Hello, I’m Basil the Bear. Me and my family help tell people about St Basils and the awesome work they do – and the people who help us raise money. We’ve been really busy and my human helper said I should tell you what we’ve all been doing.
I am a little tired today because I spent a lot of the weekend watching the boy’s cricket team win the Cricket World Cup. I was very excited when I found out some of the matches would be played at Edgbaston, and despite dressing up they didn’t not let me play. But that’s okay because they let me go to the Edgbaston Sleepout and the team did okay without me and I can always ask to help at the Ashes. I’ve also been doing lots of cycling things because our Pedal in the Park is coming up very soon too.
This month I also joined in with the annual St Basils walk. It was held at Cannock Chase Forest, which is nearby where St Basils does its work, but
feels like it is miles away because it is an actual forest. My little legs are too small to do the walk, but I enjoyed meeting all the lovely people who took part and helped St Basils raise money to help do their work – some of them walked 24 miles in one day! I was hoping I might get to meet some of my distant family but my human helper said they don’t have bears in the wood, which made me extra special as I was the only bear there. I’m hoping I’ll get to do the same at next year’s walk at the Malvern Hills.
The sun was also shining for the Handsworth Festival Fete where Jennifer, Denise and Denise’s sons from the Elmwood Methodist Church kindly raised money for us on their stall. And then I went to a dinner at the Inner Wheel Club of Sutton Coldfield Vesey as the nice ladies there raised money for St Basils and I got to tell them all about the work we do.
Actually lots of us have had lots of travelling adventures. I went to London with my human helper and got to see the assisted travel lounge at Birmingham New St. I like being able to see things which help people who need a little bit more help because it’s important to look after each other. I wasn’t the only one in the family to go to London, Travel Basil did too, but he also got to go to the Goodwood Festival of Speed which looked a lot of fun.
My Brother Basil was very excited to go camping with Florence and her daddy Ross, who is doing an amazing forty things to raise money for St Basils – and celebrate his fortieth birthday. For my birthday I like to have cake. But my brother really likes living with Florence and her family, he says she gives the best cuddles and he feels properly at home. It makes me happy because St Basils is all about helping young people find a home and her daddy Ross is doing a brilliant job at helping raise money to help more young people find their homes.
Papa Basil also came to visit as the head of fundraising went on holiday and someone had to look after us all. He said he likes it so much he might stay, which makes me happy because I like having Papa Basil around. He said he might take me on some adventures to meet other members of staff in St Basils because there are lots of them. In preparation I did my St Basils Experience, which is when all new staff get to spend the day meeting the top people in the organisation and hear more about all the good work the charity does.
Links
Pedal in the Park – https://stbasils.org.uk/help-us/peddle-in-the-park/
Next year’s walk – https://stbasils.org.uk/walk/
Ross Fittall – https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ross-fittall
New staff – https://stbasils.org.uk/recruitment/