It’s been a stormy month but we are still standing (though a couple of our trees aren’t). We had a group that couldn’t get home, our first school bookings of the year and a member of our team getting out and about a lot more than usual.

So, grab a wind-break, baton down the hatches and sit yourself down by the fire for a read of February’s Min y Don News.

Not getting this into your email inbox? You're missing out on what 341 other people are getting for free each month! Sign Up Now

It’s been a much more difficult time for many areas in GB and here it wasn’t great, but it could have been a lot worse when Storms Ciara and Dennis blew into town.

A couple of trees came down but didn’t present any safety issues; just inconvenient and expensive to put right. We lost a piece of the roof (not as dramatic as it sounds) and the place took a bit of a battering, but we are thankful that we survived the February weather and are now praying for a calmer spring when normality can be restored. Thank you to all who enquired to see if we were ok – I’m glad to report that we are.

Groups

Although we do have a booking in January, it’s February that sees the start of the steady stream of school and youth group bookings that occupy us during term time. We’ve been blessed to welcome a school from Ellesmere Port (here for two weeks), youth groups from Leominster, Salford and Cheadle and another school from Holmes Chapel.

It was the youth group from Leominster who ended up not being able to leave. Flooding in their area meant that we got to look after them for an extra night. I can’t recall that ever happening here before. They were fine to travel the next day – the only disappointment for the youngsters was that they didn’t miss any school, as the Monday was the start of the half-term holidays.

Youthwork

Local youthwork has been going along busily since the start of the year but February was a significant month for those leading the group to Mexico in April.

As you’ll know from previous editions, the group need £25,000 to cover costs in getting to and being accommodated in Tijuana and a major contribution came in the form of sponsorship for a day of climbing on the Min y Don tower.


The maths brains in our group calculated that to climb the equivalent height of the highest mountain in Mexico, you’d need to climb the Min y Don tower a total of 490 times (cumulatively - not each person!)

After a truly remarkable day the whole group managed a massive 606 climbs between them and raised a huge amount that has now boosted the fund almost to the required figure.

We are sure that the whole amount will come in once all the sponsorship has been paid and would like to take this opportunity to thank most sincerely all who have contributed, encouraged and supported this amazing effort.

Staff Team

The half-term week in February is usually ear-marked for Staff training and this month our intrepid team have been out climbing, paddling rivers (which are quite high at the moment!) & cycling. Good progress has been made towards various NGB qualifications for our Trainees who will be taking a number of assessment courses soon.


You may have spotted on a various social media accounts that one of our Team, who rarely gets to venture outside, has been highly adventurous so far this year, trying out all sorts of new activities.

Yes, Henry – one of our servant-hearted cleaning team has taken on a whole new lease of life. You can follow his adventures throughout this year and maybe add a few examples of your own should you also happen to own a adventurous vacuum cleaner. Maybe you have some suggestions of which activities he could try next?

2020 News

Get yourselves ready for some good old-fashioned snail-mail arriving through your door soon as our 2020 booklet is almost ready for distribution.

In this booklet you will be able to read about: a lookback on 2019, vision for this year, read up on specific points into which we would value your prayers and learn of many other aspects of life here at your favourite adventure Centre.


We want to make sure that we have you on our mailing list but you know what it’s like these days – you need to give us permission.

We’ve made this super-easy for you, as you can simply click here and then we know for sure that you are happy to be contacted.

Min y Don Ambassadors

Some of you are already Min y Don Ambassadors and we thank you for being willing to receive not just one, but a few booklets, and at times, some advertising that you have offered to distribute for us on behalf of Min y Don.

If you have a chance to share a little about why you think Min y Don might be a good venue for a family, or for a school or youth group that you know as well as give out the literature then that too would be an enormous help.

You can sign up to be an ‘Ambassador’ by using the same link as above. We’d love it if you’d get on board and help promote Min y Don!

So that’s it for another month. We are looking forward to March which we hope will be calmer weather-wise and a little warmer too.

We value your prayers and all the support you give to us in so many ways.

And finally:

In other news:

• Our Administrator Andrew, upon receiving a request from a group for ‘Haggis’, didn’t realise this was an enquiry about a particular evening game and naturally assumed it was a dietary requirement. There was nearly a Scottish themed evening meal for our group that week.
• Clara gets bored easily during wash-up and so we now have to give her challenging tasks to perform to help keep her focused.
• Our shiny new tarmac forecourt proved not to be the best surface on which to position suitcases on wheels. We discovered that once in place they all migrate rapidly downhill. Fortunately they tend to roll towards to the front doors, so our guests thought we had planned this to make it easier to get the cases inside.

Thank you for reading!