The adventure miniature golf centre situated on the promenade in New Brighton, Wirral, UK, will be the venue for a mini golf tournament which will be raising funds on Friday 4th October for the Wirral Autistic Society. The society provides a range of services to individuals with autism and social ad communication difficulties. Rick Myers, Fundraising Officer for the Society and organiser of the event explains:
“The event is named the Diddygolf Challenge, so called because Ken Dodd will be turning on the lights of the two miniature lighthouses situated in the course at 6.30pm. Teams of four can compete at any time during the day on Friday 4th October for £25 a team.”
The owner of the miniature golf course, Nick Ashfield, will not be charging any additional fees to participants and all the money raised will go directly to Wirral Autistic Society.
Rick Myers explains how the money raised will be spent:
“All money raised will go to our Lifetime Appeal to build a state-of-the-art, autism-specific 8 bedded residential unit at our place in Raby, Wirral. The target is £755k and we are at about 62% of the money raised.”
The new purpose built building will include en suite bedrooms which will provide dignity and privacy for the individual and help to encourage personal care. There will be under floor heating and integrated window blinds, both of which can be individually controlled to address the sensory needs of the individual. Wide corridors and easy access to the surrounding grounds will help reduce anxiety levels. There will also be mood lighting throughout the building which will help encourage calm and tranquility at bed times and at other times when anxiety needs to be reduced.
Autism Daily Newscast asked Rick Myers why the society was originally founded,
“Coping and caring for an autistic person can place overwhelming demands on the families or carers, and this burden, coupled with the dearth of resources and support available from the wider community, led to the founding of the Wirral Autistic Society by a group of concerned parents in 1968.
The Diddy Trophies
We offer a home to 100 adults with autism with a further 70 coming to us to participate in our day services. We have the only autism-specific respite unit in the North of England and run an advisory service to families who have had a diagnosis of autism for one of their children.”
After the tournament a presentation of trophies will take place in the Queen’s Royal Hotel from 7pm onwards.
Jo Worgan is a published author, writer and blogger. She has a degree in English Literature. She writes about life with her youngest son who is on the autistic spectrum. Jo tweets (@mummyworgan) and is also a freelance columnist for the Lancaster Guardian. ‘My Life with Tom, Living With Autism‘ is her second book and a culmination of her blog posts, and available on Kindle now, along with her first book, Life on the Spectrum. The Preschool years.
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