Car's made of Dreams

Last weekend was our annual sport car's event with Sporting Bears. In case your sat there thinking "what is Sporting Bears?" allow me to explain Sporting Bears are an organisation who are made up of people who own a variety of sports cars and then go to events around the country doing Dream Rides where people pay to get in the cars and have a ride in them.  The money that is raised is then passed on to various charities including Muffins. But last weekend was not about raising money but giving our families a very rare opportunity to ride around in these wonderful sports car, for free all day long. Sounds like a dream for our Muffin's and the parents right?

There were over 30 cars there on the day we had everything from Lambroghini's to Maserati's, now I don't know much about cars but they certainly looked impressive and were very shiny.  Now you can imagine what an out of this world opportunity this is for our Muffin's and their families, it's not every day you get to say you were driving around in sports cars. Some adults might get to experience this once maybe twice in their whole life and here was our Muffin's getting to go out multiple times in a whole heap of sports cars, pretty amazing huh?

A lot of preparation went into the event several months prior to it taking place but it is so worth while when you see our Muffin's faces. Everything had been considered when it came to taking our Muffin's out on the road from making sure our hoist was there on the day so we could hoist wheelchair bound children into the cars to having support staff who could go out in a car with some of our more medically complex children.  The joy from some of the children knowing they could get into some of these cars because we had a hoist available was just so wonderful to see. When you see children, siblings and parents just enjoying time out as a family and forgetting the situation they find themselves in for even a few minutes, you know you have not just done your job but it's a job worth while doing anytime, anywhere.

Before the event had started a police car turned up, I and the Dream team were slightly unnerved by this to start with as I was unsure as whether they were there to participate in the event or on official police business. Thankfully and very luckily for us they were there to participate and we had not slipped into a police drama where they were about to arrest somebody in an drama filled scene.  The police car and motorbike did not go out on the road that much but did give children the chance to go up and down the run away on the air field and sit on the police motorbike. If this was not already an incredible event I mean at this point they had sports cars and the police you would think that would be enough and most of our Muffins' were in car heaven but it was made even better when the fire engine turned up. They let the children dress up in the fire fighters uniform and spray the hose. We stayed well away from our Muffin's spraying water for fear of getting very, very wet.. That being said I'm sure they would of found it hysterically funny to see the Dream Team soaked by the water hose.  Perhaps the nosiest thing during the whole event was letting the children play with the siren and have the lights flashing.  Now I say it was the nosiest part of the day because even having over thirty sports cars down there on the day which trust me are extremely loud you could still hear the siren over the top of all of them. Although perhaps it was not helped by the fact that the siren was being played with all day. However it was magical seeing the Muffin's faces getting the chance to do this. For some of our Muffin's it is a dream of their's as there obsessed with police and fire engines.  So we know that a few Dream's came true that day for a few of our Muffin's.

Our Dream Team did not stop all day from 9am till 5pm and neither did the drivers with most of the drivers going out in there cars over ten times during the day. An incredible amount when you consider the route they were driving was about twenty to thirty minutes long. I have to admit even our Dream Team got a chance to go out in the cars which was a lovely extra bonus for our staff and volunteers.

It's a truly lovely event for everybody involved for our families they get a once in a life time opportunity and the chance to make some very precious memories. For our Dream Team and volunteers we get to see pure and utter joy on our families faces and that will never stop making us smile and keep us doing our job to the end of the earth. For the drivers of Sporting Bears they get to meet some of the families they raise money for which is an opportunity that do not generally get to do. Although we can never say what our families situations are we can say to the drivers of Sporting Bears that you truly helped make some magical memories for children and families who are going through some of the toughest situations life can throw at you so from the bottom of our hears and with all our Muffin Spirit we say THANK YOU!!

To the stranger who said 'only 7?'

The blog takes an unusual turn this week and is not as happy as previous entries. However it is so important that this get's said and hopefully the one person it is aimed at might see it. 

