Help raise funds for wheelchair-friendly outdoor space in Melton

The project is being organised by community organisation, Sunny Skies Enterprise CIC, which focuses on inclusion and wellbeing for vulnerable individuals and works alongside Welly’s Workers to create volunteering opportunities for disabled adults in disciplines such as customer service and food preparation.

The group ran the cafe at Melton Country Park until being forced to close temporarily due to the pandemic and hopes to reopen it soon.

It also organises activities such as cooking, hospitality, gardening, crafts, singing, dancing and acting classes for the people who benefit.

The group is trying to raise £5,000 to develop an outside space in Melton which is wheelchair-accessible for its outside work and wellbeing sessions.

Land has generously been offered but work is needed to make it fit for purpose and to create raised beds and a sensory garden.

A fundraiser for the project, the group is organising a ‘Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’ event, where people pledge to walk, run or cycle any distance up to 10 miles over Easter.

Among those taking part is client, David Weston-Webb, and his carer, James McGowan, who will be doing a 10-mile wheelchair push at the country park on Easter Sunday morning.

Zoe Saffron, who co-founded the organisation with Pippa Skinner, told the Melton Times: “It has been a very challenging year.

“Our service has met with many challenges and despite the odds has continued to safely and lovingly provide services for those who have been in dire need of them.

“We have only managed this by sheer determination, and a group of invaluable people who volunteered hours of their time to support our service so that we could provide remote sessions without losing good creative socially distanced face-to-face support.”

Go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Sunny-Skies-CIC to pledge money to the fundraiser or do your own 10-mile fundraiser and let the guys know on their Facebook (@wellys_with_sunnyskies).