Some of our members brought in favourite soft toys, who get together for a party !
Who knew you could find such diversity in soft elephants !
Sometimes we all need a little softness in our lives, and it is good to have an environment where we can celebrate our weakness for cuddly animals, as well as the inner strength which has helped several of our members though difficult times.
Although Helen was announced as this year’s winner of the Paul Hope Award in December, as the announcement was done remotely via a video link, she could not receive the certificate which accompanies the award. This was presented to her tonight
We also had a small Coronation Party, in anticipation of tomorrows ceremonies.
Remains of party food!
Wesley Memorial Church is also a venue for Oxfordshire Art Weeks – with people who use the buildings being invited to create or submit works on a theme of ‘Special Places, Holy Spaces’. This sparked inspiration in some of our members –
It also kicked off some interesting discussion about what made Phab special to its members.
Phab, as a National Organisation, has many amazing volunteers, and celebrates their contributions with a number of awards. One of these is the Paul Hope Award, and Helen, our chairperson for several years was nominated. We hoped she would be as successful as Simon and Mary,
The winners of the awards were announced at a teleconference, attended remotely by Phab members from all over the country, and by several of our members, including Helen, gathered at Wesley Memorial Church. During this we heard many of the exciting things Phab has been doing. Baroness Campbell gave an inspiring address, and said that she looked forward to meeting the winners in person at the House of Lords in a future reception.
Unfortunately the Covid pandemic meant that we could not celebrate Kathryn being nominated for the Paul Hope award with trip to a ceremony in London, as we did for Simon’s nomination, but a presentation at Wesley Memorial meant that more people could enjoy the occasion, particularly Tom.
Fitting in with an activity that Wesley Memorial Church has been doing, we made sculptures of of bread dough. These could be of people we found inspiring – our ‘roll models’, or anything we liked.
Having not met in our normal meeting place at Wesley Memorial Church in the centre for Oxford since March 2020, and having had our AGM last year via Zoom, it was great to be able to hold this year’s AGM as our first ever hybrid meeting.
This enabled some members who would otherwise have had to travel some distance, and those who are shielding to participate.
Each year at our Annual General Meeting we award the Roy Lewis Trophy to someone who has inspired us by their actions and contribution to our club. The past year has been difficult for so many people but our members chose to award trophies this year to three people who have stayed strong and positive in adversity. Their bravery through sadness and difficulty has been an inspiration to us all. We send our love to Trisha, Melissa and Katherine.
Roy Lewis Awards
We also had physical confirmation of the results of our sponsored walk to raise money for Toilet Twinning, and were able to show off the certificates.
We raised enough to twin both accessible toilets and four taps at the church.
As well as the usual AGM business of elections, accounts etc it was an opportunity for members to see the new church atrium, with its automatic doors.
It has been a long wait for Wesley Memorial Open Doors building project to reach this stage, but the results are beautiful. They are also much more accessible. At the far end of the space between the church on the left and the John Wesley Room on the right, before the atrium was built, roughly where the wooden desk is, there was the door into the building. It was installed before accessibility was an issue, and so opened outwards, as fire escape doors should do, and had a door closer to prevent it staying open, to conserve energy. It was also at the top of quite a short steep slope, which has been converted into the gentle unnoticeable slope of the atrium. The combination of these factors meant that entering the premises in a wheelchair, even for someone who was normally independent, required three people, one entering, one holding the door and one pushing.
All the fundraising Oxford Phab did to help support the Open Doors project has been most worthwhile.
September 2019
March 2019
March 2017
March 2016
Oxford Phab Serving refreshments in aid of Open Doors
Once again it was time to look back at what we had done during the year, and look forward to next year, in our Annual General Meeting.
Our chairman, Helen, summed up the year in her report
Oxford Phab Club 2018
Another year has passed, and I can’t believe I am already writing another annual report.
