Trading for Toddlers’ Wellbeing

News release

24th July 2013

Bread, clothes, and electrical items might be on most people’s shopping list when they visit the local market – but now they can also find out about a local nursery and make a donation to charity.

The Old Station Nursery at Newark has taken the innovative step of holding a market stall in the town to help raise money for their chosen charity, the Kajiado Centre in Kenya, as well as raise the profile of the setting.

The Kajiado Centre works to reduce illiteracy and poverty and improve the health and economic well being of the Maasai people.

The stall is open today (Wednesday) between 9am and 4pm and includes a range of children’s books from the setting, cuddly toys, recipe books and activity books penned by the group’s Managing Director Sarah Steel. Visitors to the stall can also guess the name of a giant stuffed toy for £1 a guess.

Nursery Manager Alison Holmes, who manned the stall, said: “We’ve done lots of things in the past to raise money for this great cause, but we thought we should look at doing something more unusual that would get a lot of people’s attention.

“One of our nursery workers suggested the market, which is always really busy and was only £12 for the whole day, so we thought it would be a very good way to raise money. We already had toys and books in storage that we could sell, so we were ready to go. It’s also a good opportunity for us to get our name out there and let people meet the staff and see what we do.

“People have been very interested in finding out more about the charity, so we put together some booklets to hand out. They’re also asking us about the setting so it’s definitely something we would look at doing again.”

The Old Station Nursery Group has been raising money for the African centre for the past two years, and the Newark setting has so far raised £300. The setting moved to its current setting at Martin Forster House in Appleton Gate in October last year. The move to the Grade II listed building allowed the setting to increase the number of children it can care for from 30 to 60.

To find out more about registering your child at The Old Station Nursery in Newark contact the nursery on 01636 708043 or email newark@theoldstationnursery.co.uk

Ends

Notes to editors:

• The Newark setting is located just yards away from Newark College and is spread across three floors with a separate room for the babies to be looked after
• Find out more about the Kajiado Centre at http://kajiadoadventistcenter.org/
• Sarah Steel set up The Old Station Nursery in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, in 2002 when she left the army and was unable to find suitable childcare for her two children
• The Old Station Nursery group has 10 settings in total in Lincolnshire Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire and Buckinghamshire
• Visit www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk to find out more
  

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