What a wonderful few weeks at PiPs Café and Community Hub! The café has welcomed so many visitors, both local and international, with all generations (and often their dogs) enjoying the wonderful park and play equipment and occasional sunshine! We’ve hosted some lovely things, from live music (do join us on the 8^th September for the last one of the Summer) to 170 youngsters enjoying a hang out day. As September approaches we look forward to the return of our monthly supper club.

The Community Room has been busy with birthday parties, Kids Summer Clubs, Art Club, Chess Club (every Tuesday afternoon), Digital Champions offering free help every Thursday afternoon – as well as hosting charities and football club celebrations for their volunteers or teams.

“Can I please say an enormous thanks to the wonderful Sammy and Jenna and the team who looked after us so magnificently last Friday for the birthday surprise. The food was fabulous and everyone had a great time. It was a perfect afternoon and the birthday girl cried a lot of happy tears. Huge thanks again for all of your help.”

Well done PiPs team!

As we approach the Autumn, Supper Club will be returning. We say farewell to our wonderful Rosemary Rogers on Friday 20^th September from 7pm.  Rosemary is treating us to one last Supper Club, featuring her favourites before she retires at the end of the month. Don’t worry though, Supper Club will still continue throughout the Winter months as we welcome Debbie Dalley as our new guest chef and we look forward to welcoming you with various theme nights and a warm atmosphere. Do email kerry@pipspoundbury.com to join the supper club mailing list.

We’re not sure how we managed it, but the sun has come out for all 3 of our Music at the Pavilion events! Many thanks to all of you who joined us for a relaxing afternoon with some jazz, country, 60s, 70s and 80s and some soulful tunes. A huge thanks to Desafinado, Bev from Tom Browns Strummers, The Jammy Band, Nick Capaldi, The Puddletown Ukulele Group (PUGS) and Damaris who have entertained us so far – you were all brilliant!

We have one final event on Friday 6^th September from 12-2pm where we will be joined once again by fabulous Franz who has sung for us before and also a new singer called Charmian who is a jazz singer and keyboardist with a smooth, mellow style and a playfully inventive repertoire covering an eclectic songbook ranging from Cole Porter and Hoagy Carmichael to Bonnie Raitt, Celeste and Laufey.

Need help with your computer, lap top, tablet or phone?

Digital Champions are here every Thursday afternoon with a drop-in service for anyone who may need help with anything digital such as operating a laptop, smartphone or tablet. If you would like to feel more confident using your device or online services/apps or perhaps you would like to start shopping or banking online, just pop in and see the Digital Champions Volunteer who will be happy to help. As this service is staffed by volunteers please to ring to check it is on via 01305 259142 or email kerry@pipspoundbury.com

A quick reminder to come along for a game of chess if you would like to. Pop in on Tuesday afternoons at 2pm - we'd love to see you! All ages enjoy the club, with draughts available to play too.

Our next very popular After School Art session will be on Wednesday 18th September from 4-5pm. These sessions are for 5-10 year olds and please remember that an adult must accompany children at the sessions. Please do share this information and to reserve a space in advance (essential), please email kerry@pipspoundbury.com .

Our ever-popular Senior Social club will next be held on Thursday 12th September from 10am-12pm. Come along for some chat and free refreshments. Our lovely volunteer Fiona will be waiting to welcome you!

In July, our Summer Kids Club was kindly hosted by The Prince of Wales School and despite it being a very hot day, the children had fun investigating the grounds and we managed to find lots of shelter. Activities included making dens with tarpaulin, carrying out pond dipping activities where they delighted in holding some newts and they also made some clay creatures which they placed in the woods! In the afternoon the children got creative with some flower printing and finished with making marshmallows covered in yummy chocolate and sprinkles.

In August, back at PiPs, we were joined by The Friendly Food Club who were just amazing! The children were tasked with preparing various fruits and vegetables; they played food guessing games and then created their own marvellous rainbow buffet of all the different fruits and vegetables. It was great to see the children being inquisitive about new and unfamiliar foods – many thanks to Viv and Mark who were fun and inspiring!

During our final Kids Club we were treated to a Samba Workshop, lead by the wonderful Melody and Amy. We’re not sure how they managed it but within an hour the children and volunteers were able to create a tune and it was great to listen to!

We are so lucky that every year we are supported by amazing volunteers and leaders who make the Kids Clubs a fun and safe place to be. Many thanks to Sandra, Lesley, Fiona, Alison, Jackie and Darcie for giving up their time every holiday.

Our annual Teen Holiday Hangout run by Dorchester Town Council in conjunction with PiPs and hosted here on The Great Field was a great success! We had a slightly nervous windy and grey start with the weather but that didn’t stop over 160 children aged 9-14 years old coming to spend the day with us! Activities included inflatables, football coaching, henna painting and hair braiding, games, Creative Clay, various craft activities and not forgetting the hilarious Sumo Wrestling which was brilliantly led by William and Graham who were volunteers from Waitrose Poundbury and who spent most of the day laughing along with all the teens!

We were very grateful to have sponsorship from The Talk About Trust, Poundbury Community Trust, Waitrose & Partners and Dorset Council. Many thanks also to the #WillDoes youth bus who visited us and who provide a safe space for young people to chat and to get advice from youth workers, counsellors and medical professionals. If you would like to know more about what the WillDoes Charity is all about, please follow this link: #WillDoes Charity - Helping Young People Achieve Wellbeing

Days like these also don’t happen without an army of volunteers who gave up their time to support the day – huge thanks to all of you! If you have any ideas about putting on more events for our teenagers in the local area, or would like to be a volunteer for future events, please do contact kerry@pipspoundbury.com – she would love to hear from you!