Thank You, Tina!

Our warmest thanks to Tina who kindly donated books to our future school library! One of the most costly exercises after premises and staff costs is the supply of resources. We want our students to have access to books, to arts and craft materials, to music and films, to magazines etc. All of this is pretty expensive, and we are ever so grateful for each donated book, pen, DVD, crayon etc.

Thanks, Tina! You have helped us make a difference!

Thank You, Jane!

John and I would like to say thank you to Jane for her generous donation to the Academy. One of many ways you can support us is by giving us your old stuff to sell. We flog everything on eBay, and you can choose whether you want us to have the whole profit or just a percentage of it.

Jane has given us a few boxes full of clothes and things that are now on sale on eBay. You can always see that it is a consignement auction because we use the same turquoise background in all of them, whereas complete donation auctions have red backgrounds. If you would like us to sell your stuff, please email us at paperclips@atkinsacademy.co.uk and we’ll make the arrangements.

Once again, thank you for your support, Jane!

You Can Help Us Make a Difference!

Atkins Academy is working with young black people to raise aspirations, maximise potential and create opportunities for success. At the moment we are raising funds to become an independent school and a provider of GCSE and A-Level equivalent qualifications.

Education is an expensive field of work, but we are doing this Obama-style. Penny by penny we will build a school unlike any other schools. We want to be a vibrant hub in our community. A place where young and old come together and where inclusion is not just an empty term. To do this we need your help.

Check out our Atkins Academy website , look us up on Facebook or Myspace or keep your eyes peeled on this blog. If you like what we are doing, we would appreciate a little donation of time, money or anything we can use in our work with young people or sell on eBay.

Thank you!

Obama Dit It – And So Can We!

First of all – Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you lovers, dreamers and closet romantics out there! Hope you’re all looking after yourselves and making sure to give your love away, be it to a partner, a family member, a good cause or something you believe in. xxx

Exciting things are happening in the Academy, so here’s an update for you all: As of Monday 16 February we have a volunteer fundraiser!! John and I are proud and happy to say welcome aboard to Kate O’Donohue who will be the Project Co-ordinator for fundraising. Obama based his whole presidential election campaign on small contributions from ordinary people who believed in his cause. Education, as you probably know, is a costly exercise, but if Obama could make it to the White House we can raise the funds we need to make a difference in our own corner of the universe! I’m sure we can look forward to info and updates from Kate in the near future. In the mean time, please help us spread the word and forward the link to our brand new fundraising page.

We are equally proud and happy to say welcome aboard to Donna Armitage, who is volunteering her expertise in youth work as a member of our Advisory Board.

At the moment we have two discussions going on in the facebook message board: “Are Black Kids Less Academically Driven than White Kids?” and “Do We Need Special Schools for Black Kids?“. Please, feel free to join in the discussions and to start new ones! We’d love to get your feedback on our projects, on education and youth work, on the worries we face as parents and teachers today etc.

We are currently looking for more volunteers as we need mentors for our young people and project co-ordinators to help get our Community Outreach projects off the ground. We’re setting up a MySpace page where we will be targeting young people and showing what we have on offer for them. There are also plans for a fundraising fête with a talent show and, possibly, a party during the April school holiday.

Last but not least, we’ve started a mailing list for our supporters. Email us on info@atkinsacademy.co.uk if you want to be on the list and we’ll add your name and make sure you never miss out on an update.

Well, that’s it for now. As you can see we have loads of stuff going on, and you’re more than welcome to join in the fun! Every little helps and together we can make a difference!

//John & Evalena

Gimme an Offer I Cannot Refuse…

It’s been a while since I started offering my shiny red paperclip in return for something I cannot resist. So far, I’ve been offered everything from some Blue Tac to an old Nissan Micra but to be honest none of the offers have really appealed to me.

This is a very special paperclip – not only is it red and shiny and brand new; it also signifies a monumental change in my life! For a swap to be possible your offer will have to make it worth my giving up my beloved paperclip and move on in the chain. I think I’d like something useful. Or something funny. Or…

Now, don’t be shy! You know you want to be the one I’ll meet for the swap so hurry up and send me your offers and I’ll make myself busy setting the date for our trade!

June Account Status

Thanks to our generous readers, we’ve already sold no less than seven items on eBay! We’ve decided to let 100% of the money go to the Paperclip Fund (Paypal Fees excluded) and we’re proud and happy to be able to announce that the Account Balance as per 30 June was £29.69!!!

We’re currently planning some activities to get more attention to our cause, and will hopefully be able to let you in on the details soon. One of the more drastic plans involves some physical exercise on my part, so that in itself might be interesting to read about… =)

I’m chuffed to bits at the response we’ve got so far, and I hope you guys will stay with us to see what happens next!

Luvnstuff to y’all xxx

Thank You, Alison!

We’d like to thank Alison for adding £7.70 to the Paperclip Fund by winning the Body Mist on eBay. Hope you’ll get that perfect tan from it that the British summer doesn’t seem to offer!

Thank You, Steve!

We would like to say thanks to Steve for buying the Face Mist and adding £5.70 to the Paperclip Fund. Hope you will be as happy with the product as we are to see our Fund grow!

Thank You, Jennifer!

Many thanks to Jennifer for buying these two Garnier products, thus adding £6.98 to the Paperclip Fund! We hope you will be happy with your purchase!

Thank You, Alice!

Today we say thank you to Alice who bought the Hand Cream and added £3.49 to the Paperclip Fund! Hope your hands will be happy with the product!