Acknowledgements

Since Special Friends began we have been very fortunate to have been supported by many companies and people along the way.

We really appreciate your support THANK YOU!!

It's difficult to mention everybody but here are a few of the recent contributions:

A huge THANK YOU to you all!!

Freemasons We are incredibly grateful to the Freemasons Belper Lodge and Grand Charity for their ongoing support. This year alone they have donated a fantastic £2000 to Special Friends which is enabling us to fund some lovely events for our families. They also nominated us to receive their Derbyshire Freemasons Community Award! 🧡💛🧡💛	Belper - local shops Thank you to Holland & Barrett and other local shops in Belper for your continued support to raise funds by displaying our charity boxes in their shops.	St Marks Church Thank you so much to St Marks Church for continuing to choose to support Special Friends. Your latest donation of £686.30 will really make a difference to our amazing families.
Belper & Duffield Rotary Club Thank you to the Duffield and Belper Rotary Club for their latest donation of £300. We really appreciate your support over the years.🧡	Our very own Caroline (aka Super Woman) ran not one, not two but THREE races including the Manchester Marathon all in aid of Special Friends. She says: ‘…because without Special Friends, Mums just like me would still be alone”. You are our hero Caroline! 🧡	Thank you to ‘Be Beautiful with Hayley and Evie’ for hosting a Body Shop party for our families & donating £30 to Special Friends 🧡
Thomas Ryde & Son These stars have been raising money again for Special Friends at Duffield Carnival. Thank you Thomas Ryde & Son Independent Family Funeral Directors, your support is very much appreciated!😊	Just Construction An enormous thank you to all at Just Construction in Belper for their generous gift of £500 to Special Friends. Ashley, uncle of Damian says “I have known of Special Friends for a few years as my autistic nephew loves attending the Lea Green events. When I was lucky enough to have been given the task of choosing a charity to support in Belper, for me the choice was easy.”😊	Milford Primary Milford Primary School....thank you to the children and staff of Milford School for your brilliant donation of £26.86 raised on Christmas Jumper Day. You are all stars!
Morrisons Thank you so much to Morrisons Belper for donating loads of goodies for our Coffee Mornings... A sit down for a cuppa and a bickie with supportive friends is a real treat when you are an SEN parent!	A huge thank you to Nicola Edwards for hosting a Body Shop Party with Julie Neubert in aid of Special Friends. They raised a wonderful £70.32! 😊	Arthur's Railway Arthur’s Here And There Railway...there are lots of train lovers big and small in Special Friends, so we were super lucky to have the fantastic Arthur’s Here And There Railway bring us free train rides all day and evening at our Lea Green Family Funday in May this year. Choo choo!
Peak Mortgages Peak Mortgages & Protection...🏠Need to review your Mortgage or Insurance this year? 🏠 The lovely team at Peak Mortgages & Protection in Belper are offering a £50 donation to Special Friends, every time they arrange a Mortgage or Insurance through their Refer a Friends scheme! So if you are looking for advice, give them a shout and quote 'FRIENDS' 😀	A huge well done and thank you to Donna and everyone who has helped raise funds for Special Friends at Dot-teas Emporium in Belper with their Games Sundays. The total so far is a fabulous £145!!! Check out their page to see what they have been up to and get involved! 💛💛💛	Christmas Raffle Thank you so much to all the wonderful local businesses and people who donated prizes to our Christmas Raffle, you helped us raise a fantastic £372 which helps us keep giving support to our amazing families!!! To... Sue's Sustainables Vegan Revelation Café Tate Rose Bibs - stylish bibs for older kids, adults & babies. The Filling Station - Belper Derbyshire Toy Libraries Titch & Babs and our anonymous donors... thank you! 💛💛💛
Kelly The Poet Such a beautiful gift donated by Kelly The Poet. 20 poem packs all busting with love and inspiration to help our families through their journeys! Thank you! 💛	Nom Nom Bakes A huge thank you to Erica at Nom Nom Bakes for kindly donating 200 cupcakes for our 5 year celebrations! They were delicious 😋🧡	Bluebells Farm Spondon Thank you to Bluebells Farm Spondon who donated the proceeds of their November ice cream Flavour of the Month to Special Friends! The flavour was 'Prosecco and Strawberry' and raised a total of £50! 💛
Cheeky Bambini A huge thank you to Cheeky Bambini in Belper who decided to make a donation of £32.22 to Special Friends in lieu of holding a Black Friday Sale 😀.	Firefly Photography We are absolutely over the moon to be chosen as the Firefly Photography, Derby charity of the year! Every penny from their Family Portrait Experiences sold will be donated to Special Friends, so spread the word! 🧡	Derby Half Marathon Super Special Friends Mum Caroline Price beat her personal best in June by running the Derby Half Marathon ... amazing! Not only that but she raised a wonderful £123.75 for Special Friends 🧡
Morrison Design We were presented with an ENORMOUS cheque for £1,027.10 by Nik Clarke from Morrison Design who held a charity 5-a- side football event and raffle in aid of Special Friends!	Takeaway Tuesdays 🧡 Thanks to everyone who supported Special Friends on Charity Tuesdays in February by getting takeaway for tea from Seafish Restaurant Ripley. A fantastic total of £313.21 was raised! A massive thank you to Seafish for this generous donation, it means a lot 🧡	Love Belper Thank you for your continued support. We appreciate you promoting and spreading the word about Special Friends.
Sponsored Cycle Thank you so much to Chris Wilkinson for raising a fantastic £600. Chris cycled an incredible 176 miles in 2 days from Edinburgh to Newcastle in some very challenging conditions - AMAZING!	Family Funday A huge thank you to Patrick Bateman and Debbie Brentnall for making our Family Funday possible.	Belle La Vie A huge thank you to the team and all the customers at Belle La Vie for the wonderful donation of £250 from their Unicorn Raffle!
Christmas Jumpers Independent shops of Love Belper wore their Christmas Jumpers in aid of Special Friends last month and have raised a fantastic £128.39!

