Our exciting new development for additional facilities has started! The developers have begun work on the new training building and the foundations for the maintenance block.

At this stage we have raised enough money to construct the training building but not to fully equip it or to construct the maintenance block. To help raise the rest of the money we have launched a Development Appeal & there will be fundraising events later this year.

Various local Masonic Lodges have donated £9730 towards our new Training Block. They have been so supportive and enabled us to proceed with the building work. The photograph below shows representative from the Masonic Province of Middlesex with Karen Harrison (Trustee) and Amanda Medler (Chairman of Willow Tree Management).

If you would like to make a donation click here: Donation Form. For further information, view our Fundraising page.

There will also be a new activity at Willow Tree next year – watch this space for more information!

3rd March 2012
FUN RACE NIGHT with wooden horses and raffle. Ploughman’s supper to be served on the tables.

Venue: St Mary’s Church Hall, The Fairway, South Ruislip. 7pm-10pm. Tickets cost just £5 for adults and £3 for children under 16.

Our friends at Barclays Bank will match all funds raised.

For more information, download the Race Night flyer (pdf).

More details to follow on the next events but please mark the dates in your diary!

10th May 2012
QUIZ NIGHT at Willow Tree

26TH September 2012
BINGO NIGHT at Willow Tree

It’s been a busy few months at the Willow Tree Centre with a number of work days and events taking place so grab yourself a cup of tea and we’ll bring you up to date with everything that has been going on.

Early in October we held a Puzzle Mania day for Brownies and Guides at Willow Tree. Teams of up to 6 could enter, and they tried an assortment of puzzles, all supplied by the Happy Puzzle Company.

The first challenge they were are all set was: How many penguins can you balance on an iceberg? The girls went on to do a mixture of problem solving and jigsaw type puzzles throughout the afternoon. Each Brownie and Guide was awarded a participation certificate and event badge for coming.

The Quiz Night we held 13th October was great fun and possibly the best ever!

Eight teams took part and we were delighted to have a team from Burnham Beeches.

£276 was raised which was matched funded by Barclays. This will be spent on a new toaster and replacement utensils in the kitchen.

The Finance Department from Price Waterhouse Cooper in Uxbridge came last year and were delighted to come again to Willow Tree Centre to carry out a  ‘Community Service Day’

They carried out repairs to the Main Wood Shelter, pruned the shrubs and trees around the toilet block, cleaned and washed the floors to the Barn Shelters as well as attention to the ‘Willow Dome’ .

30 members of staff came for the day and completed an impressive 210 hours of voluntary work.

Members of Staff from the Finance and Community Team Coca Cola (Enterprises) from Uxbridge came again this year and had lots of fun carrying out ‘Community Service ’. This was a great team building exercise for them as well as tremendous and valuable help to Willow Tree and residents of two local retirement homes.

17 members of Staff re-felted the main wood store, pruned the shrubs and weeded around the residential house and washed and cleaned the outdoor toilet block.

They held a coffee morning with homemade cakes and activities for residents at a home in Harefield and in the afternoon entertained groups from Wallace House In Ruislip. Everyone had a great time!

Finally, work on the new development of the Willow Tree Centre started at the beginning of November. This development work includes two brand new buildings at the site. We’ll come back to you with more news on this exciting project soon!

Maintaining the facilities at the Willow Tree Centre is a year round job and we couldn’t do it without the help of our teams of volunteers

30 Members of staff from HR at Canon Europe UK based at Stockley Park carried out an enormous amount of work at Willow Tree Centre in July 2011

This was the very first time that Canon had carried out this type of service as a ‘Community Day’ and thoroughly enjoyed the experience .

They could not have come at a better time for Willow Tree Centre as they thoroughly weeded and prepared the ground for planting in the Circular Feature in the Tranquil Garden They weeded the reed bed and spread two large lorry loads of comfort bark in the various Challenge and Assault Courses which enabled the young people to use all these exciting structures.

In total they carried out 210 hours which was absolutely brilliant.

Last year, a team from GlaxoSmithKline carried out a Community Working Day at Willow Tree. They obviously had so much fun, they came back again a few weeks ago!

They were the same team from Glaxo as last year, based at Stockley Park. They worked very hard all day spreading the bark on the Assault Course and on the shrub beds, clearing thistles & weeds from the entrance, other general weeding & they cleared the wood from the main wood shelter so that it can be repaired. A big thank you to them.

If you’re part of a local business or organisation and you would like to help out at Willow Tree, please get in contact with us.

Our first ever Easter Egg Hunt in April was an exciting and successful day. We made the most of the lovely sunny weather with over 300 people taking part in the day.

Aside from the Egg Hunt itself, children took part in a range of activities including face painting, making Easter chicks and designing Easter bags.

Here are some pictures of the day. Click on the thumbnails to see full size.

Many thanks to everyone who publicised the day, everyone who came along, and everyone who helped organise and run it – we couldn’t have done it without you and in total we raised £1,700 which is fantastic.