ART GROUP
Horribly wet outside on Wednesday but safe and warm inside the Genesis Centre.

The Routes to Roots art group had two new participants join us after hearing about the group from another service.

Another new person sat by themselves with a colouring book and that is OK, when I first joined an art group I sat with headphones on by myself and just explored the materials and paints.

I always remember the artist running the group left me to my own devices until I was confident enough to ask for help and advice.

That artist became my inspiration to become a better artist and her gentle encouragement led me to become a support worker in a very large project run by a museum.

With paint and pencils and various types of paper and some books for inspiration, the fear of not being able to draw or paint is reduced.

A fun relaxed atmosphere and gentle encouragement lets participants express themselves in a non judgemental environment.

Also I believe lots of laughter made the afternoon fly by.

Laughter and art made for a good afternoon.

Andrew

Pat Southgate, a founder Trustee of Routes to Roots (R2R) was recently invited to the Royal Motor Yacht Club (RMYC) in Sandbanks. A surprise party was being held for Richard, the chief steward at the club, to celebrate his 60th birthday.

As well as having a significant birthday, Richard had just completed a charity bike ride around the Isle of Wight together with 5 friends to raise funds for R2R which is the chosen charity of the RMYC for the next 3 years. At the start of the evening Richard was very proud to present Pat with a cheque for £5,560 in support of the work of R2R and said that he expected this would not be the final total.

A huge thank you to Richard and all the RMYC members present who had provided donations, for their continued generous support. Pat has invited Richard to visit R2R at the Genesis Centre whenever he wanted to and also extended this to the members present. She also took the opportunity to appeal for volunteers to help at the lunch time drop-ins.

Pictured with the presentation cheque are; from L-R Graham Turner who is the Commodore of RMYC, his wife Julie (a huge thank you to them both for choosing R2R as their charity), Pat and Richard.