In June 2012 brothers Keith and Richard Hopkinsons’s Challenge is to walk the whole 80 kilometres of the Calderdale Way over boggy moorland and through peaceful hamlets in 24 hours!

The walk will start at Clay House in West Vale and follow the route through Ripponden, Todmorden, Heptonstall, Pecket Well, over Midgley Moor, Luddenden Dean, Wainstalls, through the Shibden Valley, Shelf, Norwood Green, Bailiff Bridge, Brighouse and then back to West Vale.

“Little Stoodley” at Pecket Well

Keith and Richard have

been donated clothing for

the walk by Bagshaws and

have sponsorship from The

Bank Sandwich Co., Heath

Rugby Club and Simprint……

To keep up to date on this

AMAZING feat, check out

our website:

www.noahsarkcentre.org.uk

Keith and Richard are hoping

to raise over £1,500 for the

Noah’s Ark Centre and need

back-up support on the

day/night.

If you would like to be a part

of the support team please

contact the office on 01422

366911.

FEBRUARY 2012

FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER

If you would like to help

Keith and Richard reach

their target and to sup-

port the Noah’s Ark

Centre, please either

contact the office on

01422 366911 or follow

the link on

www.mydonate.bt.com

/fundraisers/

keithcalderdaleway

If you have any queries

please don’t hesitate to

contact Lesley at the

Noah’s Ark Centre.

Inside this issue:

10 Year Celebra-

tion Report

Rainbow News

Fundraising Up-

dates

On Friday 4 November 2011 the Noah’s Ark Cen-tre celebrated 10 years of supporting the communi-ty in North Halifax.

The Rt Revd Tony Robin-son (Bishop of Ponte-fract) opened the pro-ceedings with a prayer of thanks for the work that continues at the Centre.

Some messages

left on the day:

“How you have

grown over the last

10 years. I hardly

r e c o g n i s e t h e

p l a c e . ” G w e n

Sanderson.

“Carry on the good

work at Noah’s Ark.

Still miss coming

Sunday and all the

friends I made

here.” Marjorie Kil-

son

“Noah’s Ark—what

a blessing to so

many chi ldren,

keep up this won-

derful work.” Arnold

and Marjorie Spensley.

“Carry on the won-

derful work you do

here. Well done—

hope and pray you

have many more

birthdays!” Gwen

and Tony Knowles.

DEBT ADVICE NEWS

We welcome Andrew Sykes to the

team (which now totals TWO!), which means we can welcome more clients. Please spread the word and

call Peter Naylor or Andrew on 01422 364664 to arrange a meeting at Noah’s Ark Centre. More infor-

mation is on the website: www.noahsarkcentre.org.uk and

click on the Debt Advice tab.

We also welcome Phil and Linda Major who are currently going through training. Phil will be a third

adviser and Linda would like to offer

budgeting advice.

We are all volunteers but the ser-vice does need financial support as

well as prayer support, so please

contact Peter if you can help.

Our counselling services are as busy as ever. Last year we

saw 216 new clients as well as our existing ones from the year

before! We now have Sarah and Catherine coordinating the

Adult Service, with Natalie as the Young People’s Coordinator

and Andrea as the Rainbows Coordinator.

Sam is Counselling Manager overseeing all of the counselling

services.

Our pilot project for family therapy work is going well, and we

are making steady progress towards being able to open our

doors to external family therapy referrals.

Our fantastic band of volunteers continue to dedicate their

considerable skills to their clients, and lives are being trans-

formed as a result!

Sam Crook

Counselling Manager

10 Years and Still Going Strong!

Counselling News

Birthday cake

made and donated by

Keith Hopkinson.

Around 30 people came to share in the celebrations and to look at the new extensions. Jean Hoggard (co-founder) gave a presentation on how the Centre was formed all those years ago.

More pictures can be found on the website, www.noahsarkcentre.org.uk

Page 2

FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER

Great gifts from the

Halifax offices of

Provident Insurance

for the children at

Christmas – their fac-

es were a picture of delight and happi-

ness, they were so

excited to receive

their gifts…..it was a

lovely end to the suc-

cessful term at Rain-

bows.

