Hello again!
Here is a long overdue newsletter.We got carried away with using social media and forgot to write one! But we have had a fantastic year and have so much to update you on. Meanwhile if you are a fan of social media we update regularly with our latest news on Facebook (www.facebook.com/WalthamstowToyLibrary) and Twitter (@e17toylibrary). Time Out #LoveLondonAwards
Vote for us!
In the last week we discovered the wonderful people of E17 have nominated us for the Time Out #LoveLondonAwards. These awards celebrate cafes, shops and places of local interest in every London borough. We are overwhelmed by the nomination, but have stiff competition so please vote for us. Imagine if we won in our 40th anniversary year! You can vote here www.timeout.com/london/lovelondonawards#/vote/walthamstow/local-culture
Other press
We’ve had some great local press coverage in the last few months; Waltham Forest NCT wrote an article about us, we featured in the Waltham Forest Echo, and perhaps the biggest triumph was Centre Manager Helen Crockford being nominated as the E-list’s Local Hero in September.
40th Anniversary
As you may know this year we have been celebrating our 40th anniversary with some very special events. Back in May we kicked off with our May Fair, featuring live music, traditional games and a BBQ. We raised a fantastic £4000.
We held a children’s Birthday Party at the Blitz Factory in September with games and cakes .Thank you to the Blitz Factory and The Challenge Network for their support with this event, which raised £400.
Finally we recently held a Ceilidh Night at Orford House Social Club. With music from the Barney Ceilidh Band and fish and chips from the wonderful Fish Brothers in Wood Street, we raised £400.
Thank you to everyone who came to all our anniversary events and helped us raise more money to keep us going for 40 more years.
Community Events
We had a table in the Community tent at the Walthamstow Garden Party this summer. We handed out info to potential new members, and it was great to see faces from past and present.
We also had a joint stall at The Village Festival in September with the Walthamstow East and West Children’s Centres. With robot building and a play mat area for little ones it was a fun family day. We raised £200.
Annual Survey
We would be very grateful if you could please spare 5 minutes to fill in our annual survey. Your feedback is vital in helping us plan for the future. You can use the link
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/C96TRLB or fill in during a session as we have laptops set up.
AGM
Our AGM will be held on Tuesday 25th November, 10.30am at the Toy Library. The session is FREE and as well as having a brief update on what we have been doing this year, we will elect a new management committee. There will be refreshments for children and adults. We do need 5% of our membership to attend.
Committee
If you would you like to get involved with the committee please speak to Centre Manager Helen on E17toylibrarymanager@gmail.com. The committee meets once a month and helps with the strategic direction of the toy library as well as organising and running fundraising events.
Dates for the Diary
31st October is our ever popular Halloween Party. You can buy tickets in advance for £5 per child or
£8 per family. Non members £7 child and £10 family.
After last year’s success we will be holding our Christmas Grotto at The Blitz Factory again, over the weekend of the 12th and 13th December, with games and the chance to pay a visit to Santa.
What’s Going On?
As well as our regular Under 5 and Under 18 month sessions we also have the following:
Parent and baby yoga Mondays 1 – 2pm. Melissa on 07793 394531
Tiny Time Music Mondays 2.30 – 3.30pm. Anita at http://www.tinytimemusic.co.uk/
Tiny Talk Baby signing Wednesdays 3.30 –4.30pm. Rose on 07770 531075
Please contact the workshop leaders to book places.
Coat Collection
The students at Willowfield Humanities College are organising a winter coat collection for those in need in our community. They are collecting coats for men, women and children. The Toy Library is acting as a drop-off point and the coats will then be distributed by the Salvation Army as part of their food bank programme. So please do bring in any old coats you need to get rid of from home of all shapes and sizes.
Recycle4Charity
Finally, there are many small ways to raise pennies and pounds for the Toy Library and one of them is to bring in your old ink cartridges and mobile phones! Please do drop them off any time. Thank you, it all helps!
