Thank You To John Lewis!

We wish to say a huge thank you to our local John Lewis store who have very generously supplied us with a Microsoft Surface Go tablet. This will significantly improve the time and costs of recording the theatre brochures – one of our main revenue streams, and enable us to complete documentation and forms out of the office. We can also use it at events to take photographs and videos.

Our new Microsoft Surface Go Tablet supplied by John Lewis (Milton Keynes)

Cabaret Afternoon 2018

The final event celebrating our 30th Anniversary Year was the cabaret Afternoon at the Oak Tree Centre on 30th November 2018. It was wonderful to bring everyone together and allow those brave folk among you to showcase your talents.


The programme included:

  • “Ladies who Sing” a cappella group treated us to a few of their numbers;
  • Thespians Heather Harris & Jean Thomas performed a skit entitled “Evening Surgery” to much amusement;
  • We shared poetry with Terry Calvert, Alison Statham & Pauline Shears;
  • Music was supplied variously by Fadin’ Shoes, Steve Neale & Stephen Harrison;
  • Eaman Minihan did a turn with his funny views on life.

Refreshments were served by our lovely helpers as usual and over £200 was raised by the raffle.

Thank you to everyone for all their help setting up, clearing away and keeping the whole event together.

30th Birthday Tea Party!

On Saturday 13th October, service users and volunteers old and new, along with some carefully selected guests, gathered together at the Oak Tree Centre in Shenley Brook End to celebrate 30 years of the Reader Service.

It was wonderful to share the afternoon with so many friends, including an appearance from the local mayor!

 

We had a fantastic rendition of a specially written poem from Pauline Shears and live music was provided by Fadin’ Shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As usual thank you to all the wonderful helpers who assisted with the greeting arrivals, serving refreshments and selling raffle tickets and to Martin Lycett for his technical support

 

 

 

 

 

Well done to Tracy and a huge thanks to Paula and the committee who worked so hard to pull everything together.  Here’s to another 30 years!!

Goodbye Karen & Hello Tracy!

It has been all change here at the Reader Service this month.  After 7 years, our lovely Karen Preece is retiring and we obviously wish her well and give her our heartfelt thanks for all the hard work, tea, cake and sympathy she has bestowed on so many of us over  her time here.

Her final words to us are:

“Hello Everyone,

It was lovely to see so many of you at our recent AGM (over 100 people) and from a personal point of view to be able to say goodbye to many of our members.  Paula presented me with a gorgeous gold necklace, earrings, a beautiful plant and tokens from money you had so kindly sent to her for a retirement present.  Thank you so much for your generosity, it was unexpected and I was totally overwhelmed.  Thank you as well for all the wonderful cards and email messages.  I have loved my time at the Reader Service and have met such wonderful people and I shall miss you very much but I feel due to family circumstances it is the right time to retire.  We have a new Service Coordinator beginning on 3 September called Tracy Harold.  She is looking forward to joining us and meeting all of you.  I officially finish on 23 August and am off on my holiday.  The office will be closed next week but if you have an emergency, please call Paula Suchy on 01908 662261.  Thank you so much for all your help and support; it has been a wonderful experience working for the Reader Service.

With very best wishes,

Karen x”

Of course we will miss Karen and wish her all the best in the future.  We now welcome Tracy as our new Service Coordinator:

“I am so pleased to be able to write to you all to introduce myself as the new Service Co-ordinator for the Milton Keynes Reader Service.  I live locally with my husband, two children, two dogs and a cat.  I previously worked for Milton Keynes Hospital and Milton Keynes NHS Community Services as their Voluntary Services Manager.  I joined on Monday 3rd September, so it is very early days, but it hasn’t taken long to understand how amazing the Reader Service is.  I look forward to getting to know all of you during the months ahead. For those of you coming to the 30th Birthday Anniversary Tea in October, I will see you there.”  

We wish Tracy all the best in her new role and I know that everyone will do their best to make the transition as painless as possible as the Reader Service continues to serve VIPs in our area.