Despite heavy rain doing its best to spoil our 25th birthday celebrations, Newcastle pulled out all the stops this weekend to give their sick children a party to remember.
The Big Red Picnic was a great afternoon for the 50 invited children and their families. Ex-volunteers and supporters came together with current volunteers from all over the country to provide a buffet, competitions, goody bags, a magic show, prizes, a balloon launch and other fun and activities. These are the kind of memories Lollipop was made for!
Whilst the party was fantastic fun for all, it had a serious message: congratulations to the charity for working with thousands of sick children and raising over a quarter of a million pounds through 25 years of providing play, comfort and care to North East kids in two hospitals in Newcastle.
Of course the charity wouldnt be celebrating at all without its team of dedicated volunteers and special mention must go to Heather Corbett and Iris Richardson who have both provided in excess of 10 years service to the Newcastle station and received their gold service awards.
The most important thing about the party was that the children had an excellent day. Some of the sick children from the wards managed to come down and join in and those who couldnt were given special goody bags and a share of the food said volunteer Kate Fenwick.
Radio Lollipop Newcastles next big challenge is to raise £25,000 to cover the cost of installing their new studio. Helen Hudspith, a volunteer from Newcastle said of the new studio
We want it to be awesome! Somewhere amazing that the kids can come for a great time. You can see from todays party that sick kids deserve every chance to just be kids and enjoy themselves. If we can raise the money, well get an all-singing, all-dancing studio to push us on to another 25 years. Our kids deserve it!
If you think you can help with our studio appeal, please visit our website at
www.justgiving.com/RL-Newcastle
or E-mail us through our contact page.