NEWSLETTER  •  SUMMER 2020

Angus's News

Hi everyone,

I do hope this finds everyone well in what has been a difficult period.  It has been a very strange time at Ardvullin not hearing the HopScotch children playing in the garden and playpark.

Since the end of July we have been welcoming families to Ardvullin as part of our new Family Respite Breaks programme while we are not able to work with larger groups of children. This has been made possible with some necessary changes at the house and some adaptations to our bus. 

Some of the children who have visited have shared their stories of lockdown and it is wonderful to see them out enjoying the space of Ardvullin, and the forests and beaches of Ardgour. We have decided to keep family respite breaks very local as parts of the Highlands have been very busy since lockdown ended...but we have so much to explore on the doorstep of Ardvullin.

While all this has been going on the builders have arrived on site, and they are making great progress with the new Activity Centre. The groundworks were completed in November last year, so work on the foundations started straight away and should start to rise upwards from next week. Can't wait!

All the best

Angus

Activity Centre News

We are so excited to report that after a lengthy period of fundraising, then waiting for a building warrant to be approved, then more waiting because of the restrictions in place during lockdown, our Activity Centre is finally being built! The building is coming out of the ground and with a little bit of imagination you can visualise how this new addition is going to be such a brilliant resource to add to Ardvullin. It's going to enable us to provide a greater range of activities during HopScotch breaks in the future, on top of everything we already include.

The current timeline for the building project aims to have the work finished in January 2021. At that point we'll be able to fit out the centre with a climbing wall and purchase sports equipment, which is going to be funded by Spifox. So hopefully next spring will see us ready to open up our brand new Activity Centre for our 2021 respite break programme!

We will be giving you regular updates as the work continues, so watch this space for further news...