DFSG members regularly enjoy days out to attractions such as the Duxford Air Show, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Chester Zoo, Beaulieu National Motor Museum and the occasional theatre trip. We like to organise trips all over the country, but local knowledge is the key and we need your help! Perhaps you have visited somewhere in your area that’s fun and interesting, with good accessibility and facilities for wheelchair users? If so, you can either let the committee know: info@dfsg.org.uk so that we can organise a day out and publicise it to other families, or some families take on the role of organising the trip themselves,
If you choose to organise a trip, here are some tips:
- Please tell us what you would like to plan! Contact us on: info@dfsg.org.uk We can help you to avoid date clashes and we can liaise with the attraction if they offer a charity discount (see below).
- Depending on the attraction or venue, you may want to contact them first to check whether there are any group discounts, or reduced rates for charities/people with disabilities. The bookings manager at one attraction we approached has a nephew with Duchenne and did a good deal for us! They also gave us open tickets that were valid for a month, in case people were unable to come on the day.
- Ask us about a subsidy for the event. Depending on our budget, we will be able to contribute to the cost of the tickets. You can also consider applying to other sponsors – once we asked a supermarket if DFSG could be one of the charities that people vote for with tokens when they finish their shop, and they said yes, which netted us over £300 for a day out!
- We can’t give you people’s contact details, but we will publicise the event and put families in touch with you.
- If families need physical tickets to get into the attraction, it’s possible to post them out beforehand, in case people are delayed. We can pay for the postage. Alternatively, you can hand them to people as they arrive and leave any tickets for late-comers at the ticket office for collection.
- Handing the tickets to people as they arrive has the added bonus of being able to meet and greet families on the day (for example in a half hour window at the beginning). At that point you could give families the option of meeting for a picnic, so they can either do their own thing or connect with other families if they want to.
We are here to help and support you, so you can do as little or as much as you like. We are all hoping that we will be able to meet and have good times together every year, because that’s what DFSG is all about. So, any ideas for trips would be very welcome – please get in touch: info@dfsg.org.uk