Building on the success of our open days last year, we decided to just have the one event and invite everyone we knew! The Mayor opened for us and we hosted The High Sheriff, several local councillors, representatives from funders, partners and other dementia services. Our volunteers, staff, trustees and participants were also there and brought along family and friends to show them what we get up to at The Red Shed.

One of the highlights of the was also an inspirational talk from Sue Stewart Smith – author of The Well Gardened Mind. She talked about the value of gardening for wellbeing and of how beneficial to everyone, getting out in the garden can be.

There was a garden tour, designed to highlight what makes our garden both accessible and dementia friendly as well as showcasing the work our Garden Clubs do. There was also lots of information about The Red Shed along with a raffle, refreshments and an oppotunity to get involved in a living art activity. All in all it was a huge success and a real celebration of the work and the community that is The Red Shed.

How wonderful to have received so much support from other local community organisations. This month we have been chosen as the Charity of the Year for Stevenage Grange Rotary, Fairview Road Residents Association and the new Mayor of Stevenage. Add to this Lessiters (the local chocolate factory…..this must count as a part of the chocoholic community!!!) and we have the backing of some fantastic people.

We have also received amazing support from individuals such as Rebecca Reeve, who completed a 1/2 Iron Man Challenge and raised £2205.38 – an incredible sum! Our CEO went to watch the end of the challenge and was blown away by the acheivment.

If you have been reading our blog you will understand how vital financial support is for us – so we really appreciate the time and work that others are willing to give to raise funds for The Red Shed, particularly when its individuals and small groups just like us. If you would like to join our supporters we have a donation button on our home page but embracing technology we love our QR code below, which will take you direct to our Local Giving page!

We have been looking at Values for The Red Shed and with input from our participants and volunteers. Values for an organisation are ‘the fundamental beliefs and principles that guide the work you do and the way you do it. ‘Values illustrate the culture and help promote cohesion and cooperation among your team’.

For us, our values set out The Red Shed Way – so that everyone who conects with us can tell what kind of an organisation we are.

So….using ideas and feedback we have chosen Support, Trust, Inclusion, Community and Kindness. Our team of volunteers, staff and trustees regularly demonstrate these values and we will aim to ensure that The Red Shed keeps these values front and center in everything we do.

Our values will now be proudly exhibited in our garden as well as on leaflets, the website and any other oppotunity.

The fact that they provide the acronym STICK was just serendipity!!

Today we have received the final comfirmation from the Charities Commission that our application to become a Charity has been accepted. We are now officially The Red Shed Project Charitable Incorporated Organisation – or to us and our friends we’re still just The Red Shed.

It has been a long journey and one that began back in 2018 at the very founding of the organisation. The reason behind becomming a Charity is to make The Red Shed more sustainable with a broader group of people running the organisation, bringing a variety of skills and expertise. Now we are a Charity we have a Board of Trustees. Fran Neville (our Board Chair) and Margaret Frost have been with us since the beginning and Trevor Brown and Tara Patterson who have joined the team more recently. We also have Rosemary Sherry as a Board Secretary, keeping everything in order!

We have lots of plans for the future including recruiting some more trustees and of course continuing to grow and develope our unique and wonderful service as a fully fledged Charity.

Our first QUIZ NIGHT to raise funds for The Red Shed work was an amazing success. We raised £847.14 on the night and some additional donations brought the grand total to £1178.54 – and all while having fun and eating fish and chips!

The Quiz Master was one of the carers who come along to The Red Shed and the whole evening was organised and kept running smoothly by a team of our volunteers. People joined us from the local school (who’s hall we borrowed for the night), the local church, the local community and lots of friends and families from all those involved with our project.

We also received generous donations from Tesco, Cinabar, The Forge and Stevenage Borough FC to add to our Raffle prizes.

All in all a good start to our fund raising program for this year and definately an event to be repeated!

2023 is here with all the promise of another exciting 5th year for The Red Shed. We have lots to look forward to and we have now got our Values to make sure that we retain all that’s good and important to our organisation in everything we do now and in the future.

Values in our organisation are about the standards we work to, our culture and what helps drive us forward – so they’re significant and not just words.

In recognition of their importance, we asked people involved with The Red Shed what Values they felt were a part of what we do. The final 5 have been decided on by a range of folk with different connections to the organisation.

So SUPPORT, TRUST, INCLUSION, COMMUNITY, KINDNESS are the values we have chosen and we will unashamedly STICK to them……

The team at The Red Shed have many talents and keep our organisation running effectively all year round. But…..we don’t always have enough time for all the maintenance needed to keep our Garden looking fabulous and sometimes we need a little help with things like using Excel Spreadsheets or making the best of Social Media.

We are very VERY lucky to have support from our good friends at Viatris – They are a global pharmaceutical company with an office in Hatfield. We have now hosted 3 volunteer days where teams of Viatris staff have given time to painting, clearing, digging and giving us some vital IT support. Their time makes a big difference to us and we are grateful to them all.

As founder of The Red Shed, I was very proud to receive the Caring Award at The Pride of Stevenage Awards this month. I was nominated by a carer who comes along to The Red Shed Garden Clubs, which made it even more special. The Red Shed Project has been a challenge, a joy and source of great personal pride…but it goes without saying that it wouldn’t exist, be as effective or be such a wonderful community without the support of everyone else involved.

Thank you all ! Su

What a month! We have experienced record breaking hot weather and an acute lack of rainfall.

The Red Shed garden has suffered and even with copious watering we have lost some of our plants and the vegetables are poor.

It’s not only the fuana that suffer but our participants have as well. It’s been a god send to have the extra space we developed last year as this has provided welcome and necessary shade for our garden clubs.

We did have to succumb on the 15th August when there was a red weather warning and we took the decision that people would be safer at home.

Dementia can effect the way you body reacts to temperature. It may stop you feeling hot or cold or simply not recognise a, possibly dangerous, change in your body temperature. If you don’t know that you’re hot you may well make poor decisions about clothing, seeking shade or taking on fluids. All of these can become real issues if they are not reacted to appropriately.

Medications can also cause the body to react differently to temperature so it’s important not to second guess anyone who is living with dementia – you may need to react for them.