Great News from Dowding house
Liz Falkner the Paramount centre manager has done some fantastic work with the young residents in Partnership with the Paddock Wood Lions Club. Alisha and Kyra Dawes were struggling to do their homework on their smart phones and therefore felt they weren’t achieving their full potential.
Liz approached the Paddock Wood Lions Club to see if they could help fund a lap top. Liz was delighted when they got back to her saying they were happy to fund two lap tops for both girls. Liz and I then worked together to find the best laptops possible, once we found them the Lions club then gave an extra gift of paying for extra storage for them. I met with Kyra and Alisha on 28,02,2019 to present them with their lap tops with Liz, they were both absolutely delighted with them as was their mum. They told me their first task would be to email the Lions club from their laptops to thank them. On top of this the Lions club have also funded another young resident at Dowding house. Tillie (age 10) mentioned to Liz in the Dowding House office that she really wanted to go on a residential school trip to wales, most of her class and friends were attending the trip, but Tillie knew that her mum would struggle to afford it at that time with the arrival of a new baby. Tillie had never been on holiday before and Liz told me of how she has seen Tillie grow in confidence since she had been at Dowding house and felt this trip would do wonders to develop her self esteem even further.
Once again Liz approached the Paddock Wood Lions Club to see if they could help and of course they did! I also spoke to Tillie on my visit to Dowding house who told me that she has never had so much fun in her life during the trip, and her teachers said the smile never left her face. She did a range of outdoor activities such as Kayaking, Caving and mountaineering. Before she left, Tillie gave a large bunch of flowers to Wendy from the Lions club to say thank you. It’s evident when I visit Dowding House that Liz is doing a fantastic job and has a great relationship with the residents.
Off the back of the incredible work that Liz has already done, The Paramount Foundation will begin running regular youth sessions at Dowding House where young residents have already volunteered to help run it. The focus will be on sports, arts and wellbeing with the first project being designing some kind of presentation for the local carnival. The Paddock Wood Lions Club have agreed to work in partnership with The Paramount Foundation and I’m extremely excited to involve them in future projects and ideas.
