Appeal Launched To Replace School Building Destroyed By Arson

IN response to what the founder of Thame Youth Theatre called “a moment of personal idiosy”, when the group’s base was destroyed by an arsonist, a fund-raising appeal to build a replacement has been launched.
Yesterday an invited audience witnessed the handing over of a cheque by two Thame Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) who organised a fun day at Thame police station to raise money towards a new building to be known as the Phoenix Performing Arts Studio.

PCSO Jackie Madden, who with her colleague Diane Jackson was there on the night of the fire that destroyed the Lord Williams’s school drama studio in June last year, recalled the event.
“It was very distressing for us,” she said, ” and we realised the effect it was having on the community. We do care what happens in our town and the surrounding villages and we are glad to be here tonight to help ‘kick off’ the fund-raising.
“We decided that the fire had such an impact on the community that we wanted to do something and came up with the idea of a fun day at the station. We relied on donations for prizes etc from local shops. The afternoon included ‘splat the rat’, a tombola and stocks where wet sponges were thrown at ‘willing’ volunteers and the local fire service were in attendance. Some of our own relatives took the day off to help and without them, the event would not have been possible.”

Last night (31/01), in the Upper School hall, an invited audience was welcomed by Headteacher, David Wybron, who recalled getting the call about the fire whilst on a Duke of Edinburgh Award walk in Derbyshire. “However, after all the trauma of losing the drama studio,” he said, ” we are now starting to feel excited about building something special to replace what we have lost, an enlarged space with an enclosed corridor between it and the school, a place that not only people from our school can use, but people from the wider community.”
He said that although a lot of the money would come from the school’s Capital grant, negotiations were on-going with the Insurance Company and that the school would need a further