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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Midlands Co-op Community Grant




We were delighted to be awarded a Community grant by the Midlands Co-op for major refurbishment of the toy library.

Here are pictures of some of our members meeting with the Co-op staff to celebrate our award and the newly refurbished Shepshed Co-op store.

Alsion Jones, from the toy library has also been asked to speak at a publicity event to explain how we applied for the grant, what we will use it for and what it will mean to us when the project is complete.

MP Nicky Morgan visits Big Lottery Grant winners The Shepshed Toy Library

Loughborough MP Nicky Morgan visited the Shepshed Toy Library on Friday to discuss funding, their future plans, and even picked up some useful information her own son, Alex.

The Toy Library was awarded a Big Lottery Grant at the end of last year for £1938, much to the delight of the volunteers who run the facilities.

Nichole Browne from the Library gave Nicky an insightful tour which covered their main programme of exchanging and lending toys for parents and caregivers, as well as a look at the on-site ‘Messy Play’ area.

“Nichole and the team do an amazing job running the Toy Library. They work incredibly hard and provide a great service for local parents and caregivers, and are truly deserving of the Big Lottery grant”, Mrs Morgan said.

“Having a young son myself, I am well aware of how quickly children can get bored of toys, and how expensive this cost can be. The Toy Library provide this brilliant service providing a huge variety of toys for children, as well as the different play areas on site to keep the young ones entertained for hours,” she said.

Mrs Morgan said she was also surprised to learn that the Toy Library can host parties, something she says she will definitely be keeping in mind for her son Alex.

Nichole Browne from the Library said:

"We were very pleased to meet Nicky and explain to her how our Big Lottery grant is helping us to provide our valued play and lending services. Our current play topic is Spring, Growing and Mini Beasts and the children have had a lot of fun with our pretend-play flowershop, making tray gardens and decorating our mural with ladybirds.

Now entering our 26th year, we continue to provide a valued service to local people. We have over 550 members from Shepshed, Loughborough and 23 villages throughout the region. Our Big-Lottery-funded play sessions run twice a week and details can be found on our website: www.shepshedtoylibrary.blogspot.com"


The Toy Library is located in the PortaCabin in Hind Leys car park, and is open during term time 9.30am-12noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday; and 6.30-7.30pm on the last Thursday of the month. For more information parents and carers can call 01509 601146.

Next Guided Play Dates

Our Guided Play sessions will continue after the Easter Holidays. We will carry on with the Spring and growing theme, introduce bugs and mini-beasts and move on to a seaside theme.

The dates of sessions are:
Weds 4th May
Fri 6th May
Mon 9th May
Weds 11th May
Weds 18th May
Fri 20th May
Mon 23rd May
Thurs 26th May

The half term holiday is Mon 30th May - Fri 3rd May. We will be closed during that week.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Easter Holiday Closing - Dates

We will be closing for the Easter Holidays. Our last session will be on Friday 15th April, and we will re-open on Wednesday 4th May.

If you have toys due back this week but are unable to make it to the toy library, then please call us on 01509 601146 and we will renew them for you for another month. Renewal fees will then be payable when you bring the toys back.

Our next evening session will be Thursday 26th May 6:30-7:30pm.

We hope everyone has a lovely holiday and look forward to seeing you next term.