West Sussex Woodturners donate creations to St Barnabas House

The group has supported St Barnabas House for several years, and after the popularity of the beautiful wooden creations that raised many much needed funds for the charity last year, the club’s members chose to once again to support St Barnabas House for Christmas 2018.

Ron Inglis, who received support from St Barnabas House when he lost his eldest son, has supported the charity personally for over ten years and regularly makes items to help them raise essential funds.

He said “The support of The West Sussex Woodturners has once again been astounding and I am proud to be a part of this group that does so much behind the scenes to help both charities and local groups.

“St Barnabas House does amazing work for the patients and their families and I am delighted that the club have chosen to appoint them as their charity once again.”

The 100-strong members which include men, women and children from all across Sussex and Surrey embraced the call-to-action and created the hand crafted items in their individual workshops.

Working from Preston to Angmering, Horsham, Slinfold, Coolham, Smallfield Worthing, Yapton, Crawley and Durrington, to name but a few, the wide array of items were created using many different techniques.

Members were asked to turn an item to be donated to St Barnabas House, and a beautiful selection of bowls, pens, goblets, egg cups, platters, wooden fruit, light pulls and Christmas decorations were just some of the items donated.

Made from a variety of different woods and finished with natural wax, dyes and specialist paint finishes, many members were keen to donate some of their finest work.

Wendy Bardsley, community fundraising manager for St Barnabas House, was delighted to attend the meeting and said: “The West Sussex Wood Turners have been supporting St Barnabas House for a number of years.

“They make donations of their beautiful hand crafted work which are taken to charity fairs to raise funds for St Barnabas House; the local hospice for the Adur, Arun and Worthing areas.

“St Barnabas House gets very little government funding and relies on groups like The West Sussex Woodturners to help us raise the £6.5 million in care costs needed each year.

She added: “St Barnabas House looks after on average 115 patients every single day of the year both in the hospice and in patients own homes, this is achieved with the help of groups like The West Sussex Woodturners. Thank you so much for their kind and ongoing support.”

Speaking for the club, Ian Rudge the Chairman, said: “The West Sussex Woodturners meet on the first Sunday of each month and the passion for woodturning and sharing the skills associated with the many techniques we use, really helps us to provide our support and assistance for a variety of community projects.

“Christmas time is always special and once again the club’s members have worked together as a whole to create this wide array of items. We really hope that this helps to make a difference once again.”

For more information about the West Sussex Woodturners, visit www.westsussexwoodturners.co.uk or contact Ian Rudge on [email protected]