Work Swaps– A Success!

Burwell Community Print Centre Newsletter September 2012

In the months of May, June and July work swaps took place between the Print Centre and other Social Enterprises in Cambridgeshire. The reason for these work swaps was to get an idea of what it’s like to work in other organisations. Usman, Lucy, Martin, Steven and Chris spent a day at Snakehall Farm in Reach plus either Red2Green or Darwin Nursery. Everybody got on great and learnt some new skills such as potting-up, weighing vegetables or painting flower pots.

Usman said about the experience, “It was nice to meet new people and chat with them.” “I worked in Darwin Nursery Farm Shop doing stock rotation and checking the dates” said Martin.

Our Printers showed the work “swappers” around the Print Centre, demonstrated what the various machines do and tasks that Printers carry out.

Print Centre staff – Sue, Jane, Chris and Vikki were also involved and got as much from this experience as everybody else. Our visitors tried out machines for themselves and printed mugs and bags whilst they were here.

Also we talked about things that we all do, such as being friendly to our customers and making sure that we all provide quality products and services, whether it’s in a greenhouse, farm shop or Print Centre.

Some people enjoyed the experience so much that they are thinking about moving on to work at one of the social firms they visited.

Lucy was very enthusiastic about the experience, “I drove the tractor at Snakehall Farm. It was great, I’ve never done it before, I got a certificate. I like seeing new places. At Red2Green I worked in the shop. I learnt how to stack the jars and vegetables.”

While we were ‘working away’ the Print Centre welcomed visitors from these same organisations and they learnt about us.

Thank you to Cambridgeshire County Council for funding this project and we all hope that we have more opportunities for work swaps.

Work Swaps

Saturday 23rd June was Burwell Carnival. We entered a float and had a stall. The theme for the Carnival was the Olympics 2012. We came up with the idea of creating a London bus to take characters to the Olympics.

Sarah transformed the trailer into a fabulous double decker bus. Printers and volunteers all helped with the painting. Sarah said “It was really windy when we fixed the cardboard to the trailer, the paint was still wet so I was covered in red paint!” Several Printers dressed as different personalities to “ride” on the bus. Steven and Lucy were the Pearly King and Queen. Melissa carried an image of the London Eye, Ashley was Big Ben and Mark G was the bus conductor. The finished float looked fantastic and for the second year running we won the cup for the “Best Adult Float”.

A special thanks to Geoff, Helen and John McMenamin-Smith and the family and Alexis who came to help us from Foresters. Thank you to Tony and Mark for driving the tractor and trailer and the Rawlinson family for letting us use it. Vikki, Jane, Baerbel and Printers who helped at our stall - we sold sweets and balloons. Vikki said “Our stall was very popular with the children, they kept us busy all afternoon.” We also made use of this stall to launch our latest fundraiser– a balloon race! Jane came up with the idea and the carnival seemed the ideal opportunity to start selling the tickets for the race on Burwell Olympic Day.

Our Carnival Double Decker

Burwell Celebrates The Olympics To mark the occasion of the London 2012 Olympics Burwell had its own Olympic Day in July. The day was made up of many events, the main one being Burwell’s own Olympic Torch Relay. Earlier this year, Burwell residents were asked to nominate people to be torch bearers. Three of our Printers, Tracy Stone, John Caswell and Sam Baldwin were all nominated and chosen. Tracy, John and Sam did a fantastic job in the relay and passed the torch to one another on the route around the school and the Print Centre.

Tina Fuller passed the torch to Tracy. Afterwards Tracy said “I wore a sash and carried the Burwell Olympic Torch. I felt brave it made me feel very happy.” Also on the day we joined forces with Burwell Early Learners to host a Mini Olympics outside the Print Centre. We organised traditional races including egg and spoon, sack and relay races. Local families took part and had a great time despite the drizzly weather. All those who entered were awarded a special

Burwell Olympics certificate printed by us. After all this exercise we went indoors to do some craft activities including making our own Olympic torches.

In between rain showers everyone gathered on the Sports Centre field. We counted down from 10 to zero then we let the balloons go. It was quite an amazing sight to see, the bright balloons against the dramatic sky, we watched till they were out of sight.

The balloon which travelled the furthest was found at Stansted Airport! Thank you to all those who bought a balloon. From this and our stall at the carnival we raised about £300.

Up, Up and Away! The Olympics Day also saw the release of our Balloon Race. As previously mentioned, we sold tickets at the carnival, local shops and at the Print Centre to help raise some funds. We filled the red ,white and blue balloons with helium gas and kept all 180+ balloons in duvet cases ready for the release.

Work Experience Students Galore!

Jasmine came for 2 weeks in July as her Year 10 work experience from Bottisham Village College. Jasmine was shown how to use the machines in the Print room and set up jobs on the Black Xerox.

Since the start of the summer we have had many students from various schools and colleges to do work experience with us.

Courtney came from Newmarket College and really

enjoyed her work experience with us. Courtney said “I’ve

loved my two weeks at Burwell Print, it’s been a great

experience.”

Iona has been working in the Design Room. “I finished my A Levels this summer and I’m starting an Art Foundation Course in September with a view to going on to do an Illustration Degree. Working at the Print Centre is giving me experience in the relevant skills and technology for what I’d like to do in the future.”

Kelly has been working with us one day a week over the summer. “I wanted hands-on experience working in a creative environment to develop my skills for when I start my Art and Design Foundation Diploma in September. Working at Burwell Print has given me more skills in a happy atmosphere with opportunities to experience new and exciting projects.”

Josh has been our regular work experience student for more than a year now. Josh is at school but enjoys coming to the Print Centre on a Wednesday. Josh said “Burwell Print is great and I’ve learnt a lot about print work.”

Come and see us

We’re having our Open Day on Wednesday

12th September. We will be having a BBQ from 12.30 to 1.30. Printers will be presented with their Certificates of Achievement in the afternoon. Also we’ll be demonstrating some of our machines and you’ll have the opportunity to make a notebook of your own! You will then have a chance to chat to lots of people who help make the Print Centre the success that it is! Please RSVP by Monday 10th September Phone 01638 613102 or email sue.anderson@burwellprint.co.uk

Print Stuff...

Something new One of our regular customers asked us to print the leavers’ books for the Class of 2012 from Bottisham Village College. There were 180 of them. The fantastic cover design looked amazing on a uni-bind cover and inside it contained lots of memories and great colour pictures

of their school years. Our customer was so pleased with the result. Next year we hope to produce year books for other schools.

We’re going to the Zoo

We’ve been discussing a day trip for some time now. We eventually narrowed the options down to two choices. We voted on whether to go to the zoo or seaside and the zoo was the most popular. So on Friday 5th October the Print Centre will close for the day and Printers, volunteers and staff will be going to Shepreth Wildife park. Everyone is looking forward to going. Melissa said “There are meerkats at Shepreth, I’m looking forward to seeing them.” We’ll let you know how we get on next time.

Summer of 2012

Designed and Printed by Burwell Community Print The Causeway Burwell Cambridge CB25 0DU

Tel: 01638 613102 Fax: 01638 613107 Open 9.00 to 4.30 Monday to Friday

BARBEQUE DIAMOND JUBILEE MEDALS RIVER PAGAENT

CARNIVAL FIREWORKS OLYMPICS STREET PARTY

CONCERT LONDON OPEN DAY TORCH RELAY

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