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The end of 2013 saw MAGIC move to

our new premises in Cliffe Woods. We

were delighted to have a much larger

base from which to run most of our

activities – and an ideal building where

everything is all in one place! We were

lucky to have the place decorated by

volunteers at HSBC Strood (see the

photos on Flickr) and had many pieces

of furniture donated. So now, as we say

goodbye to 2014, we look at how far we

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have come in only 12 months.

With the launch of the new MAGIC

Bean Café and the welcoming of MAC,

our new Bradbury House gate-guardian

– it really does feel like home!

We cannot wait for what 2015 will bring

so from all of us here at MAGIC, we

wish you all a happy Christmas and an

especially happy, healthy and fun 2015.

Merry Christmas from all at MAGIC!

2014 Round-up

MERRY CHRISTMAS

“We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas, We wish you a merry Christmas, and a happy new year!

- MAGIC

Thanks for supporting MAGIC throughout 2014. We hope you find our newsletters useful for your family.

Fusce tellus enim, semper vitae, malesuada vitae, condimentum vel, ligula.

lorem

Join us for fun and loads of entertainment during school holidays!

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dolor

Activity Days

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more on 2

Our annual major fundraising day and we raised well over £2,000 in 3 hours!

Family Fun Day ARC turns 1 this year and we are delighted that this service is developing and growing!

ARC is 1

MAGIC focus December 2014

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MAGIC Newsletter DECEMBER 2014

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JANUARY

After moving to Bradbury House at the

end of 2013, we were delighted to get

cracking with not only resuming our

services for our children and

Members, but to further our

development. A new headquarters

also meant that we could offer our

activity and fun right here on site. To

help with fundraising, we also

introduced a new online method to

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make payment to MAGIC, through

PayPal. View more about this on our

news item on our news page or donate

here.

FEBRUARY

The first of our Activity Days took

place over the February half-term

week, and we treated the children to a

range of usual fun and games, with the

highlight being a trip to Dickens Word

in Chatham, Kent.

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APRIL

We had some fun during the Easter

school holidays at the Activity Days

too – We took the children to the fun

climbing wall at the Strood Youth

Centre and tested their balance,

climbing skills and perseverance all

with the help of the centre staff. View

our photos!

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MAY

Our children were treated to several

days out during the better weather in

the May Activity Days. We were also

delighted to be supported for the final

time by the Ian Farrant Golf

Tournament who raised some valuable

funds for us. Thanks guys! Read the

full article here, or view the photos.

MAGIC moves to Cliffe Woods – a new head quarters allowing us to offer even more fun for our children.

Spring We kick-started 2014 with the first Activity Days in February half term. MAGIC enjoyed a lovely Easter treasure hunt and the May Activity Days brought some lovely weather for us to enjoy our new HQ!

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MAGIC Newsletter DECEMBER 2014

Summer MAGIC Fun! MAGIC HQ provides an ideal base!

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JUNE

The children attending the Additional Resource

Centre (ARC) succeeded in raising money for a

great project, aimed to learn teach them about

the value of money and how it can be

resourced. They had a maximum of £20 and

turned this into a impressive £135. Learn how

they did it.

Only 6 months or so after moving to Bradbury

House, MAGIC were lucky enough to be

donated a whole load of furniture by company

KPMG UK. MAGIC was pleased to be getting a

bit closer to actually owning the property – very

exciting times indeed. Read more here.

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JULY & AUGUST

Summer progressed well and we entered

the fabulous summer play scheme. For

2014, we decided to run the activities days

for 3 days over 3 weeks during the school

summer holiday – so the kids (and the

staff!) were less exhausted. Read how it

went.

We wanted to say a special thanks to all

our Members who did some valuable

fundraising for us. From wheelchair pushes

to skydives – A BIG THANKS TO ALL!

Read our blog page.

Learn how you can help us fundraise

(continued)

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MAGIC Newsletter DECEMBER 2014

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AUGUST

We were lucky enough to be donated

a large 8 foot bear who soon became

the gate guardian of Bradbury House.

Nameless, we ran a fabulous

competition to find a name.

There were many names nominated,

but our favourite was MAC, standing

for ‘My Autism Counts’ – as nominated

by the Burgess/Cherry family. The

prize was a break at our luxury

caravan at All Hallows Haven Holiday

Park. Read more on our news page.

Read more about Holiday MAGIC.

Summer Play Scheme ran through

August and we hosted 3 weeks of

events for our Members. Thanks to all

our staff and volunteers who helped

make this possible!

Read more about our summer events

here, and view the photos on Flickr

here.

Family Fun Day was held on the

August Bank Holiday. Our annual

fundraiser event is where we invite all

our Members plus their family and

friends and is always a highlight of our

year. This year it absolutely poured

down! But the rain did not detract from

the fun – or the turnout. You helped us

raise an amazing £2,000+ in about 3

hours! Read more on our blog page

and view the images here.

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Keith Wyncoll - Guest Speaker

During July 2014, Research Autism

ran a conference in London, 'Autism

and Learning Disabilities: Lessons

from Research, Policy and Practice',

as part of their Lorna Wing Series of

Conferences and Seminars, chaired

by Richard Mills and Linda Woodcock.

Friend of MAGIC, Keith Wyncoll,

attended and provided a heartwarming

story of how his family is living (and

thriving) with Autism.

Read more about Keith’s presentation.

See the presentation slides here.

+ Keith Wyncoll speaks at conference

The theme of the talk was to help parents and carers understand the sources of support they could be entitled to, such as Direct Payment, self-help groups like MAGIC, to help with family support.

- Keith Wyncoll

MAGIC Newsletter DECEMBER 2014

Thanks for all your support, well wishes, Facebook ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ – we love it all! See you all again in 2015!

Autumn fun continues at MAGIC.

SEPTEMBER ARC is 1

1st September brought the first anniversary of MAGIC’s

Additional Resource Centre – a new learning resource for

children currently ‘out of education’. Launched September

2013, we started with just 3 young people, who were

referred to us at The Strand. Our new services were soon

recognised by Medway Council who were excited by the

tuition services we started to offer. So much so, that they

are themselves currently funding 15 places at The ARC

and growing! We would like to thank all our staff, members

and others who have made this possible. Read more.

Medway Youth Trust redecorates our teenager’s room. Volunteers from Medway Youth Trust come and take the

challenge of fundraising for, and decorating our room

dedicated for our teenage Members. In the summer we

were delighted to welcome a team of Medway youngsters,

who visited MAGIC HQ last week, to see some of our

upcoming projects and whether one of these would be

something they would wish to volunteer their time for, as

part of their community involvement work. They choose to

decorate the room, and, with a lot of hard work, it was

ready for the children on their return in September. Thanks

to all the volunteers – it looks truly amazing and our

teenagers are loving the new look.

OCTOBER

We held a great Coffee Morning in October, with a guest

speaker advising about the new EHC plans. Read more.

NOVEMBER

Thanks to Donna Turner who raised funds for us during the

KM Abseil Challenge! Read more here.

If you are interested in doing a leap of faith Abseil

Challenge for us next March, watch the website for more

details or call the office in January.

We also open our new MAGIC Bean Café! Student Michael

helps us and learns important life skills! Read more here.

DECEMBER And so, the end of the year creeps up and we have now

celebrated with our members at the annual Panto on the

11th December and celebrated Christmas at our MAGIC

Christmas Party on 13th December.

Our last day for the ARC kids is Wednesday 17th December

and the staff finally gets a well earned break on the 23rd

December. We are back on Monday Jan 5th, 2015, so until

then…