Newsletter August 2004

Welcome to the latest edition of our occasional newsletter. Its nearly a year since our last effort, so we thought it about time to up-date you, our friends and supporters, on what has been going on here in Camphill Community Greenacres.

 In order to reduce the cost, we are opting this time for a black and white, home produced newsletter. We hope you still find it attractive and interesting.

Greenacres first Open Day

Saturday 4^th September

12.00-5.00

All Welcome!

We would like to invite you to our first open day, taking place on the 4^th Sept here in Greenacres. Weather permitting, we hope to have fun and games on the lawn and a range of stalls and entertainments. Most of all, we hope people from the neighbourhood and our supporters will come and have a look around and chat about the developments in our Community.

Entry is free and The Airfield Trust have kindly allowed us to use their car parking facilities. If any of you have anything for our second hand stall (clothes, books, bric a brac, CD’s, etc), prizes for a raffle, or if anyone could help on a stall, please let us know.

The Community Goes From Strength to Strength

 

 Many of you will have seen this picture of the Community before. It is done by Vera, our resident artist. As you can see, the number of people living in Greenacres has now increased. Indeed, since the pictue was drawn, Kae has left and two new co-workers have arrived. They are Clara from Germany and Ahmed from Morocco via Ballytobin.

In addition to the eleven permanent residents, there are a number of people who now stay for regular respite and who attend by day while still living at home. We have also employed Remi Ajike on a half time basis in order to expand our day opportunities and to begin a process of individual personal development planning.

In many ways we are now a well established Community. We are financially sound on a day-to-day basis. Thanks to donations from the Dublin Parents and Friends Group and another hugely successful racenight in Leopardstown (see more on this overleaf) we have money in the bank for development purposes.

Our links with the neighbours and fellow organizations around Dundrum are developing all the time. Of particular note are the part-time work opportunities in Airfield farm and café for Mary and Siobhan. We are hopeful of further cooperation with Airfield in the future.  We are also getting involved in a number of community development initiatives. There are so many possibilities open to us! A real challenge is to choose those things that combine our aspirations with needs that we are in a position to address.

The house in Greenacres has just about reached its capacity to accommodate people and activities. We are currently exploring a range of options to provide more workshop and communal space. If any of you have ideas, we’d like to hear them. There must be plenty of creative possibilities out there. We are also seriously looking into purchasing a second house in the neighbourhood. As you can imagine this is a major step. We have the support of the various parties involved (Health Board, County Council, lending institutions) and are currently exploring the property market. If any of you know of a good deal, we’d be glad to hear!

 

We’ll keep you informed on all the developments and appreciate your support in helping to create this Community.

  

Racenight fundraiser

 

We had another hugely enjoyable fundraising event in Leopardstown racecourse on July 3^rd. Thanks to fabulous support and Michael Hilary’s energy we raised even more than last year: nearly 20,000 euro. This will go towards our expansion plans. Thank you for your support!

 

Call Charity

A few months ago, we in Greenacres switched our telephone service from Eircom to a new not for profit organization called Call Charity. They offer more competitive rates than Eircom and, more importantly, the profit component of the bill (currently about 15%-20%) is donated directly to your favourite charity. For us, we are our favourite charity!

 

The change-over is easy. You keep the same number but now the service (line rental and calls) is operated by Call Charity rather than Eircom. Now, this is basically money for nothing! There are, as far as we know, no catches. If you sign up and nominate us as your chosen charity then we will receive a regular subscription in your name.

 

If you would like to know more you can get in touch with us or with Call Charity directly. Their contact details are:

Tel 1890 929922; info@callcharity.ie; www.callcharity.ie

Our New Bus!