spinnaker year we have been fundraising for an extremely worthy local charity. Off The Record (SE Hants) based in Leigh Park, Havant strives to help young people in South East Hampshire needing support managing emotional wellbeing issues, most commonly anxiety, family & relationships, anger, low self-esteem, low mood, and more. Unsurprisingly, they are experiencing a marked increase in referrals with the onset of the Covid pandemic and associated restrictions which in turn has placed added demand on their staff and resources.
Spinnaker has certainly faced fundraising challenges having had to suspend in person rehearsals and events during this time. However, with great determination and enthusiasm to help our nominated charity we held a number of fun, online Zoom socials, including Bingo, quizzes, auctions, raffles and together with personal donations from members we have raised the staggering total amount of £1000.
OTR was nominated by Chorus member, Liz Waddon who said “I just chose them because I think that teens always look like they are coping but they aren’t really. I knew there would be a wave of teens that would need emotional support after the lockdowns and when returning to school. There’s kind of a gap in looking out for teens and young adults compared to children or the elderly”
We were delighted to visit the OTR offices in Havant to present our rather ‘large cheque’ to Kate Glasby (CEO) and Sarah Smith (Finance Manager), both pictured here with Elspeth Smith (Spinnaker’s Membership Sec). We would like to wish OTR continued success providing this much needed service for our local young people and we are so pleased to have been able to support their charity in 20/21.
For more information about OTR please visit the following website
www.otr-south.org.uk