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The MNC 2011 – 2021

24/11/21

We are 10!

The Monday Night Club is 10 years old! From small beginnings in 2011, we are now celebrating all that has happened in our club in the last 10 years – achievements, recognition and awards.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

2011 – Laura, aged 24, becomes a DJ and invites her friends to a disco every Monday night at Barbourne Ex-Services Club. The Monday Night Club begins.

2012- We hold a BIG Spring Party, with the help of Mencap, and invite the Mayor of Worcester. Laura is a Mencap Young Ambassador and is supported by them to start a new project to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities.

2013 – We make a film about our talent show, The Monday Night Club Has Got Talent, and hold a premiere at the Swan Theatre for the club members, families, friends and VIPs.

2014 – We go on the road with our film and take it to the Shaw Theatre in London. We invite VIPs, including the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Maria Miller, and Sarah Gordy MBE. In the summer we hold our own version of the World Cup on Pitchcroft.

2015 – We hold an Alice in Wonderland party. We film three music videos on the streets of Worcester for our Project funded by The National Lottery, Beat Street, and then premiere the films in the Swan Theatre, ‘Beat Street on Stage and Screen’. We become a Registered Charity with the Charity Commission, England and Wales.

2016 – Laura receives a Points of Light Award from Prime Minister David Cameron for founding and running The Monday Night Club, presented to her by Robin Walker MP. We take a day trip to Barry Island, hold our own awards ceremony, The Teddy Awards, and take part in MNC Strictly Come Dancing.

2017 – We visit Twycross Zoo and Barry Island, The MNC Has Got Talent is more spectacular than last year and our football team wins the Worcester City Sports Awards for Team of the Year, presented to Laura by Olympian, Steve Cram and BBC’s Dan Pallett.

And we set out to find, recognise and reward people with learning disabilities who have amazing achievements in our project RespectAbility, funded by The National Lottery.

2018 – Laura is invited to the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle. The Monday Night Club receives the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service and Laura and Helen attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. We begin to unveil our RespectAbility plaques in public buildings around Worcestershire.

2019 – We move to a new home at Worcester Arts Workshop. We take everyone to see the pantomime and start our project ‘Step Up’ to train our young volunteers to help organise the club and all our activities every Monday. This is funded by #iwill. Four volunteers pass their First Aid training.

2020 – Shortly after our annual Teddy Awards, we have to stop meeting at WAW every Monday because of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. However, we are determined to keep everyone connected and Laura goes live on Facebook and Instagram every evening to chat, share information, suggest activities to do at home, she organises competitions, demonstrates cooking and crafting projects, and keeps everyone from feeling lonely. When lockdown ends we arrange small group activities, as permitted, in our project Circles of Support, funded by The National Lottery to help charities through the pandemic. The football club resumes training in the summer, with new socially-distanced and sanitising arrangements.

2021 – Circles of Support continues with new activities added. ‘Happy Confident Me’ helps us identify members who are struggling with a life so different from before, and give them ways to cope. In May we are able to resume Monday nights at our new home, Royal Porcelain Works. In August we take a day-trip to Drayton Manor Park and in October we put on The Monday Night Club Has Got Talent once again.

Now we are looking forward to the next 10 years!