The 'feedback' from Beds SANDS members via letter, email and the ‘voting widget’ that was on this blog has been really helpful both in identifying a 'long list' of potential ideas and then choosing a smaller number to take forward.
After considering all the great ideas and ‘feedback’, the projects that Beds SANDS will focus on are as follows:
1) Maintaining the Support Group and other befriender services.
This is and always will be at the heart of what we do.
2) Supplying good quality memory boxes to Bedfordshire hospitals.
We are already in the process of ordering some excellent boxes from national SANDS.
3) Helping to furnish the bereavement suites in the county's hospitals.
We have already donated a crib and bedding to the Luton and Dunstable General Hospital – see posts below for more
details and pictures.
4) Producing a Beds SANDS ‘business card’ for health professionals.
It is intended that these cards would include a little information about SANDS in general and Beds SANDS in particular,
including contact details. The cards would be supplied to midwives and others to give to people who may need support
from SANDS.
5) Establishing a SANDS Memorial Garden within the county.
Clearly, this is a major, ‘aspirational’ project and we will need a lot of assistance from members if we are to make this a
reality.
Each of the priority projects within our portfolio is significant and very worthwhile, but the establishment of a Memorial Garden is a particularly big venture.
If you are interested in helping to progress and/or fundraise for the proposed memorial garden, then it would be really good to hear from you. Similarly, if you are aware of a venue, (preferably in central Bedfordshire) that might be suitable, then please get in touch ...