We started a new

term on 15 January

and the children were

slightly apprehensive

- very common for

children when meeting

new people, but it was a

very calm atmosphere

at the tea table. One

child came back from

last term. We weren’t expecting him but he

had loved it so much

that he returned and,

although we are full on

both days – Tuesdays

and Thursdays - we

found a slot for him.

Feedback from a new

boy aged 9 on his first

day told his mum ―I

really like her

mum‖ (one of the

facilitators)

Our new facilitators

from the end of last

year’s training have set-tled in well and the chil-

dren are seen to

be making good

relationships

with them.

Andrea Turpin

Rainbows

Co-ordinator

We are keen to recruit more

Trustees to the Board. The

main requirement is that

you are a Christian. We

would particularly welcome

applications from people

with a good Counselling

background, anyone who is

ordained, and anyone with

experience in any of the

building trades.

The Trustees would like to

inform you that the Annual

General Meeting is to be

held on Thursday 19 April

2012. We will meet at the

Centre for 7.00pm. All are

welcome to attend. PLEASE

CONTACT LESLEY TO

BOOK.

Christmas and New Year at Rainbows

Report from the Trustees

for; it confirms that there are companies out there who value the work that we do with adult clients and are will-ing to support us in this difficult economic cli-mate.

[Many thanks to Cathe-rine for her hard work in putting the bid together — The Trustees]

With other funding bids in the pipeline, the team is optimistic that the fu-ture for the Adult Coun-selling Service is looking brighter. We are meeting regularly once a month on a Monday evening at Noah’s Ark to organise fundraising events for all the ser-vices here, with the Calderdale Way Walk as

The Latest from the Fundraising Team The Co-Op comes up Trumps!

The team recently re-ceived the brilliant news from the Co-operative Community Fund that it is able to contribute £1,300 over the next 12 months towards the run-ning of the Adult Coun-selling Service. This was the fantastic news we have all been waiting

our next big fundraising pro-ject.

Catherine Booth, Assistant Counselling Co-ordinator with Special Re-sponsibility for Funding If you have some free time and are enthusiastic about Noah’s Ark, please come along and join in the fun! The next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 20 Feb-ruary.

Page 3

FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER

If you don’t fit any of these job

descriptions, don’t worry—we

would still welcome your applica-

tion. All we ask is that you have a

heart for Noah’s Ark and share

our ethos and beliefs. Please con-

tact me in confidence on my

home number (01422 202927) or

via email:

trustees@noahsarkcentre.org.uk

Peter Naylor, Secretary to the

Trustees.

FEBRUARY 2012 NEWSLETTER

322—326 Ovenden Road

Ovenden

Halifax HX3 5TJ

Centre: 01422 366911

Counselling: 01422 300457 Debt Advice: 01422 364664

Next edition due May 2012

If we can email this to you and keep

our costs to a minimum please let us know.

Thank you.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Monday 20 February—

Fundraising Meeting at 7.30pm in

the Noah’s Ark Centre.

Saturday 17 March—

Coffee and Cake Saturday 10 am

to 12 noon - venue tbc. (An

opportunity to promote the

Calderdale Walk)

Thursday 19 April—

Annual General Meeting starts at

7.00pm in the Noah’s Ark Centre.

PLEASE CONTACT LESLEY IF

YOU WOULD LIKE TO COME.

* The web site is currently being updated so please

keep checking it for fundraising events and ideas

which will be advertised here. *

WATCH OUT!

W e ’ r e o n t h e w e b

w w w . n o a h s a r k c e n t r e . o r g . u k

Noah’s Ark Centre

Mission Statement

The Noah’s Ark Centre exists as a resource for all in our community. It is a place of

welcome, where all may find the space to gain the confidence and skills to

overcome life’s problems. We offer non-judgmental counselling, debt advice and

support at every stage of life.

NEW HORIZONS COFFEE SHOP

AND NOAH’S ARK CHARITY SHOP

New Horizons is located in Wheatley Lane, Lee Mount. It does wonderful work in getting the community together for various events or just a laugh and a beverage (non-alcoholic!). Next door to New Horizons is the Noah’s Ark Charity Shop where you can bring and buy to benefit us and you! More details on the website—just click on the ‘New Horizons’ tab.