Special cinema event

Hi Sunshine News Readers,

It’s our last column of the Summer – Eeeek! Some of the team are ecstatic to be welcoming Autumn very soon however, I’m still clinging to those final days of Summer!

We hosted another fabulous Sunshine Fund Families event this week which was kindly gifted to us by Book the Cinema and Uniquex, who are a private cinema hire platform that allows you to watch the latest film releases in your own private screen. They are partnered with tonnes of cinemas across the country and take bookings for birthday parties, school trips and corporate events.

We were lucky enough to have a private screening of the brand-new DC League of Superpets at Whitely Bay’s Jam Jar cinema.

Cinema trips can be quite a stressful experience for our families, as they often need to attend relaxed screenings that accommodate their child’s needs, with enough accessible seating but these are limited in frequency and variation of movie. Jam Jar can change seating configuration, ensure suitable access plus alter sound and lighting levels to make it a fun and comfortable experience for our children, their families.

Book the Cinema said: "Book the Cinema is happy to provide this experience to The Chronicle Sunshine Fund families. We believe that cinema is for all and are proud to support the great work of the Sunshine fund in this way."

One parent told me how much it meant being able to access a free Sunshine Fund event;

“My 12- year-old daughter is visually and hearing impaired and so cinema trips need to be thoroughly researched and considered ahead of time as they’re a big expense, especially if my daughter can’t enjoy the movie or be comfortable.

"We regularly attend Sunshine Fund events and know that the team always consider timings, accessibility of the venue and disabled parking availability to make it as stress free as possible for parents and as fun as possible for the kids, it’s been a fab afternoon.

As always, my 10-year-old son was also welcome to come along to enjoy the movie with his sister so thank you so much again!”

I always remember trips to the cinema in the school holidays and have fond memories looking back, Karate Kid always stands out as one of my favourite trips (does that give away my age?) and so I’m thrilled that we could offer this for our families, thank you very much Book the Cinema and Uniquex!

Cinema memories sparked an office debate this week and we discovered that our youngest team member, Erin (who is on the cusp of being Gen-Z shall we say), has never seen The Goonies and has never even heard of The NeverEnding Story! I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a sackable offence!

We’ve given her until the end of August to watch it or else she’s doing the next team Greggs run!

Speaking of Greggs, we reckon their takings might be set to go up again throughout the Autumn as the new series of The Great British Bake Off returns to our screens as lets face it, it’s impossible to watch an episode without having a sweet treat to enjoy with a cuppa isn’t it?

The return of GBBO has been our inspiration behind our brand-new interactive fundraising campaign, The Great Sunshine Bake which will officially launch week, and will task organisations across our region to put forward their best bakers in their team to compete fortnightly in a bake-off challenge.

They will ultimately nominate an overall ‘Star Baker’ who will take part in a live baking event against other finalists so that we can crown our 2022 The Great Sunshine Bake Champion! If you’re keen for your place of work to take part, email Erin (that’s if she’s managed to watch The Goonies and hasn’t been sent packing!) for more information: Erin.todd@thesunshinefund.org.

There are so many other ways to get involved in the campaign, we’ll be sharing some top baking tips from our Sunshine Kids, plus sharing laughable bake-off challenge entries from our own team. I’ve been told that pre-pandemic, when bake sales peaked at Sunshine HQ, our Director Siobhan presented a four pack of Greggs sausage rolls…. Another reason we’re expecting a profitable season for Mr Gregg.

Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up to date with charity news and events!

Have a lovely final week of the Summer Holidays!

Bev x