 At Christmas we do a gift wrapping marathon for two weeks straight in our local Toys R us Store. "Are you crazy? Two weeks of wrapping presents just before Christmas?" Hmm well yes we might be a little bit mad, but by this point in the year we have done our Christmas Party and most activities with our Muffin's have finished for the year so we are in the Christmas spirit and need something to keep us busy and fulled by sugar and the Christmas spirit we embark on coin collecting and wrapping presents for the public. The atmosphere down there is lovely, that staff are really welcoming, we have tubs of chocolate which we give out and there's Christmas music playing,  all be it the same album on repeat everyday for two weeks. Yeah OK, that bit does drive you loopy, along with the Toys R us Christmas jingle the plays periodically through out the day. Now I will just pause here in case your thinking "Oh my I don't want to read, watch or think about Christmas, it's only July." I might just add that the rest of this blog is not going to be about Christmas, I promise. 

We meet a lot of lovely people whilst we sit there year after year and meet people who always come back to get their presents wrapped. We have lots of time to chat with the public and we get to spread the word about what Muffin's does and every year without fail we will find a family who are in need of our support which always makes us happy as it's one more family who will now get the support they need to. Last year I was sat there with my coin bucket having had a fun day wrapping a few presents with a couple of other volunteers that had been down to help us. A person approached me about Muffin's asking lots of questions and I sat telling them about the work we did and what we hoped to achieve. They were rather interested in our Surprise Dreams where we help our Muffin's who are terminally ill or life limited have a day where they can do whatever they want just for the day. I sat explaining all of the memories we had helped create over the years and they then asked "how many children have you lost?" there was nothing strange about this question for we are asked it all the time and to be honest I now don't think anything of it when people ask. I replied "sadly we have lost 7 children." There response to this statement rather cheerfully with a great big simile on their face was "oh only 7? Seem's a bit much for just 7 children" This reply even seven months on I fail to comprehend. In that moment I was left utterly speechless and froze thinking desperately of something to say to back. But what could you say?! 

Did this person have any idea what they had just said? Or realise how they had said it? Probably not. Had they ever worked with a family who just wanted to make a few more memories before their child passed away?  Things as simple as a photo shoot to have a few more precious snaps of them as a complete family. Had they perhaps organised events for a child or young person which is there final one wish of something they want to do and memories they want to create? Most of the time nothing major things that were not over the top and rather simple to do like, pottery, afternoon tea, meeting their favourite cartoon character, Has this person ever seen a child or young person battle with everything they had and put up a fight unlike anything you will ever witness? Each of our Muffin's have a spirit and strength that as staff we admire so much and get to wittiness each and every single day working with our families. It is this spirit that when we maybe going crazy with paperwork or stressed over some other trivial matter that pales in significance that makes us pull ourselves together and get on with the job. Had the person I still could not bring myself to reply to sat with a family consumed by grief? Had they ever been asked by a grieving parent 'why my child?' whilst you sit there unable to answer them, knowing there is nothing you could ever say or do that was going to make this situation better.  Was it just a throw away comment that nothing was meant by? Were they just ignorant? Perhaps.  I finally took a deep breath and thought 'my reply to this is simple.'  "7 is to 7 to many for us and we will do our job until there are no more children to be helped.' They looked a little shocked when I replied quite sharply to them having been this friendly, sweet nature person a few minutes ago. 

You see to the person I was talking to they could not see the benefit of Muffin's and why families were being helped because they could not put themselves in their shoes. They were unable to see past their own little bubble where nine times out of ten life ticks along with a few hiccups but overall life works out reasonably well not a world where everything gets turned upside down because you are told your child has a disability or illness or that they will pass away. I hope they went away from Toys R us that day feeling a little more informed and thankful for what they did have. I left the store that day bewildered by the conversation I had been apart of and hoped beyond hope that the message of what Muffin's does and continues to do got through to them. 

To the person that said 'only 7' I hope you are never in the position of any of our families, I hope your child never suffers illness or disability, I hope you never have to sleep in a hospital bed looking after your sick child, listening to the machines that are keeping them alive beep through out the night,  I hope you never have to hand your child to a doctor in the hope they can save their life, I hope you never face the heartbreak of losing a child. 

Winning the race

This week we are going to give you a little insight into fundraising for Muffin's and how it has led us to put on our most exciting and biggest fundraising event ever for us. So grab a cuppa, get yourself nice and comfy and read on.

