Support Errol’s sky dive to help save Thame’s children’s centre

AN 81 year-old man from Thame is planning a 12,000 ft Tandem sky dive with the Red Devils display team, to raise funds to save Thame’s threatened Children’s Centre.

Errol Bateman training for his sky dive at AirFix, Milton Keynes

Thame Rotary Club’s President Elect, Erroll Bateman, will be making his daring dive with the Red Devils at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, in early July 2016, and he hopes that residents from the Thame area will show their support and go along and watch on the day. Errol has been preparing intensively for the past couple of months for his sky dive, and his training has included fitness sessions at Racquets in Thame, and a simulated sky dive at AirKix in Milton Keynes.

Erroll said: “If you feel strongly, as I do, about this worthy, local cause, please do visit the Thame Rotary My Donate page dedicated to my sky dive, and make a contribution. The site will be open until September 1, 2016 long after the jump!”

The Red Kite Children’s Centre, currently located at the old library site in Nelson Street, is one of the Rotary Club’s 2016-17 chosen charities, for which Erroll has already raised £850. However, much more is needed. The centre, which is currently managed by Action for Children, is threatened with closure because of Oxfordshire County Council funding cuts, though efforts are being made locally to seek alternative funding, possibly so that it can be managed locally (See related LINK).  Red Kite provides parenting programmes, stay and play sessions, family health services, plus much needed help and other services for young parents and guardians.

Erroll described their work as ‘absolutely essential to the wider community in and around Thame, as well as Chinnor and neighbouring villages’.

This is not Erroll’s first fund raising challenge. In 2006, he with other fellow Rotarians climbed UK’s “Three Peaks” in less than 24 hours, raising over £7,000 for Sight Savers International.

To show your support for Errol and the Red Kite Children’s Centre, and make a donation, folow the LINK