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What's New
Tuesday 8th August
Hey everyone, here's our Saltire Award Achiever Lewis Bannerman letting you know that we've teamed up with Spree Aberdeen to sell these amazing spree books which has so many fabulous offers. Each book costs £20 & £5 from each book goes to Future Choices. Please contact us directly to get yours.
Wed 2nd Aug
** Celebrate Aberdeen Parade **
Absolutely delighted to learn that Future Choices has been sponsored by KPG, simply humbled.
Tuesday 1st Aug
A Massive thanks to Laws Tyres for donating several vouchers to assist our young Saltire Award Achiever raise more funds. Thank you so much.
Tuesday 1st Aug
A HUGE HUGE thank you to The Balmoral Group for their very generous donation of £500, they recognise our voluntary work within the community and wanted to support Team Future Choices.
Friday 28th July
*** Sensational Announcement ***
Team Future Choices is absolutely thrilled to announce that the very kind team at Apache North East are Sponsoring Future Choices to enjoy a special day trip out in September, in a private hire Coach (Bains Coaches) to visit the Happy Plant Garden Centre in Mintlaw for lunch. Apache have been very generous to us in the past and we are always absolutely sincerely grateful for the continued support we currently receive. (The only thing we can hope for on the day is nice weather, but sadly no one can control that!)
3 Cheers for Apache from everyone at Future
Choices
Tuesday 25th July
Friday 21st July
We all know how challenging it can be to Fundraise in general, so I'm very grateful to Mel for Supporting Lewis Bannerman's first ever fundraising effort, Lewis has 20 Vouchers for £10 each - so his goal is to raise £200, what an achievement, the Evening Express are also looking to do a feature soon on Lewis's voluntary work, all this during his summer holidays. Truly inspiring!!!
Let's help Lewis reach his goal of £200
Thursday 20th July
Another successful achievement for our Saltire Award achiever Lewis Bannerman, who today was recognised by ACVO's Mike Melvin for reaching his 25 hours goal, Lewis is now on course to reach 50 hours soon, which is really great & so inspiring to others.
Tues 11th July
Well that's the summer holidays started and what a shining example of what young people are doing with their time - volunteering to help others. Our Saltire Award achieverLewis Bannerman is now on course to achieve his next stage of volunteering, 25 hours certificate, with more exciting challenges coming soon for our young lad. Lewis's journey is being documented and will be made into a very special video which will no doubt inspire others. Lewis efforts were even given a special thank you when I contacted the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary Angela Constance who's brief covers volunteering & the Saltire Awards to inform her of his progress and she asked that I gave him her congratulations of what he's achieving.#Saltire #Volunteering #Community
https://aberdeenvoice.com/2017/07/young-volunteer-recognised-local-charity/
Monday 19th June
http://old.prideofaberdeenawards.com/nominate/
LOCAL CITIZEN OF THE YEAR
The email address you need is
david@future-choices.org.uk
Wednesday 14th June
*** AMAZING ANNOUNCEMENT ***
We're delighted to announce that our first Bonus Ball Fundraiser has been a success, raising a total of £295, Our lucky winner Muriel Benzies, who's number was number 2, (Lotto Draw from Saturday 10th June 2017) will be enjoying a lovely overnight stay with breakfast at the Marcliffe. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone that took part, you may not have been lucky to win but you are supporting a truly much needed cause.
Tuesday 13th June
We had an extra special session today at the group, where we welcomed storyteller Pauline Cordiner, a song and some stories filled the session. Would highly recommend Pauline to everyone. The gathering was filmed & can be watched below
Tuesday 6th June
Today was a special day at our session, we stopped for a bit to recognise the valuable work carried out by our Volunteer team. It is so true that without the dedication & sheer commitment, we wouldn't be able to run things. Huge thanks to Mike Melvin from ACVO and Volunteer Aberdeen, your support is always appreciated. Huge thanks to Laurence Caie Hosie for taking our photos, very much appreciated. We did request the Lord Provost to attend but the office of the Provost unfortunately failed to reply.
We look forward to celebrating Volunteers Week again next year being 10
years old 
️️
Chairman
Tuesday 30th May
Can you help?
Saturday 27th May
* SALTIRE AWARD *
Our Saltire award achiever, Lewis Bannerman has successfully completed his first 10 hours of voluntary work with Future Choices & was presented with his certificate by Charity Vice Chairman Devon Thompson & ACVO's Mike Melvin. Lewis is now working towards his 25 hours, & we wish him all the very best of luck.
Saturday 27th May
Team Future Choices took to the tills at Asda, Garthdee for a fun day of Bag Packing. Raising a total of £320. A huge thanks to Asda & it's customers and of course all our Volunteers.
Saturday 20th May
Various Volunteers & Management committee took part in a first aid course today to keep upto date with procedures.
Monday 15th May
Shop online, support Future Choices, at no extra cost to you, check out the link to see how it works.
