“Step and Learn”
St George Abadan Lodge
St Abadan Lodge – Step and learn
St George Abadan Lodge have taken on the sponsorship of a young girl at Step and Learn, a charity helping children with cerebral palsy and similar motor function disabilities in Kent and Medway.
Sofia Pemble is four years old and lives in Chatham. She is the only child of proud parents Michelle and Andrew and has a diagnosis of Hypertonia which affects her lower limbs. When Sofia first attended Step and Learn, she couldn’t take any independent steps and relied entirely on a wheeled walker. With the support and encouragement of Step and Learn, Sofia is now able to take up to 20 steps independently. She has also learnt how to walk up and down steps and has grown in confidence and built core strength.
Visiting the Lodge
The family came to visit St George Abadan Lodge before they started their meeting at Manor Road, Chatham yesterday (4th November). It was a great opportunity for the members to meet Sofia and see exactly where their money was going. Sofia was a big hit with the members and immediately won their hearts with a happy smile while running around the lodge room with her walker.
Michelle thanked the lodge for their support. She said, “This sponsorship is so important. It will mean that she’ll be able to continue to attend Step and Learn and increase her confidence in becoming more independent. Hopefully one day she won’t need her walker at all. We’re so grateful to everyone at St George Abadan”.
The lodge decided to sponsor a child at Step and Learn after master mason, Christian Hiscock, raised £3,248 online for them by trekking Kilimanjaro. Before the meeting Christian was able to present Step and Learn with further cheques bringing the total to an amazing £4,050!
Pictures of Chris on top of Kilimanjaro, and a picture of Chris presenting the cheque to Charlotte Streatfield, a trustee at Step and Learn.
Treasurer and acting charity steward, David Hiscock said, “It was wonderful to meet Sofia and her family, and I’m proud that St George Abadan has sponsored her place at Step and Learn. We’re really looking forward to seeing how she progresses over the coming years and can’t wait to see the family at our Christmas Carol meeting on 9th December. They’ll be our guests of course”.
Group picture L – R back row: Shawn Roberts, Roy Coenye, Nick Bishop, Alan Campkin, David Hiscock, James Chespy, Christian Hiscock.
Front Row – Andrew, Sofia and Michelle Pemble.
Step and Learn trustee Charlotte Streatfield presented Christian Hiscock with the lodge sponsorship pack, and the family posed for photographs in front of the lodge banner before having a quick drink at the bar and learning a little bit about freemasonry.
If you’d like to find out more about Step and Learn, or perhaps even sponsor a child, please visit www.stepandlearn.org .
(This link is in the process over moving servers, please keep checking back if it doesn’t work)
Step & Learn
Step and Learn is a charity dedicated to assisting the physical and educational needs of children with Cerebral Palsy and associated motor difficulties. Our aim like that of Andras Peto, hungarian founder of Conductive Education, is to view child holistically, educating and motivating the child through play, to become active participants in their lives throughout their day.
Our early intervention programme for pre-school children from birth to five years incorporates the educational values and principals of Britain`s Early Years Foundation Stage (2012). It invites the parent/carer to be fully involved in their child`s learning process, by advising them on how to incorporate the fundamentals of our programmes into the lives of their children at home, thereby empowering the to be at the forefront of their child`s learning and development by promoting home/school collaboration.
The Article was by WBro Mark Lawson, Honor Oak Lodge.
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