We love our job and Muffin Life but it does take money to run all of our services and to let Muffin's grow and achieve it's future aims. Like many charities Muffin's are not funded by the government. You might be surprise about the amount of people we meet in our daily lives who assume that the government and local council pay us to do the our job, "so you rely on donations?" is the common reply whilst people look at you slightly quizzical and you can see their brain going "why on earth would you chose to do it?"  The short answer is "well, yes we do rely on donations and we put so much time into it because we genuinely love our job" The soul reason Muffin's is able to run is because we have dedicated, loyal staff  who work ridiculously hard. One of these amazingly hard working members of our Dream Team is Jo, whom I cannot speak highly enough off she is incredible and we are very blessed to have her as our amazing funding officer. Jo's job is to apply Muffins to grant's such as Children In Need, Sun Life of Canada and so on who very kindly fund some of our services.  So she is the poor person who gets to spend hours reading all the guidelines and work out what we can and cannot apply for. It is not a job for everybody, some might think it's boring I would not say it was boring but it is a highly challenging job which requires a large amount of skill. On top of the work Jo does we get people, some of whom know us and some whom do not offering to run marathon's and taking on crazy challenges to raise money for our Muffin's.  But the rest of the money we have to fundraise ourselves.

This means taking every single opportunity we have to raise a few pennies which can be quite tough going when you spend most of your free weekends when your not meant to be working, working. But it is so worth while when you not only know but actually see where that money is going and what it is able to do. I mean when you go from standing in a field with a change bucket to seeing our Muffin's go up a rock climbing wall how you can not feel that it is not worth giving up your day off? Give me a change bucket any time, anywhere.

As we do so much fundraising a few year's ago in the middle of the night I awoke quite suddenly as I often do now that I have Muffin's in my life and an idea flew into my head, the Muffin Mile. A fundraising event where the children we work with i.e the Muffin's could do there own race and the public can hopefully be 'inspired' by the fact that these children most of whom cannot walk are doing their best to complete a race.  I remember picking up my phone and making a note of it. Ok it may not of been something that would happen that year or even in the next ten but I had learnt to make a note of everything that comes to mu mind, any little idea I note down. In any case it was my little mad idea but again Muffin's was growing at such an astonishing rate that I did not have the time to arrange such a fundraising extravaganza. But I knew that one day the Dream Team could achieve it.

It remained a little fantasy of mine for a few years that if I am honest I did not devote anytime to developing or even thinking about I just knew it would be wonderful to do. Well that was until early last year when I and the team sat down and decided we were going to do the Muffin Mile. Oh my days what had we just committed ourselves to? Well month's of planning paid off and at the end of August last year Muffin Mile was launched. It was an amazing day apart from the fact it rained all day, I mean we had a heat wave the whole week and the one day we needed it dry it tipped it down. Typical British weather but what can you do?  The weather did not stop us or the public joining in what was a fantastic day and a rather emotional Muffin race where we saw our Muffin's racing to the finish line, there were tears all round! How amazingly wonderful it was to watch our Muffin's crossing that finish line, some running, some wheeling in their chairs and some crossing the line in their little walking frames. Those children made us so unbelievably proud and it goes to show, do not put these children in a box, do not say they can't and do not say it is impossible. They truly will show that impossible does not exist and will challenge anybody who tell's them they can't because these kids can!

Almost a year on and we are a few weeks away from the Muffin Mile event again, taking place on the 29th July 12pm-4pm at Chineham Village Club. We have worked solidly for months on the event. There is going to be an ice cream van, BBQ, games galore, bouncy castle, tea room and of course the Muffin Mile race which will take place at 2:45pm, the Mayor will also be attending.  We have our fingers crossed for dry weather this year but should it rain we have indoor cover so no getting soaked this year, hooray! So thinking of coming along? Please feel free to join us. Many members of the public ask us "does the work you do with the children really work?" well if you are sat there at the moment thinking the same thing then we encourage to come down and meet our Muffin's and Dream team and I promise you will not regret coming along.

This event is of course to raise money so that we can continue to provide our Muffin families with as much as we possibly can and it will help us reach our future aim's. "What are they?" Well I will explain more about our future ambitions another time but they certainly are big but very, very exciting. For now if you check our website www.muffinsdreamfoundation.org you will be able to read all about it. 

