Blog on The Frog

March is the month of two major fundraising events for Warning Zone Leicester. As mentioned in the 
February BOTF, L-Factor takes place at the O2 Academy on Thursday 27th competition aims to raise more than £50,000 for Warning Zone and The Lord’s Taverners and tickets are still on sale at £20, obtainable from the ticket hotline 01773 540948. 

The second event happens two days later in Rutland at Barraclough Hall, Oakham School. Tony and Trish Ruddle have arranged another Grand Casino Night, last year’s event raising almost £12,000.

This month already, we have seen our first parents group session at Warning Zone when the Netherhall Children’s Centre staff brought 15 service users to experience the Year 6 programme. The feedback about the level of learning achieved during the session was extremely positive and reminds us that parents are not able to advise their children on how to stay safe and out of trouble if they don’t already know themselves. This is an area that should be ripe for development with the appropriate partners but engagement is difficult. The Children’s Centre staff have undertaken to spread the word.

WZ has linked up with Leicester City FC who are offering 2 day Easter Football Coaching Courses for 7 to 13 year olds. Children having attended WZ are offered a 20% discount on the usual £30 fee. The sessions include coaching in every aspect of footballing, LCFC player visits, prizes, medals and certificates for every participant and free tickets to the QPR fixture on 19 April. 0844 815 5000 (select option 1) for more information.

Talking of the Easter holidays, this year Warning Zone offers a Cup Cake and Cake Pop decorating workshop with “The Fruity Chocolatier” and “Viva La Cupcakes”. The morning and afternoon sessions are suitable for under 16s who must be accompanied by an adult whilst the evening session is for adults only. All sessions are “hands-on” and the evening session only includes chocolate egg decoration, canapes and Prosecco. See the events section of our website or call 0116 2629739 for more details.

We must acknowledge help from Stuart Lake, Director of Linemakers Ltd. from Syston. We recently had some resurfacing work done on our car park and needed some renewal of the white line marking. Stuart came to quote for the job, was shown around by Richard and was so enthused by what we do at WZ he promptly said he would do the job for free. Thank you Stuart.

Finally, the Eurovision connection. Yes, Eurovision and Warning Zone; you never expected to see those words in the same sentence but new volunteer Jan Smitten-Downes is the proud mum of this year’s UK contestant, Molly Smitten-Downes. We all wish Molly well in Copenhagen.