Merstham Millennium Trust
The Merstham Millennium Trust supports a wide range of social and charitable causes in the Surrey parish of Merstham and Gatton.
These are some of the types of projects that the Merstham Millennium Trust has funded:
Merstham Primary School
December 2020 - Provided Chromebooks and iPads.
Stripey Stork
December 2020 - Helped fund Christmas Gift Bags.
Merstham Mix Cafè
March 2020 - Delivered meals during the pandemic.
Furzefield School
2021 - Funding for holiday play scheme.
Forest School
Outdoor educational programme for kids.
SparkFish
2021 - Helping build confidence in young people.
Community Fridge
2018 - Supporting local project for food poverty.
Gatton Community Theatre
2018 - Funding for new Japanese Garden & educational learning.
Other Projects
Large or small, the Merstham Millennium Trust has helped fund local projects.
Merstham Primary School
Merstham Primary School suffered devastating flood damage, which heavily impacted their ability to recover the learning gap created by the COVID lockdown. Their ICT Suite was rendered inoperable and the children were in desperate need of portable equipment to use in the classroom and to support online learning at home, where families could not afford a computer. The following testimonial was received following the donation:
“Please accept the sincere thanks of everybody at Merstham Primary School for your extremely generous support. It has been a very difficult year for all school children for so many reasons, and the recent, devastating flood has made life particularly difficult for our disadvantaged pupils. The funding provided by Merstham Millennium Trust will be used to buy Chromebooks and iPads that will support the learning and progress of the disadvantaged children in our school and will make a huge difference to their education and development.”
Vanessa Cooper
Deputy Head, SENCO & DSL
Stripey Stork
The Trust supported a huge operation which handed out 4,800 Christmas Gift Bags to children and their primary Carer. The referral partners included a number of organisations in Merstham, including the YMCA pre-school, WellCare, Raven House Trust and the Red Oak Family Centre. The requests of support had increased greatly as a result of the deprivation caused by the Covid pandemic. The following testimonial was received:
“Thank you so much for coming along to help with Santa Stork before Christmas and for the kind donation from Merstham Millennium Trust. The numbers are just incredible! The estimated value of gifts is £82,000. It really does take a village as the saying goes. Once again, thank you so much for your nominations, it really means a lot to a small charity like ours.”
Donna Pariser,
Community Ambassador, Stripey Stork
You can read more on the project at the Stripey Stalk Blog
Merstham Mix
“MMT has supported the Merstham Mix Cafe from the beginning and have been fundamental to the success of the project. Their recent support during the pandemic was incredibly quick and responsive to the needs of the community and helped us to setup critical local services at a time of acute business uncertainty. The covid grant allowed the cafe to convert into a hot meal delivery service to local vulnerable residents who were at risk and self-isolating.”
“With nearly 13,000 meals delivered since the start of the pandemic, we are hugely grateful for the collaboration and support of MMT – a truly valued partner in supporting the community of Merstham. Thank you so much, you were there when we needed you and this wouldn’t have been possible without your support.”
The Merstham Mix Cafe Directors
Furzefield School
“As a school we would like to thank you for all your generosity and the kind donations Furzefield has received for many years.”
“A large bulk of the donations we receive go towards helping to fund a holiday play scheme which runs every summer. The amount heavily subsidises cost to parents, this works out at just £10 a week. Sadly, in 2020, the scheme could not be run which was a devastating blow to struggling families, many of whom never have a holiday. The money has been earmarked for a play scheme in 2021, as soon as it can happen.”
“With so many funding cuts as a school your generosity is very much needed. Merstham is a fantastic community that is greatly enriched by trusts like yours which make such a difference to people’s lives. Furzefield is proud to be part of such a thriving, supportive community.”
Home School Link Worker
Linda Hopkins
Forest School
Forest School is an international educational movement which is offered by many schools and early years settings. It is an inspirational process that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Forest Schools are long term programmes within a natural space, led by a qualified practitioner.
The Forest School philosophy makes for fantastic outdoor experiences, developing a child’s curiosity in nature, guiding them to take risks safely and giving them the confidence to be intrepid explorers. The Trust donated money to allow 7 Merstham families to attend 6 sessions of the Forest School project which has proved to be an invaluable learning tool for children who might otherwise not experience outdoor play and learning.
”We have certainly seen the impact of the outdoors and social interaction on mental health this year. Forest School offers exciting experiences for families and with your help we can involve families who would not be able to access our regular activities due to transport or cost.’ ”
Louise Miller, Chief Executive
Sparkfish
Sparkfish is a local, collaborative, Christian organisation that aims to inspire and encourage young people in faith, hope and love. We engage with young people in schools across Reigate, Redhill and Merstham, offering support in important areas of the curriculum and school life.
We work across all ages in education, from early years to sixth form. We seek to bridge gaps and build confidence, helping young people to grow emotionally and spiritually.
The Trust has donated funding for a professional youth worker to be at Merstham Park School, 1 day a week from September 2021. They will be tasked with Drawing and Talking Therapy to help young people who are emotionally challenged.
“We have been enjoying working at Merstham Park this term with one youth worker delivering Drawing and Talking on a Wednesday morning, two youth workers mentoring individual young people and our new secondary school youth worker delivering a boys group on Fridays.”
Harriet Pearce
Director of Sparkfish
Community Fridge at The Merstham Hub
The setting up of this project, run by a volunteer, required a large refrigerator and rack shelving, so that surplus food from allotments, as well as local suppliers, could be made available to local people on a help-yourself basis. This supported those in food poverty.
Subsequent funding went towards the cost of subscription to Fareshare, which diverted more than 100kg of perfectly edible food, otherwise destined for landfill waste.
Gatton Community Theatre & Gatton Educational Trust
The Trust supports the conservation and public benefit of Gatton Park, which includes open-air theatre, the restoration of an historic Japanese Garden and opportunities for educational learning and activities based on the great outdoors.
