Wooden Spoon helps Children’s Adventure Farm to scale new heights

A state-of-the-art traversing climbing wall has been installed at the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust at Millington, Cheshire, thanks to a £25,000 donation from rugby’s Wooden Spoon Charity.

The Manchester and Cheshire arm of the popular children’s charity donated a minibus to the Trust earlier and after Chairman, Charlie Womersley was contacted again last year with details of a further proposition, he was pleased to lend his support for a second time. He comments: “The Children’s Adventure Farm provides holidays and activities for terminally ill, chronically sick, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the North West, which made this a perfect fit for us.

“The project began last October and having now seen the wall in use, I’m delighted that we chose to support the acquisition of what will be a much used piece of equipment.

As Senior Trust Fundraiser, Helen Crowther, explains, the new addition represents a significant step forward for the trust: “The traversing climbing wall is a highly versatile developmental tool which will benefit a huge number of children,” she says.

“Many of our visitors have physical limitations and are rarely encouraged to have a go at this kind of pursuit but we work hard to help them to get as much as possible out of every activity they undertake here.

“As well as being great fun and in many cases, exceptionally good physical therapy, using the wall successfully will give numerous children a great sense of achievement. To see the joy and fulfilment they get from working with it is extremely gratifying.”

Looking forward to the impact the wall will have on the lives of thousands of children over the coming years, Charlie concludes: “The Adventure Farm offers children and parents alike a great resource and already boasts a number of exceptional facilities such as a specialist sports hall, an arts and crafts room and a superb multi-sensory site. However, we are delighted to be helping the staff here to extend the services they offer.

“The donation represents a significant investment from us but as a committee, we are all convinced that we are making a tangible difference. The Trust does some incredible work with children from all walks of life and with all manner of conditions. The bottom line is that we can help to bring a wide range of benefits to a large number of children and that makes this association very much worthwhile.”