Hollybank Trust receives a royal visit…

Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal recently visited the Trust in September to start the celebrations for our 70th anniversary, and to learn more about the services we provide.

The Princess Royal visited our school, where she met some of the school pupils and spoke to school staff about the personalised curriculums we offer, to meet the individual needs of the children. Here, Princess Anne was  able to see how our school pupil’s use their communication aids, and received some personalised welcome messages from some of the children.

HRH  visited our enrichment service, and our Bradbury centre which provides hydrotherapy and rebound therapy for the children, young people and adults who live and learn at the Trust.

The tour included a visit to ELMS and a demonstration of the new fully accessible kitchen, where Princess Anne was able to see some of the adults who attend the daytime enrichment service making smoothies by using switch adapted kitchen appliances.

We were pleased to have Huddersfield Town Foundation in attendance for this part of the tour, in recognition of their donation, which allowed us to build the ELMs kitchen.

Without their support and the support of our other donors and supporters, it’s really difficult to do lots of the things we’d like to do to continue to enrich the lives of the people we support at Hollybank Trust.

The Princess Royal was also able to visit one of our children’s residential services, and see some of the equipment the children use to support them to live a more fulfilled life. She met with the registered managers of the children’s services who showed her a fully-adapted bedroom and bathroom.

Anna O’Mahony, Chief Executive at Hollybank Trust said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome HRH The Princess Royal to Hollybank to mark the occasion of the charity’s 70th anniversary.  Having a Royal Visit brought great excitement to the Trust with so many of the children, young people and adults we support coming together with our incredible staff, families, Trustees, Governors and supporters.

The Princess was so warm and engaged with everyone she met, remarking on the important work of the charity and the significant achievement of reaching 70 years”.

After her short tour of our Mirfield site, The Princess Royal unveiled a commemorative plaque in front of lots of the children, young people, adults and staff in what was a very memorable and special moment for the Trust.

Other dignitaries including the Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, the High Sheriff, The Mayor and Mayoress of Kirklees, Kim Leadbeater MP for Batley and Spen and local councillors were also present for the unveiling of the commemorative plaque.