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A Catch Up With The Islanders

The Penn Estate are proud to work with The Islanders Youth & Community Centre, a charitable organisation working to provide support to the youth community on the Isle of Portland.

Following last years success and great relationship, The Islanders are our chosen charity for the 2nd year running. We have set up a variety of support channels, including Loyalty Card Donation, meaning with every FREE coffee that is collected using your Hayloft Loyalty Card, The Penn Estate donates £2 to the Islanders Youth & Community Centre. You can read more about this here – https://penbak.website-in-development.co.uk/hayloft-loyalty-card/

We were thrilled to sit down with Jemma and Sue, two incredibly dedicated volunteers who play a crucial role in the operations of the Islanders’. We delved into the recent developments, and gained an understanding of what has been made possible since our collaboration.

It sounds like you have had a lot of exciting things happening lately, give us an overview of what’s happening at the wonderful Islanders centre?

We’ve made lots of exciting progress! This year commemorates the 50th year of the Islanders Club and we are determined to raise the profile and raise money to ensure The Islanders can benefit the community for the next 50 years. We now have a range of groups for all ages which are proving popular and we’ve been able to make a great start on the important renovation works – repaired roof, new toilets, new play equipment, playground markings and more.  

We were so glad to see that the Islanders Hand-grown Fayre was a great success, how did it all go?

It was a fantastic day at our third craft event at The Hayloft. Over 20 sellers offered hand-crafted items, paintings, and plants, and lots of local people came to support local businesses. Over £400 was raised to go towards our sports hall ceiling repairs, for which we are SO grateful for. The highlight of the day was announcing the Islanders Entrepreneur of the Year, awarded to Bella for her business selling handmade earrings. Thanks to your team’s kindness, Bella’s earring will be sold at The Hayloft for 3 months—an incredible opportunity! This is exactly what our volunteers love to do—support and inspire the next generation.

Our lovely customers at The Hayloft contribute towards your developments with our Hayloft Loyalty Card, can you give us a bit more information on what this has helped The Islanders achieve?

People can do good for our small charity by drinking coffee – win win! The donations enabled us to invest in community support initiatives such as advertising in the Free Portland News and printing materials to promote our services. We found that people struggled to locate our community centre, so we used last year’s donations from the Hayloft Loyalty Scheme to install road signs. We’re now easily found on the map! We also set up a competition to design our new logo, which a local child won – he’s now part of the Islanders history.

As you know, we have Romeo & Juliet outdoor theatre coming up, all of the proceeds will be going to The wonderful work for you. Are you looking forward to it?

We can’t wait! Last year’s show was fantastic despite the rain. It’s a beautiful setting and a lovely thing to do during the summer. The actors performed in the elements, ignoring the heavy rain. Let’s hope the weather is kinder this year for Romeo and Juliet, and people can enjoy a drink while watching the show in a dry chair.

Finally, let us know what you have coming up?

We are really excited to hold a big summer event for the community – the Islanders Summer Extravaganza on Saturday 13th July. This marks the 50th anniversary and as well as supporting locals, it will showcase our facilities to people on Portland who might not have visited the club before. It’s completely free for sellers and the public and we have some great things lined up – live music, food stalls, activities, and lots of fun for all ages. It should be fun! Find our event page on Facebook to see the latest news. 

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