The Grange Festival

We were delighted to welcome hundreds of people to our annual Festival on July 10th, one of the warmest days of the summer so far. While the sun shone visitors sheltered in the shade of trees in our grounds to enjoy their BBQ food, ice creams and cakes baked here in our kitchens by our clients. Our garden shop did a great trade in bedding plants and hanging baskets and while their parents looked around the shop, children visited the Victorian Walled Garden where they could watch Punch and Judy and demonstrations by the Dorking Judo club.

Other highlights included trips around Bookham village in a vintage bus and a dog agility show where visiting dogs delighted the crowd running through tunnels, over a seesaw and jumping through hoops.

The day was relaxed and friendly and we think we had about five or six hundred visitors.  Actress Deborah Grant, a patron of the Grange, drew the raffles and classic car owners travelled from as far as Leigh-on-Sea to show their cars.

The Grange is a registered charity which provides high quality training opportunities and housing for adults with disabilities. The festival was held to raise money for a project to provide speech and language therapy training and equipment for clients with little or no verbal communication. The final takings for the day were around £5000.

Future event:  Sponsored Family Cycle Ride

The Grange is holding a sponsored Family Cycle Ride on Sunday September 19th. The circuit is a 6 mile roundtrip beginning and finishing at The Grange in Rectory Lane with a stop on Downside Common for a picnic. Everyone is welcome.

To register please contact Anna Giokas at The Grange on 01372 455231 or email anna.giokas@grangecentre.org.uk. We will happily send you a sponsorship form or to start building your own giving page visit: www.justgiving.com/grangecentre.