Our new website is now live! Thanks to Jo for creating and managing our web site, and to Ellie for taking some fantastic pictures of the Garden for us. We will be continuing to update and improve the website. over the coming weeks. Please get in touch and let us know what you think!
We plan to send out quarterly newsletters letting you know what we are up to. Please scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up for these.
We have always been proud of the fact that we have been able to raise enough money through fundraising and donations to cover our costs and any other year would have expected to raise around £5k during the summer. But because of Coronavirus, that has not been possible and we have just a token amount in the bank. Our main costs are the annual maintenance contract for the Garden, insurance, storage of equipment, events and modest ‘admin’ costs, and we also need to build up a reserve for future years to make sure the Garden is there for ever. At the same time, we don’t want to increase the name tiles costs beyond the current £40. We have applied for some grants, but ideally, we would like to raise money to make sure our finances are safe for the coming years. We have never appealed for money in the past, but we are in some very strange times and if you feel you could make a donation – however small – that would be much appreciated. Donations can be made direct to our bank (account name ‘East Kent Baby Memorial Gardens Group’, sort code 23-05-80, account number 38580124), via wwwjustgiving.com/ekbmgc or by post to 13 Goldings Court, Ashford TN24 9JR. Thank you for your ongoing support.
After seven years as part of Sands, we decided the Ashford Baby Memorial Garden would be better run as a separate charity, and we have now set up the ‘East Kent Baby Memorial Gardens charity’ to manage the Garden from 1 October 2020. We look forward to working closely with East Kent Sands which will in future concentrate on support to families and our local hospitals.
The new charity will make sure the Ashford Baby Memorial Garden continues to be the beautiful lovely place it has always been. We will be able to make sure the Garden stays accessible, that as many people as possible know about it, and that name tiles will continue to be available at a modest cost. We will be able to decide ourselves what activities we undertake, how we use every donation we receive, and every penny we fundraise we will be able to use locally in East Kent.