Peninsular Property, a local business from Birkenhead, will once again this Christmas partner with the Barnstondale Centre to help raise vital funds through it’s ‘Magical Christmas’ event.

Peninsular Property from Birkenhead sponsored Barnstondale’s Magical Christmas event in December 2023 and will continue to be a great support this December to help raise vital funds for disadvantaged children from across our region. The Barnstondale Centre, which supports disadvantaged children with disabilities and from deprived communities’ part-fund places for children to ensure they can access and benefit from outdoor education, alongside their friends. 

The event invited local families, youth organisations and children to enjoy an immersive, inclusive, action-packed Christmas experience and tea on their site before visiting Santa in his log cabin grotto. The event invited guests to stroll through an enchanted sensory garden, melt marshmallows in an open fire, join the elves in a workshop to make Christmas decorations, help Yuki the Yeti find Santa’s presents and meet Mr and Mrs Claus. With help from Peninsular Property, local supporters and guests, the Barnstondale Centre raised an incredible £24,000 through ticket sales, £13,000 of this was surplus allocated to the Bursary Scheme Initiative.

The Barnstondale Centre enables children who would miss out on valuable life experiences to access and benefit from outdoor learning. The site’s provisions and facilities enable children of all abilities to stay on site independently and participate in all their activities, inviting children in wheelchairs to abseil along their able-bodied friends. The charities bursary scheme raises funds to support children living in deprivation or poverty, which could prevent them securing their place on a trip alongside their friends. Barnstondale teaches skills that empower children to challenge their boundaries, whilst building confidence, resilience and friendships – it’s a memory that lasts a lifetime and for some children a once in a lifetime experience.  

Siobhan Waters, Fundraising Manager at the charity, says: “We are incredibly grateful to Peninsular Property for the sponsorship of our event, as it helped us fund the craft station that supported us raising more funds to part fund places for 130 disadvantaged children in 2023, which made up 10% of our requests overall (from 1300 children). All the money raised from the event helped us and will continue to help us support local children living in our communities access valuable life experiences in their early year development years. The downturn in the UK economy has affected children’s childhoods for many years now, and consequently their resilience, confidence and their attainment in school is continuing to be on the decline. At our facility we see children develop and push themselves out of their comfort zones, whilst having fun and that’s what childhood is about. It’s an adventure that sparks something more!”

The Barnstondale Centre is a local charity delivering activity days and residential experiences to children of all abilities, regardless of their background. They challenge barriers to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity at accessing and benefiting from outdoor education. Whilst it generates income from youth organisations visiting it’s premises it stives to support everyone that is unable to access their facilities and therefore fundraises to meet this increasing demand, whilst the UK economy continues to worsen, more children are in need. In 2023 6000 children and young people visited the Barnstondale Centre, 1 in 3 of these children were disadvantaged, 1 in 4 had a special educational need or disability and 1827 children were funded through their Bursary Scheme Initiative. 69% of these children visited from across Merseyside. Thanks to the generosity of donors and to the supporters of the Magical Christmas event, all 1827 received support. Currently Barnstondale have 1227 disadvantaged children in need for financial support in 2025.

 

For more information please contact:

Siobhan Waters – Fundraising Manager

Tel: 0151 648 1412

Email: siobhan@barnstondale.org

 

Claire Martin-Bindley – Director at Peninsular Property

Tel: 0151 378 1074

Email: info@peninsularproperty.net