Dorset’s disability charity, Diverse Abilities, has received donations from two Dorset schools to help towards reopening The Beehive Centre amid the global pandemic.
Blandford’s Bryanston School donated modelling clays, paint brushes, scissors and card, all for use in art activity packs. The charity is distributing activity packs to the adults it supports who are currently in isolation and creating activities that can be enjoyed on the premises when the time comes.
Douglas Knight, head of art, commented: “We are happy to donate to this charity in their endeavours to support and encourage creativity. It’s a great cause and it’s so important to enrich the lives of the people it supports. It’s vital to stay creative and therefore providing opportunities such as this is essential.”
Canford School donated a selection of coloured and textured paper and card, as well as a large variety of oil pastels to The Beehive Centre.
Emma Bovey, fundraising manager, added: “It has been genuinely heart-warming to receive the amount of help that we’ve had so far – you can always rely on the people of Dorset to help out their neighbours in need. We are very thankful to both Bryanston School and Canford School for their donations, the people we support will thoroughly enjoy getting messy!
“While we’re going through the challenge of dealing with the hit of the pandemic, we are now focusing our attentions to how our services need to be adapted in order to accommodate the people we support. This is presenting new challenges, and we are so proud of our teams on the ground for coming up with innovative solutions in order to continue providing high standards of care.”
The Beehive Centre is Diverse Abilities’ day activity and therapy centre for adults with profound physical and learning disabilities. Its staff have prepared the centre for reopening by creating ‘social bubbles’ to ensure there is no cross over of staff or facilities in order to minimise risk.
Members of the public can purchase items from the charity’s Amazon wish lists to help towards some of the equipment and activities it required to operate, visit diverseabilities.org.uk/wish-lists to see the list.