SSF 2013 ROUND UP!! **Please post ideas for this year here!**

Hey all!

Last year Boards in general (and AH in particular) did an incredible job of raising money for the Santa Strike Force. So much so that we were able to support projects throughout the year and I sent regular (ish!) reports to the AH mods and Beasty to keep everything transparent.

Let me do a very swift round up here of the details of what we did with your cash. (no particular order)

PICTURES HERE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devoresphotos/sets/72157634868662305/


BarretsTown. (~4,000 Euro)
Barretstown got a decent chunk of the cash this year but that was because they did 3 projects with it and boy did they get the most out of the cash.
1. Lego bricks, room and logo.
So the first part of their project was to build a chill out room for kids to just quietly play on their own. The kids also built an incredible logo with the help of the amazing people at bricks.ie and with the remainder of the cash they bought loads of standard lego which the kids have been building awesome things with.

2. Music Room
We restocked Barretstown music room with instruments because it had basically fallen into disuse because the instruments they had were very few, old and battered from years of use. The whole room is now renewed and back in use for therapy.

3. Forest games
We had a carpenter (from Boards!) volunteer to build giant wooden games to place in the forest they have out there, for the kids to play together. Stuff like getting a ball through a maze with holes in it etc.

4. Music pods
We got 13 MP3 players so each house (13 of them!) could have their own to practise their bi-monthly "talent show". Before they were sharing one between them all. OMG.


Laura Lynn, Headstrong, Donegal Youth Services. (~6000)
I've grouped these together because they all pretty much got the same stuff at the same time. We got them electronic entertainment systems, ipads(x7!), PS3, Xbox, and digital cameras.

Bumbleance (~3,000)
We decked out most of an ambulance with interior design and entertainment equipment and its the first ever child-focused ambulance. I cant begin to describe how complex this project was but thankfully I just wrote the cheque, the BeeForBattens guys and gals did everything else

Projects still in development:
Liams Lodge (~4000)
The people behind the Bumbleance are building a place called Liams Lodge which is a retreat for familys of kids with rare diseases. It will operate along the lines of Barretstown from what I can see and is located in Kerry. You can read more about it here: http://liamslodge.com/
We've committed to fitting out the entertainment setup when its ready to be done. They had hoped it would be this year but things always move slower than we hope. In the mean time I have earmarked the cash for them.

Thai Tims (2,000)
This is a special needs school in Thailand run by an Irish guy who seems obsessed by Celtic Football club! You might have seen them on Youtube as they sing lots of Irish songs and Celtic supporters songs!
They are building a new school and we've committed to fitting out a music system for them to continue to use music as therapy for the kids. If you want a smile on your face today... google them
You can also see them holding a sign saying "We were hit by the Santa Strike Force!" in the pictures.

So thats where the moneys went to this year. I've been keeping Beasty and the Mods abreast of everything as we go along.

I'm always looking for more targets so if you know a special needs school or a kids charity who could use funding for a project, please let me know!!
Seriously, finding them is a difficult task!
REquirements:
1. Must not be for slush funds. Only specific projects.

2. Must have a permanent fixure/residency where the stuff can reside and be used by future kids.

3. Nothing medical, this is Quality of Life improvement stuff only.

4. No specific cases. We dont fund indivdual kids. This is so we get the maximum bang for buck.