We have been quiet on our blog lately, sorry about that but we have been so busy time has run away with us.
So what have we been doing? Well the summer holiday's were jam packed for us on top of our usual home visits, office work and meetings we had extra activities running keeping us a very busy Dream Team. All of our little adventures including visits to the farm and Thames Valley Adventure playground were certainly easier to do then our usual events. You see what people do not often realise is that we cannot just go and book any facility anywhere to do all of the activities that our Muffin's want to try. We have a very positive, happy attitude and believe our Muffin's can do anything and everything they want to do. But that's us and although we can see the potential that our Muffin's have shining out of them, sadly other people do not. Our mission has always been to make all activities accessible but this would be an awfully lot easier if we had everybody on our side. But sadly the world, facilities and venues are not often prepared for disability and illness. So what does that mean for us? It means our team spend large amounts of time looking around different venues, taking our positive attitude with us hoping that we can change people's way of thinking one by one.
We finished the summer off by going doughnutting, now doughnutting when it first came up on our list of things the children wanted to try I had no idea what it was. I had to Google it, and the first thing I saw was a speedboat with a person in a inflatable ring attached to a rope speeding across the water. I will be honest my heart skipped a beat and my stomach sank. It was obvious doughnutting fell into the category of not just difficult to adapt but into 'we must be mad to be doing this' category. Ok so no need to panic or pretend that it had ever appeared on our new activities list. But instead a bit more research couldn't hurt. And that's when we came across doughnutting down a dry ski slope. An inflatable ring that the children sit in and they get pushed down the ski slope. After the shock of seeing the speedboat this was a bit of a relief if we are honest and suddenly my nerves went and our mission to adapt everything was shining bright again.
So 18 months ago we set about trying to find a centre that would be able to accommodate us. Oh my word it became clear after visiting two centres that the challenge was on for us to do this. At first glance of seeing the ski slope you might think how do you get children who cannot walk up that ski slope and down again? And honestly even with our 'can do' attitude renewed we were slightly stumped when we confronted with this. However determination and motivation certainly set in when one centre refused point blank to allow us to go, this sadly we are all to use to and we expect it when trying to adapt something new. The second centre agreed we could use their facilities, great we thought finally things were going in the right direction. But then came the bombshell as we were then told we should accept that 'some children just can't. What on earth is wrong with these people?! How can they offer for us to use the facilities but have this appalling medieval outdated attitude? Well they were told tactfully that we were not interested and suggested they should go on to our Facebook page and take a look at the videos and photos of the children 'who just can't.
It's funny just how this one comment made our team so angry and so disheartened but so passionate and determined all at the same time. How can people still in the 21st century still think this way? How can people still be so judgemental? It made us more determined than ever that we would adapt this activity and we would do it. We were going to show the world that our Muffin's, can!
After looking at several centres we were trying our last centre who finally got it. They admitted they had never really had a group like Muffin's use the centre before but they were up for the challenge. YAY we had found a centre with the right attitude, we had made it through the first hurdle. What a massive relief. Now came the second part how were we going to get our Muffin's up that ski slope?! Conversation's between the team came up with an answer that actually was pretty simple, the children can sit in the ring and we can drag them up the hill. All we needed is a team who were willing to do this? Could we rustle up a team who were up to the challenge? Of course we can! Dream Team to the rescue once again. I am always so ridiculously thankfully we have an incredible team who get stuck in and take on every challenge with a very happy and positive attitude.
With our marvellous Dream Team willing to put in the work we have just run our second doughnutting activity day and oh my was it worth it. The sheer joy, giggles and happiness shining from our Muffin's is incredible to watch. To of been able to give our families this opportunity and to of made memories makes us have the best job in the world.
Oh and to the centre who said "some children just can't" we have 3 simple words to you YES THEY CAN!!!
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