Special mentions:

Lisa Anderton, Mandy Hodgkinson and Lawrence Jackson – for helping us get things started
Jackie Moon – for our beautiful logo
Belper Children’s Centre & Neuro Hub, Ripley (Derbyshire Autism Services), Tyler's Belper (Freemasons) – for giving us a ‘home’ for free
Patrick Bateman and Debbie Brentnall – for their ongoing support

Freemasons

Belper - local shops

Thank you to Holland & Barrett and other local shops in Belper for your continued support to raise funds by displaying our charity boxes in their shops.

St Marks Church

Thank you so much to St Marks Church for continuing to choose to support Special Friends. Your latest donation of £686.30 will really make a difference to our amazing families.

Belper & Duffield Rotary Club

Thank you to the Duffield and Belper Rotary Club for their latest donation of £300. We really appreciate your support over the years.🧡

Our very own Caroline (aka Super Woman) ran not one, not two but THREE races including the Manchester Marathon all in aid of Special Friends. She says: ‘…because without Special Friends, Mums just like me would still be alone”. You are our hero Caroline! 🧡

Thank you to ‘Be Beautiful with Hayley and Evie’ for hosting a Body Shop party for our families & donating £30 to Special Friends 🧡

Thomas Ryde & Son

These stars have been raising money again for Special Friends at Duffield Carnival. Thank you Thomas Ryde & Son Independent Family Funeral Directors, your support is very much appreciated!😊

Just Construction

Milford Primary

Milford Primary School....thank you to the children and staff of Milford School for your brilliant donation of £26.86 raised on Christmas Jumper Day. You are all stars!

Morrisons

Thank you so much to Morrisons Belper for donating loads of goodies for our Coffee Mornings... A sit down for a cuppa and a bickie with supportive friends is a real treat when you are an SEN parent!

A huge thank you to Nicola Edwards for hosting a Body Shop Party with Julie Neubert in aid of Special Friends. They raised a wonderful £70.32! 😊

Arthur's Railway

Arthur’s Here And There Railway...there are lots of train lovers big and small in Special Friends, so we were super lucky to have the fantastic Arthur’s Here And There Railway bring us free train rides all day and evening at our Lea Green Family Funday in May this year. Choo choo!

Peak Mortgages

A huge well done and thank you to Donna and everyone who has helped raise funds for Special Friends at Dot-teas Emporium in Belper with their Games Sundays. The total so far is a fabulous £145!!! Check out their page to see what they have been up to and get involved! 💛💛💛

Christmas Raffle

Kelly The Poet

Such a beautiful gift donated by Kelly The Poet. 20 poem packs all busting with love and inspiration to help our families through their journeys! Thank you! 💛

Nom Nom Bakes

A huge thank you to Erica at Nom Nom Bakes for kindly donating 200 cupcakes for our 5 year celebrations! They were delicious 😋🧡

Bluebells Farm Spondon

Thank you to Bluebells Farm Spondon who donated the proceeds of their November ice cream Flavour of the Month to Special Friends! The flavour was 'Prosecco and Strawberry' and raised a total of £50! 💛

Cheeky Bambini

A huge thank you to Cheeky Bambini in Belper who decided to make a donation of £32.22 to Special Friends in lieu of holding a Black Friday Sale 😀.

Firefly Photography

We are absolutely over the moon to be chosen as the Firefly Photography, Derby charity of the year! Every penny from their Family Portrait Experiences sold will be donated to Special Friends, so spread the word! 🧡

Derby Half Marathon

Super Special Friends Mum Caroline Price beat her personal best in June by running the Derby Half Marathon ... amazing! Not only that but she raised a wonderful £123.75 for Special Friends 🧡

Morrison Design

We were presented with an ENORMOUS cheque for £1,027.10 by Nik Clarke​ from Morrison Design who held a charity 5-a- side football event and raffle in aid of Special Friends!

Takeaway Tuesdays

🧡 Thanks to everyone who supported Special Friends on Charity Tuesdays in February by getting takeaway for tea from Seafish Restaurant Ripley. A fantastic total of £313.21 was raised! A massive thank you to Seafish for this generous donation, it means a lot 🧡

Love Belper

Thank you for your continued support. We appreciate you promoting and spreading the word about Special Friends.

Sponsored Cycle

Thank you so much to Chris Wilkinson for raising a fantastic £600. Chris cycled an incredible 176 miles in 2 days from Edinburgh to Newcastle in some very challenging conditions - AMAZING!

Family Funday

A huge thank you to Patrick Bateman and Debbie Brentnall for making our Family Funday possible.

Belle La Vie

A huge thank you to the team and all the customers at Belle La Vie for the wonderful donation of £250 from their Unicorn Raffle!

Christmas Jumpers

Independent shops of Love Belper wore their Christmas Jumpers in aid of Special Friends last month and have raised a fantastic £128.39! ​

We were presented with an ENORMOUS cheque for £1,027.10 by Nik Clarke from Morrison Design who held a charity 5-a- side football event and raffle in aid of Special Friends!

Independent shops of Love Belper wore their Christmas Jumpers in aid of Special Friends last month and have raised a fantastic £128.39!