User:ROSCC/Rays of Sunshine

Contents [hide] 1 Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity (Reg No: 1102529) 2 History 3 Wishes 4 Patrons and Partnership 5 Events and Raising Money 6 Pound A Poem 7 Kings College Hospital 8 References 9 External Links

[edit] Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity (Reg No: 1102529) Rays of Sunshine Children's Charity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was formed in 2003 to help children who are living with serious or life-threatening illnesses between the ages of 3-18, across the United Kingdom.

Between now and starting this wonderful charity, hundreds of amazing wishes have been granted for hundreds of wonderful children. [edit] History Rays of Sunshine was set up by six friends in the early summer of 2003. They realised that they were all blessed to have happy healthy children and wanted to give something back to society, due to their relative success in their own fields of business. Instead of simply writing a check or two they researched the way children's charities worked, what they offered and how economical they were. Rays of Sunshine was born!

Rays of Sunshine has worked closely with members of the fashion, sports and entertainment industry to grant wishes.

In 2004 Rays of Sunshine granted its first wish to Jai Vagehla who was living with a relapsed brain tumor. He loved art and in May of that year Rays of Sunshine arranged for him to visit the studios of Art Attack and meet the presenter of the show,]] Neil Buchanan Close contact was kept with Jai and when his condition took a turn for the worse he also recieved a second with form the charity to to visit the set of Ready Steady Cook and meet his hero Ainsley Harriot.

In June 2004 Donovan Bradley was the first to have a holiday wish granted. Donavan is living with a rare skin condition called Hypersensitivity Vasculitis. Donavans greatest wish was to swim with dolphins. Rays if Sunshine flew Donavan, mum, dad and little sister Maddie to stay at the Disney Cove resort and swim with dolphins.

In 2008 Rays of Sunshine reached an amazing milestone by granting its 1000th wish. This milestone was achieved when the charity granted 16 year old George who is living with relapsed Osteosarcoma his wish of being taken for a ride in a fast car, especially a Lamborghini. On 9 October, George was picked up by a Limousine and was taken to the silverstone Circuit. When he got there ge was taken round the circuit in his favorite car, a Lambourghini Murcielago LP640 hitting 170mph!

[edit] Wishes A child can wish for anything but what we do ask is that the wish is genuinely the child's. Our wishes have included being a train driver, a weather girl and a princess for the day, meeting pop stars such as Leona Lewis and Jensen Button, being a football mascot, appearing in a stage production, and going on holiday

[edit] Patrons and Partnership Rays of Sunshine have both coporate and non coporate patrons. Non corporate partons are honoured with the names of Angel, Godparent, Guardian or Friend.[1]

Over the last three years they have received support from a number of corporates including British Airways and Next. In 2008 BrightHouse became the charity's largest corporate sponsor.

Local stores have been very active raising money for Rays of Sunshine. In addition to in-store collecting, fundraising initiatives have included 'the raffle of UEFA Champions League', 'The Customer Wii Challenge', 'the Cake and Bake sale', the Scotland Store Managers sponsored climb of Ben Lomond and a regional staff 6-a-side football tournament.

Patrons of Rays of Sunshine include Gordon Ramsay, Leona Lewis and JB from boyband JLS[2]

[edit] Events and Raising Money Following the success of 2008, on Sunday 6 September Tri for Life [3]returned to the shores of Dorney Lake, Eton for another chance for you to get fit and have fun whilst raising money for fantastic causes.

This year there was a choice of two distances: 400m swim, 20km bike, 5km run 800m swim, 30km bike, 7.5km run

There was also a scootathlon for children which was: 400m scoot, 400m bike, 250m run.

The event was a fantastic day for all the family to raise money for the events nine chosen charities, Inlcuding Rays of Sunshine.

Rays of Sunshine held their annual party on Tuesday 15 September 2009. The guests were treated to performances by Britain's Got Talent Dance act Diversity and singer Shaheen, and a suprise performance by Amy Winehouse. The party raised £500,000 which will be spent on granting wishes for children with serious and life limiting illnesses.

[edit] Pound A Poem Rays of Sunshine was chosen as the partner charity for Pound a Poem 2008 [4] Pound a Poem is focused around three key areas: Literacy, Healthy Eating and Good Citizenship (children helping children). Primary aged children were asked to write at least one poem about fruit and vegetables on the theme of Healthy Eating and pay £1 to enter their poem into the competition. All of the money raised was given to Rays of Sunshine. The final 16 poems were judged by the guest panel: Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Annabel Karmel MBE, Dom Wood, James Campbell, Dan Freedman and Tracy Ann Oberman. All winning entries were published in the Pound a Poem Book. The overall winner won a holiday for four to Barbados.

[edit] Kings College Hospital On 16 March 2009 King's College Hospital, London[5] - part of King's Health Partners - was delighted to announce the opening of a new ward for children with liver disease. This marked the end of a unique chain of events that began with an innovative fundraising idea thought up in 2004.The ward – part of the Variety Children’s Hospital at King’s - was funded by the families of patients, the hospital and a major grant of £500,000 from Rays of Sunshine Children’s Charity, all of whom raised funds for the King’s Starfish The £1.8 million Rays of Sunshine Ward is home to children with liver disease, many of whom will go on to have liver transplants. King’s now boasts the busiest paediatric liver centre in Europe, treating more than 3000 children every year. The King’s Starfish Appeal was set up five years ago to raise £1 million towards the refurbishment of the paediatric liver centre at King’s. As well as asking patients and relatives to donate, the Starfish Appeal encouraged people to get out in their communities and actively fundraise.

[edit] References ^ https://www.raysofsunshine.org.uk/help-us/godparent-guardian-friend.php ^ http://jls-daily.org/2009/10/jls-member-visits-norrthwick-park-hospital-childrens-ward ^ http://www.triforlife.com/ ^ *http://www.poundapoem.co.uk ^ http://www.kch.nhs.uk/news/archive/2009/new-childrens-ward-at-kings-opens-thanks-to-rays-of-sunshine-childrens-charity-and-fundraising-effor/ [edit] External Links About Rays of Sunshine Just Giving Page Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:ROSCC"