For now we are in the busy lead up to the event sorting out a hundred and one different things but we know all the stress, sleepless nights and evening meetings will all be worth it come the 29th July. The children we work are the reason we are so passionate and why we put so much time into Muffin's' they do definitely have it tough in life and everything you take for granted, can be a challenge for our Muffin's but they in our eyes have most certainly already won their race.

Muffin's go to the ball

Recently it has been a particularly crazy time for us with some truly amazing and magical things happening, just over two weeks ago our corporate sponsor Rosemount Financial Solutions held their annual charity ball in aid of Muffin's.  Now before I tell you about the amazing night we had let me just introduce you to Rosemount who are a big part of our Muffin life.  Rosemount became our corporate sponsor three years ago and have been played a huge part in getting us to where we are today.  They have helped pay for some events, they have enabled us to buy our own hoist, they have helped grant wishes of some of very poorly muffins,j they also donated us a massive office printer, I mean it is seriously massive,they had to take it apart to fit in the office. but it has helped us so much.  So yes they as a company raise us money but they also do so much more. They are in constant emails and phone calls with us through out the year to find out how they can help and what they can do for us. They support has been out of this world.

The night of the ball arrived, I was slightly rushed getting into my dress as I had to arrive earlier than others and had been at prior engagement that afternoon but I made it on time and there we all were in our finery, having made our way to the venue, our brand new van was sat in the car park, wrapped up with ribbons and filled with balloons. I, Sam, Julie and Alex were beside ourselves with excitement. There was definitely a moment of "Oh my this is actually happening!!!" You might think but it's just a van? But it is not just a van, it is a van with our logo on and covered in spots who couldn't love that? Besides the fact that it look's incredible it will transform our life at Muffin's. People do not often realise that to put on the events we do we have to move a HUGE amount of stuff.  Everything from the food, to the toys to the crash mats come out of storage and it takes a great deal of planning weeks before hand normally as to who will move what and when. So the van meant that we know longer have to fill our cars with paint, play dough, musical toys that turn themselves on when your driving around that make you jump a mile. Finally after four years we could all have our cars back. Oh the the pure relief and joy of such a simple thing.

Once everybody had arrived and been given the obligatory glass of champagne the speeches begin. The CEO of Rosemount Ahmed makes a speech where you can really tell as he talks how passionate Rosemount are about Muffin's and the work we do. He's also very good at encouraging people to give those all important donations which of course is why we are all there. Then it's my turn, and oh the nerves, it is the biggest speech that I make of the year. People say I am good at public speaking and have a good voice to listen to.  People's lovely comments aside it's not actually a part of my job that I enjoy doing but it is a necessary part, when you are a Chief Executive it does come with the territory. So now it's my turn to take the microphone,  there is always a moment when it is feels slightly surreal to be standing in front of a packed room about to speak being acutely aware most of the people there I don't even know and they have paid good money to come to a charity ball for something that literally started in a bedroom. I remembered to put my drink down as trying to carry to many things and speak will just end in disaster where I am concerned, I take a deep breathe and begin to talk. To my relief my speech gets much applause and people come up to me congratulating me on delivering a 'powerful and inspiring speech. Well I don't know about it being powerful and I am not a fan of the word inspiring but what I can say is my speech is delivered from the heart, it's honest and truthful and I do not sugar coat the harder parts of our job.

We all enjoyed a delicious meal with a few bottles of fine wine, per table I might add not just to ourselves and then the auction begins. Ooh the anticipation is building it's the highlight of the ball and I know one of the prizes is an all expenses trip to Dubai. You cannot say that the prizes are not amazing but will people bid and will their bids be high enough? Well oh my days what a thrill it was to watch all these people bid, with bidding wars breaking out across the room.  The auction raises a jaw dropping £6,000 and that did not include the ticket sales and raffle that Rosemount had also run. The total was a mind blowing £9,503!! All we did was turn up, make a speech and eat some food. How mad is that?! But the night was not over yet the DJ starts and we danced the night away until midnight when exhausted we finally called a night and went home.

I got into bed that night almost unable to process just what a wonderful night I, the team and Muffin's had just had. I and our team truly believe in our Muffin's and their ability to do whatever they can but to think we now had serious sponsors who also believed it. It almost didn't feel real. We had come so far in such a short space of time and I was more in love with my Muffin Life than ever before.