On the 10th May BFA will be hosting an open event from 3-9pm; come and join us to have a tour around our 60 acre site, along with the chance to have a taster session in either archery or the zip wire before enjoying a light BBQ accompanied by camp fire tunes.

Please go to our main website, following the link on the homepage to ‘Sign up to our open day’ – any queries please call us on 01326 340912.  We look forward to seeing you on the 10th!

On Friday 20th April we hosted our charity golf day at Killiow Golf Club. A total of 16 teams entered the competition, with tee times running throughout the day and each team enjoying a delicious meal of ham, egg and chips prior to the awards presentation in the Clubhouse.

Carol Lay; BF Trustee & Event Organiser, Kate Adams; BF coordinator, 1^st team to ‘T’ off – from RNAS Culdrose – ‘Executive Decision’,  Korena James , Vince McKenzie, Morgan Ellis, Lee Whittaker.

The day was run as a Stableford competition giving a level playing field for all and once the scores had been calculated (we were glad to have our trusted BF Finance Manager Peter Woods on hand to manage the maths!) the result was a close run contest with the top two teams (Robinson Reed Layton & Savills) tying on a score of 92 and having to be separated by a ‘Back 9’ count back giving the following deserving winners:

Prizes Awarded:

Sponsors:

We would like to thank everyone for their generous support and donations; as well as raising a fantastic contribution of well over £1000 towards our charitable works, participants enjoyed a great round of golf and even missed the April showers!

We’re all gearing up for our golf event on Friday 20th April at Killiow Golf Club, Truro.

Teams are starting to book up their ‘tee times’ and spaces are going fast so please get in touch if you are interested in registering a team of 4 people to take part.  The registration fee is £100 and this includes a meal after you have completed the course, followed by a small prize giving ceremony.

With support from our trustees we are busy behind the scenes preparing for the day; donations have started to come in from generous sponsors and we would like to thank the following organisations for their kindness to date.

Jane White, owner of Sole Plaice, Truro for agreeing to sponsor the first hole for £50 and donate two prizes for the longest drive.

Bishop Fleming, who have kindly agreed to donate £50 towards prizes.

Murrell Ashworth who have generously offered to fund the wining team.

Thanks to the Clydesdale Bank and BBC Radio Cornwall who are contributing to the golf day prizes.

We are very grateful for the support to date, the golf day will be lots of fun and will contribute to the work we do at BF with disadvantaged and disabled young people.

If you are interested in supporting the day by making a donation, please give Kate a call on 01326 341802.

Paul, one of our senior instructors, has made this lovely video about our BF Garden which has been set up by young people in 2010 as an ongoing project. What started with a piece of land covered in wild shrub has developed into a beautiful garden in which we grow potatoes, beans, lettuce, various fruits and much more.

Click here to watch the video

In 2011 BF Adventure has helped hundreds of disadvantaged and disaffected children and young people in Cornwall to believe in themselves and build a brighter Future!

In total we ran more than 8000 activity sessions for just under 3000 individuals.

In addition to various groups with additional support needs who came to us for a day or for a short residential stay, we ran structured long-term programmes for:

• 50 young people (14 to 19 years) who were not in education, employment or training.
• 120 primary school pupils on early intervention programmes.
• 78 children who had been excluded from school.
• 150 disabled children and young people have joined us for an activity break with their family or in a peer group.

We are so pleased with the great results and are looking to achieve even more in 2012. This year we are aiming to raise enough money to start replacing our old portacabins with new indoor space which will enable us to work with twice as many children and young people who need our support.

For more information about our “Building Brighter Futures” Appeal please click on the link http://www.bfadventure.org/bbf.html

Last week on Thursday BF Adventure was invited by the Rotary Club of Cober Valley to discover Poldark Mine and enjoy a delicious Christmas lunch afterwards.

20 current and former BFA students attended. The group was welcomed by the Rotarians with juice and mince pies and we then had a guided tour to explore the mine. Everyone had to put on helmets and we climbed down the steep metal steps to 125 metres below ground. Everyone was shocked to hear that at the time when the mine was a working mine, children as young as 8 had to work 12 hour shifts for 6 days a week. Our tour finished in front of the mine’s letter box which apparently is the only underground letter box in Britain.

Back at the restaurant we were served a delicious Christmas lunch followed by a tasty Christmas Pudding with clotted cream. Yum! After the lunch everyone was presented with certificates for their special achievements like Josh working hard on this Reading and Writing Skills or Joe being particular brave when abseiling. As a special surprise each child also got a little Christmas present which had been donated by generous people from the community.

A big thank you to the Rotary Club of Cober Valley and Poldark Mine who made it possible for us to attend such an amazing event. Everyone had a brilliant day and we are already looking forward to next year’s  Christmas lunch!

We are really happy to announce that our Building Brighter Futures appeal page is now live.

Have a look and let us know what you think:

http://www.bfadventure.org/bbf.html

We are looking to raise an initial £50k to get our big building project up and running so that we can help twice as many children in Cornwall!

Last week BF Adventure received some very good news:

The West Cornwall Youth Trust has again granted us funding to subsidise multi-activity days for young people who are 10 to 21 years old, are disadvantaged or disabled and live in the West of Cornwall.

Because of the funding we are now able to offer exciting activity days for only £5 per person per day. Blog readers who would like to know more can click here to learn more click here.

Hi, I’m Sophie, a second year student at Truro College studying outdoor adventure.  Recently I spent a week volunteering at BF Adventure; this relates to my course significantly and it enabled me to gain valuable experience in communicating with both staff and young people in a group and 1:1 setting.  I also gained knowledge around different activities, like abseiling, archery, zip wire and rope skills.

Some of my favorite memories from my week with BF include going on a mushroom hunt with a 1:1 referral client; we tried to identify with the instructor which were edible and those that were poisonous and later in the week working with a group of 10 young people. In the morning we went to the adventure quarry to run problem solving activities, and in the afternoon the group went down the zip wire and finished the day on the low ropes course!

I have taken so much away from my week at BFA which I feel will really benefit me in the future; I am interested in both outdoor work and training as a paramedic, no matter what happens in my future I have improved team work, listening, leadership and planning skills needed during my time at BF.

Thanks everyone!

Sophie

Dear Friends of BF Adventure,

Christmas is only a few weeks away! Whilst most of us are looking forward to Christmas dinners and exchanging presents with our loved ones, many of our young clients are unlikely to have such a positive experience due to poverty or their family situation.

At BF Adventure we work with the most vulnerable and hardest to reach children and young people of Cornwall.

To make sure that they too can remember this time as something special we arrange a big Christmas dinner each year in December.

Christmas Dinner 2010

We really want to surprise them with a present too, but as a charity it is impossible for us to fund, so we would like to ask for your help!

By donating a small Christmas present (not more than £10) for one of our 38 long-term clients (aged between 9 – 19 years), you would make all the difference to a young person!

If you would like to help, please send an email to britta@bfadventure.org or phone me on 01326 341 803  and I will send you the first name and age of the child you will be donating a present to.

Many thanks for your generosity.

Best wishes

Britta Hoffmann

on behalf of the BF Adventure Team