MAY NEWSLETTER

Welcome to this month’s round robin filled with all our latest news and the dates and times of all our May Jolly Days.

Three cheers for Luke!

Luke Ballard is undertaking two challenging runs on our Jolly behalf. In May he runs the UTMB mountain trail in Snowdonia 56K and later in September (once recovered, we hope) a 100K solo run across Dorset taking in the ten tallest hills from Lyme Regis to Melbury Abbas.

To support Luke’s tremendous efforts – please follow the link below to our Just Giving page. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast, and totally secure. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to us at In Jolly Good Company, so it's the most efficient way to give – saving time and cutting costs for our charity.

A big thank you to those of you who have already donated.

A special delivery

We were delighted to welcome Lance and Archie from Eco Sustainable Solutions in Christchurch to our Step Outside allotment! They dropped off a load of free compost that they kindly donated to us. By adding it to our beds, we’re giving them a real boost – better drainage, more nutrients, improved moisture retention, and stronger soil structure. It’s the perfect recipe for happy, healthy plants (and it even helps protect against erosion!).
Eco Composting is a family-run business and are pioneers in organic recycling in Dorset.

We had a jolly busy and productive time at our Step Outside Gardening Group this month, planting and sowing, digging, weeding and harvesting. Our volunteers do such an amazing job helping Anni keep the allotment looking so good, and we are very grateful to them. We were happy to have a new volunteer, Sue, who helps out at our Wimborne Jolly Group too.

What’s on in May

Please note that due to Bank Holidays we only have one Jolly Blandford and one Jolly Wimborne St Giles meeting this month

Wimborne

Museum of East Dorset, 23-29 High Street, BH21 1HR
(2 - 4 pm)

Thursday 1st
Art with Max and Anni, Chair Yoga with Suzanne and Poetry

Thursday 15th
Music with ’Bit of a Tonic’ – Clara and Colin and Poetry

Blandford

Woodhouse Gardens, DT11 7DN
(2 - 4 pm)

Monday 12th
Music with Susan Old

Shaftesbury

Royal British Legion, Coppice Street, SP7 8PF
(10 am - 12 pm)

Tuesday 13th
‘Flash, Bang, Wallop’ Photography Project with Anni and Max

Tuesday 27th
Mystery Activity with Sarah and Anni, plus Chair Yoga with Suzanne

West Moors

The Guide Hall, 24 Ashurst Road, BH22 0LS
(2 - 4 pm)

Wednesday 14th
Creative Fun with Max and Sarah, plus chair yoga with Suzanne

Wednesday 28th
Music with ‘Two’s Company’

Wimborne St Giles

Wimborne St Giles Village Hall, BH21 5LX
(12 pm - 4 pm)

Monday 19th
Special VE Day picnic lunch and the much-anticipated return of Brave Bold Drama and their new show ‘The Mexico Mission’. We will also be joined by Wimborne St Giles’ First School children.

Step Outside Garden Group

Kingston Lacy Allotments, BH21 4EG
(2 - 4 pm)

Friday 9th and 23rd
Join us at our ‘Step Outside’ allotments for gardening (optional), chats, laughter, tea and biscuits. Please contact us for details if you would like to join our happy outdoor crew.

Jolly fundraising quiz at Wimborne Football Club

It is with great excitement that we can announce that Darren from Wimborne-based Sherrin Consultancy, and his wife Helen are stepping up to help In Jolly Good Company this year with a series of fundraising events. 

The first will be a quiz held at Wimborne Football Club on Wednesday 4th June, 7 – 10 pm, please come and join us there! It’s £5 per person entry, maximum of 6 to a team, with a bar and nibbles available. We have one Jolly Team from Wimborne St Giles – but there is plenty of room for more and there will be a prize for the winning team!

If you would like to take part, please email Darren Walmsley for more details or to book.

There will also be a raffle at the quiz, and these are the amazing prizes kindly donated so far by local firms and we extend our grateful thanks to every one of them.

Green Man – Meal for 2

Boathouse (Christchurch) – Breakfast for 2

Palmers Brewery – Tour & Wine experience

Rock Reef – 2 x Clip and Climb Vouchers

Snow Trax – Ringo session

Tank Museum – 2 x Day passes

Wimborne Model Town – 2 x Annual passes

A huge ‘Thank you’ to Darren and Helen who have visited us at the Jolly days and are so impressed with what we do that they are going above and beyond to raise funds for us.

We’ll keep you posted about the online auction that they’re organising that is soon set to go live and the Charity Cricket Day on the 7th September which will be held in Wimborne.

A big thank you

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to the lovely team at Chettle Village Store who called this afternoon to say that they have had a break-in and the charity pots were stolen (along with a lot of other things).  They would like to donate £50 to make up for the loss – which is so incredibly kind!

Where would we be without people like this!

The shop sells award-winning pies, organic locally grown fruit and veg, vegan and gluten-free foods, local giftware, scoop ice cream, and barista coffee and is well worth a visit. Manager David is pictured here in front of the delicious ice cream selection.

Thank you also goes to Lisa from All Hallows Farmhouse for the kind cash donation from her sale of linen bowl covers and the lovely tomato plants for our Step Outside Gardening Group plots.

Would you like to be a Jolly Volly?

We would love to have some more Jolly Volunteers to join our happy team at West Moors. The role includes making tea and coffee, helping people to join in with the activities and chatting with our guests. Training and support will be provided, plus you’ll be invited to our annual team day where there’s a chance to meet with all the other Jolly Vollys from across Dorset and have lunch together.

Anyone interested should contact me, Sarah, for more details: sarah@injollygoodcompany.com

Do you know a business that’s looking for a charity to donate to?

If any of our readers work for a company or organisation that likes to give to charity – please consider In Jolly Good Company – all our funds go directly to improving the lives of the people we support. 

We are reliant on the voluntary donations of our guests – but these have been badly affected by the increase in the cost of living. We are a registered charity and we constantly need to raise funds to subsidise our Jolly Days. It currently costs us £50 per guest for a Jolly Day and £70 per head when lunch is supplied.

We are so grateful to The National Lottery for our funding as well as all our other funders – but this does not cover the whole cost of running our vital service.