Fundraising for Coll's Programme

We need to raise £30,000 per year to finance Coll's treatment programme. Although we are still in negotiation with the education authorities for funding, it looks like we will continue to have to raise this sum independently.
We have been totally overwhelmed by the support we have received.

Money raised so far has already been spent on

• setting up and equipping a specially designed playroom for Coll's programme. (This includes a one-way vision mirror for observation and training purposes).
• attending a Start-Up course in London, Jan.2004, for parents, designed to help us get it all off the ground
• employing and, because of our remote situation, accommodating experienced Son-Rise professionals to both work with Coll in the playroom and train us and our volunteer team to maximise effectiveness.
• outreach services of the Autism Treatment Centre of America for ongoing support, including regular telephone consultations and video feedback sessions.
• taking Coll to America for an intensive training week at the treatment centre.

We need to maintain the level of outreach support and guidance we are receiving from the professionals to ensure our programme's effectiveness and ultimately, completion, and there are other advanced courses available to maximise our impact. It would be so beneficial if we could take Coll back to the States for another intensive programme sometime next year.

There have been an astonishing number of amazing people organising and participating in a wide variety of fundraising events on our behalf. Over the last year, our own tiny community and friends in Mallaig and on the Small Isles have raised £23,000(!) with some real sporting challenges, bizarre antics and a lot of fun.

See Coll's Day
and (The not so) Royal Ascot

We are immensely grateful to Sir Cameron Mackintosh (another local friend) and The Mackintosh Foundation for their generous support.

Further afield

• In Fort William, a good friend Dorothy MacPhee has been organising sales of home baking and books in the High Street.
• In Edinburgh, Reid Cunningham, long distance runner, competed in the Pentland Skyline Hill Race over twenty hills on Coll's behalf.
• In Surrey, Bernie Smith, (a recent guest on the Knoydart sailing boat, 'Eda Fransden') held a raffle and undertook a sponsored bike ride from London to Landsend and back.
• In London, 'Nibbles' and 'Ham n Sandwich' a chain of sandwich bars owned by Mick Saunders and Doug Throw, friends of Knoydart are sponsoring Coll as one of their charitable causes over the next three years!
• In Birmingham, the receptionists of a large computer company have organised various raffles and collections, and David Arrowsmith another employee and keen runner has competed under sponsorship for Coll.

For more information contact
Katherine Robinson, Joiner's Croft. Knoydart, Mallaig, Inverness-shire, PH41 4PL.
Telephone +44 (0)1687 460250,
or email joinerscroft@clara.co.uk