Author: Walthamstow Toy Library

Welcome to our spring newsletter. It’s been a busy year so far at the toy library. In January,we won a competition to become The Mall’s charity partner for 2016. They’ll be supportingus with events and fundraising throughout theyear. Thanks to all who voted for us! In February we hosted our first ever London Children’s Bookswap, a fun event where youngreaders had the chance to swap old books for new. We also bid goodbye to Carol, a valuedmember of staff for over 3 years. We are  currently recruiting for a Toy Librarian/PlayWorker (see www.walthamstowtoylibrary.org or our Facebook page for details). We were proud to support local MP Stella Creasy at Walthamstow’s inspiring FeministBootcamp in March, where we ran a crèche. Finally, our battery-operated toys have been given a new lease of life thanks to AntonySmith, Director of Providus Financial. Antony’s generous donation of £500 has enabled us tobuy rechargeable batteries and battery chargers. Overleaf Antony offers some adviceon the best ways to save for your child’s future. Dates for your diaryFrom Tuesday 12th April, we will be running a free weekly Breastfeeding Support Groupwith the help of generous donations from The Hornbeam and the Harris Family Trust. PetraHöhfurtner, who is well known in the borough for providing parents with advice and support,will run the group and we will be looking for continued funding to support it. On Saturday 23rd April, we’ll be taking part in the Addison Road Health Centre Open Daywhere there will...

Happy New Year! Firstly, a big thank you to those who generously donated prizes for the Christmas raffle and to our Christmas Grotto sponsors, God’s Own Junkyard and Estates 17. Santa did not disappoint at our popular grotto and our sell-out Christmas party provided lots of festive fun. 2015 was a fabulous year for the Toy Library. We celebrated our 40th anniversary and won the Time Out Love London Award for best cultural venue in Walthamstow. Thank you to everyone who voted for us! Due to the hard work of staff and volunteers, we received grants of £1,000 each from NISA, the Cutlers Trust and – through an exciting Twitter and Facebook campaign – the Starbucks RedCupCheer initiative. The money raised will be used to support free membership and reduced session fees for low-income families, training for volunteers in food safety and paediatric first aid courses. As the year drew to a close, we said goodbye to valued volunteer committee members Claire Young, Kiren Mitra-Hawksbee, Simon Aronson and Ronnie Chavez-Acosta. Thanks for all your hard work and support over the year. We’re delighted to welcome our new members. The Toy Library receives no regular funding, so relies on fundraising events and the dedication of volunteers to keep going. There are lots of ways you can help, from volunteering at play sessions to recycling your old mobile phone or ink...

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...