Autistic children to benefit from dairy company’s donation

The Jigsaw Trust was set up in 1999 by parents of children with autism and in September of that same year, the Jigsaw CABAS® School was born.

The independent school based on Dunsfold Park in Surrey is one of only a few of its kind throughout the UK.

It has provision for 60 pupils between the ages of 4 -19 and caters for children with varying degrees of the Autism Spectrum Disorder with one-on-one teaching and individualized curriculum.

In addition, Jigsaw also runs an adult services provision, Jigsaw+, at their Centre for Lifelong Learning, catering for individuals over the age of 18 with autism.

Jigsaw’s Patron, Kim Robson (96.4 Eagle Radio Presenter and Programme Manager) put Dairy Crest and Jigsaw in touch when she was arranging a ‘Lovin’ Your Work’ visit for her show.

Dairy Crest’s Community Support Team chaired by Group Financial Controller, Michael Brydges, arranged to have £500 allocated from the Aldershot community support fund with that sum matched by a donation from the Dairy Crest lottery fund, taking the total to £1000.

Michael explained: “We have a committed Community Team here at Dairy Crest in Aldershot and company-wide we have a strong culture of charitable support.

“ So, we were delighted to have been connected to Jigsaw Trust and to have been able to help their great work with this sum of money.

“ We very much look forward to visiting their School in due course to see how the donation has been used and to see the difference that it has made to pupils’ lives.”

As a bonus on the day, Dairy Crest arranged to have one of their Milk & More floats available and everyone was very excited to be able to pose for photos of the cheque presentation gathered around and on the Milk Float!

Steven Morgan, Fundraising Officer at Jigsaw also said: “We’d like to thank our Patron, Kim Robson who put Dairy Crest and ourselves in touch and also pass on our huge appreciation to everyone at Dairy Crest who helped source this terrific sum for us.

“It was a pleasure to visit and to have the opportunity of describing in more detail what Jigsaw does and we look forward to welcoming them back at Jigsaw and to showing them how their donation has benefitted our pupils.”

Pictured are Michael Brydges, Dairy Crest’s Group Financial Controller and Steven Morgan, Jigsaw’s Fundraising & Development Officer (holding cheque & Jigsaw piece) plus Kim Robson, Presenter 96.4 Eagle Radio/Jigsaw Patron behind Steven.

Report and picture contributed by The Jigsaw Trust.