Samantha OConnell
Super Sunday 2015
Fundraising for Accessible Derbyshire
Story
"As a rail and construction industry we are asking more from our teams: change behaviours, don’t walk by, raise close calls, be safe. We talk about Health & Safety, but we really only talk about safety. Health is not taken as seriously as it should. As leaders in the rail sector, we need to demonstrate that behaviours can be changed. By being unhealthy and/or overweight we are not giving the right image to the people we work with that we are serious about behavioural change especially around health and wellbeing. We appear to not live the values we declare. To promote “health like safety” we are looking to demonstrate that we can make a tough personal behavioural change: we can change our lifestyle, lose weight and walk the talk. If we can change our behaviours, so can you. If we can lose weight, you can raise a close call”… Richard Walker
'Super Sunday' was an event organised and run annually by Derbyshire County Council to provide a fun day out for children with additional needs and disabilities - it provides adventurous and craft activities as well as dance and drama, barbeques and information. However last year due mainly to budget restrictions it could no longer happen. Valerie Rogers of Amco - used to be heavily involved in running the event before joining Amco and had decided to run the event this year as a volunteer by linking with the Charity 'Accessible Derbyshire' - Accessible Derbyshire exists to make Derbyshire as accessible as possible to people with additional needs. Two Derbyshire Ladies with six children between them, three with disabilities wanted to share their knowledge with other people to enable them to lead as fulfilling a life as possible and created the Accessible Derbyshire website which promotes accessibility through virtual tours allowing people to know exactly what to expect from a destination before they arrive. Allowing families to create a holiday with the right facilities to overcome the disabilities they are coping with, wheelchair accessible showers, hoists to lift their teenager into the bath and bed, adjustable sinks/ cookers so the children can join in the cooking, level access rooms so that everyone can be together in any room to share the experience, trips out to places with correct facilities so you don't have to change the person you care for on a toilet floor because there is nowhere else. But it doesn't just stop with the website Accessible Derbyshire want to help others to raise funds to make more of Derbyshire accessible - they support other people to look at their facility and think what can be done to improve it for people with all kinds of disability. Donations to Accessible Derbyshire do not stay in their account, they purchase equipment for and help make alterations to venues/projects to improve the lives of others. Together Super Sunday, Accessible Derbyshire and You can give the disabled children of Derbyshire a wonderful day out, improve awareness around the county and improve facilities for them long into the future…please help give generously