'Workshops On The Ward'

Hello everyone I hope you are well. I've got some news. I am an artist and I run 'The Art Retreat' in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Our summer programme of events has gone down a storm and nearly all our workshops are now fully booked up - hurrray! I am currently working on the Autumn/Winter Programme and cooking up all sorts of lovely offerings to get our local community doing something creative. As I was working on this, I thought about running a campaign called 'ONE FOR ONE' which simply means that for every fully booked 'Boutique Art Workshop' (our high end/most expensive) offerings, we will run another art workshop in a community setting where it will do most good. We have our first Free Workshops booked to begin in September, running for six sessions on The Surgical Ward in our local hospital in Ipswich. It was the most humbling experience meeting the volunteers co-ordinator, the Ward Sister and the Activities Manager - they are so keen and excited about our idea. The ward is a busy one of 40 beds, the patients are either waiting for, or recovering from surgery. Many are not only poorly but lonely and our workshops will help the patients get up out of bed, engage with others whilst doing something creative and learn a new hobby. I put a post up on my own personal facebook page and our Art Retreat facebook page too - the response was amazing. I said that I was needing to raise £200 for art materials to run the workshops and they pledged it right there and then. I've now set up a Crowdfunding page to get the money into the bank and am hopping and skipping about the support others have shown our ONE FOR ONE campaign. Our crowdfunding page is here https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/theartretreatinhospital and I'm not really writing this post to ask for your help financially, more to share in the encouragement I have been shown in taking our art practises out to where it can make a difference. I've written a blog post here http://www.samanthabarnes.com/new-blog/2017/7/26/our-one-for-one-art-workshop-campaign-for-the-art-retreat and I would LOVE for you to dip in and leave a comment - those that comment, encourage others to comment too thereby reaching more people. Thank you so much for reading my post - Samantha Barnes