Friday nights filled with fun activities. We have had sports nights doing Boccia, hockey and Zumba. Food nights including pancakes and noodle night, and of course our very own Christmas dinner which was cooked by member and a few friends of Phab. This was really successful as it was a lot more inclusive and we had a lot more room to move around and mingle, which was lovely. We have had a number of arts and crafts nights, had quiz nights, film nights, bingo nights, beetle and we even had a Connect 4 competition night. We have also been invited to many events in the Wesley Memorial Church including the folk festival and the new years party as well as helping raise money for the Open Doors project by helping sell refreshments.
Out and about we had a meal at Oxy, went to a Halloween disco with our friends at Banbury Phab. We went to see Mamma Mia, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Band at the theatre, we took part in two Zumba Fundraisers, went to Donnington Social Club, have been bowling a few times, went to a barbecue at the home of Simon and Sarah. We went to the annual garden party fundraiser this summer.
Last year some of our members went to the South East Phab Fun Weekend back in November last year. We also went back to Avon Tyrell in the New Forest in July. Members got to have a go at many activities including archery and climbing. We cooked marshmallows on an outdoor fire. This year we were also welcomed by the crew of The Dolphin boat in Poole Harbour who took us on a trip around the harbour.
The Roy Lewis Memorial Prize last year was awarded to Darren and Maria for their wedding celebrations.
We have lots of fun activites planned for Christmas and have already booked to see a pantomime early next year (oh yes we have!)
Once again we really do appreciated all the continued support from our friends and families and everyone else who continues to make Phab fab.
Helen Williams Chair, Oxford Phab, November 2018
We had the usual financial reports, election of Officers and the Committee etc. After these routine matters we were very pleased to have Robin, who has organised many quiz nights for us, and Penny, who has been been a valued and helpful member for many years as this year’s recpients of the Roy Lewis Award.
Wow, what a night ! Banbury Phab invited us to their Halloween Disco, which they do in style – we were greeted with a spooky door bell, the hall were they meet was decorated with Halloween table cloths, and there were flying ghosts and witches. We ate from the plentiful supply of hot dogs, and then Barry, club leader at Banbury Phab for many years had an announcement to make. He had been to the House of Lords, and been presented with the Paul Hope Award, which is given for outstanding contributions to furthering the aims of PHAB. As he had travelled by coach he did not have the award with him, but it looks like this.
We know because there were three Paul Hope Award winners in Banbury that night, Three Paul Hope Award winners, Barry, Mary and Simon Mary was awarded the Paul Hope Award in 2015 and Simon was presented with the Award for 2005. As if that was not enough excitement for one night, we celebrated a birthday, and then on to the (or another) highlight of the night, the fancy dress competition. Unfortunately, as I was one of the judges, this does not show the full range of entries, and does not show the winning Pumpkin Patch Kids entry.
Thank you, Banbury Phab, for a memorable evening.
Phab, the national charity, which Oxford Phab is affiliated to, celebrated its 60th birthday this year.
Part of the celebration was a Tea Party at Avon Tyrrell, particularly significant as Phab started in 1957, following a National Association of Youth Clubs camp where one of the participants said he wanted “Opportunity, not pity”.
The marquee, decorated for a 60th party, ready for tea.
John Corless, OBE, giving a speech, and review of Phab, past and present.
He presented awards to people who had been working with Phab for many years,
It was a great opportunity to get together with Phab people from all over the country and have a reminder of the things that other clubs are doing.
Also being back in Avon Tyrrell gave us a chance to look at the water activities which we did not have a chance to do on our holiday earlier this year, or last year, or in 2015.
We decorated cards and bags with a Christmas theme. .
More craft activities – powered by chocolates, which were the prize for our Team Building entry on the Phab South East Weekend.
Treasurer’s report at the AGM
Lee receiving The Roy Lewis Award. for all the discos he has run for us.
Dot was unable to attend but wss awarded the Roy Lewis Award in absentia, for organising transport for many years.
An article about Mary’s reception of the Paul Hope Award has been published in the Oxford Mail at http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/14021580.It___s_absolutely_Phab_as_social_club_founder_is_awarded_for_her_work/
It is great to see news of what we are doing reaching a wider community.