Tuesday 9th May
Team Future Choices launched it's latest Fundraiser, For all the details please check out the section on the right hand side under "Bonus Ball"
Tuesday 9th May
*** Green Token Scheme ***
Delighted to welcome Hollie from Asda Garthdee today, where our Treasurer, Helen Devos accepted a cheque for £200, this was from the public donating there green tokens to Future Choices.
We cannot thank you all enough for supporting us.
Tues 2nd May
Super day today with various activities going on. Making his first volunteering debut at the gathering was our Saltire awards achiever Lewis Bannerman, he's already reached his 10 hours and is now next on course to reach his 25 hours, therefore very very proud to announce that Lewis will be leading Future Choices down union st on the Celebrate Aberdeen Parade in August. Lewis is an absolute shining example of what can be achieved by our young people when given the opportunity & support.
Tuesday 25th April
Thank you Lord Provost, from Future Choices.
Wed 5th April 2017
Treasurer, Helen Devos, Secretary Lesley Anne Bremner & Vice Secretary Moira Henderson took to the Shmu FM (99.8fm) airwaves to chat about everything the charity is up to.
Tues 4th April 2017
We thought this story was absolutely worth sharing and it's so inspiring, a member of Future Choices, who had a bad stroke which affected his arm, still manages to create amazing art pieces with his other arm, with the incredible support of our resident artist.
The photo on the left is his work copying the image pictured on the
right.
Simply Inspiring.
Tues 4th April 2017
Team Future Choices getting into the Easter Spirit.
Thurs 23rd March
The Chairman & Vice Chairman challenged City Councillors to experience
getting around the city in a wheelchair, and boy did they realise how difficult it was. I want to thank all the participants for taking on the challenge, Marie Boulton, Stephen Flynn, Steve Delaney,
Len Ironside & Douglas Lumsden.
David & Devon want to say a huge massive thanks to the helpers, cause without them, we couldn't have done today, Gayle Kaufmann, Jackalynn Luisa Walker, Tracy Gaitens, Luke McLeod, Ruth
Anna, Ean Watt. I want to say also a big thanks to Shopmobility Aberdeen
You can check the full video out here:
Wed 22nd March
This is the absolutely amazing achievements that volunteering your time to help the local community can bring. Lewis Bannerman being recognised at his School for taking the lead role (in our new charity video) on promoting young people to volunteer. A true shining example & Inspiration to us all.
https://aberdeenvoice.com/2017/04/school-pupil-recognised-local-charity/
Tuesday 21st March
** BRAND NEW CHARITY VIDEO **
Thursday 9th March
Statement from Pirate Panda Films
On Saturday 1st October 2016 Future Choices, a local voluntary led charity that supports disabled adults, held it's 8th Anniversary birthday at the Copthorne Hotel with the help of Aberdeen Fashion Week director Lydia Kemunto. The event was full of live entertainment and raised £1,500. The event was enjoyed by all that attended. This is a short video we filmed and edited highlighting the various young dancers, singers, models and dresses that were showcased that evening.
We hope to work with this charity again in the future. We hope you enjoy!!!!
Wednesday 8th March
Team Future Choices took to the air waves live at Shmu FM (99.8FM) to discuss the topic of Science. It was such a great team building day, massive thanks to Paul O Connor MBE for giving Future Choices the opportunity to take part. Want to thank the staff at Shmu as they were fantastic the whole way through. The team, made up of David Forbes,Devon Thompson ,Jacqui MacLennan, Gabriel Tracy, Gordon Innes & Bob Duncan, we hope those that managed to tune in enjoyed the show as much as we did putting it together.
3rd March 2017
Future Choices Shmu FM Show.
Join Team Future Choices as we take to the airwaves - Live!
With sincere thanks going to Inchgarth Community Center Chairman,
Paul O'Connor MBE for this kind donation.This is an exciting and unique team building exercise, which we hope you will all enjoy.
Tune is to Shmu FM (99.8FM)
from 4-5pm on Wednesday 8th March.
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24th Feburary 2017
* News Flash *
Vice Secretary, Helen Devos
accepting £170 from Carol at Lawrence Milne in Berryden.
Lawrence Milne chose to fundraise via the 5p bag charge, for Future
Choices following a public vote a couple of years ago, where thanks to public votes, we secured our place.
Lawrence Milne have today confirmed they will continue to fundraise
for Future Choices using this method.
Such a joy to have to local business supporting a local
charity.
On behalf of everyone at Future Choices, a huge thank you to the
public and Lawrence Milne.
Vice Chairman.
Devon Thompson
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22nd Feburary 2017
Vice Chairman, Devon Thompson in urgent appeal for volunteers.
http://aberdeenvoice.com/2017/02/vice-chairman-local-charity-urgent-appeal/
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8th Feburary 2017
Future Choices A.G.M 2017
This will be held on Tuesday 21st March at Inchgarth Community Centre in Garthdee from 11am until 1.30pm, where issues relating to the charity & formalities will be discussed. Refreshments can be purchased from the Cafe.
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12th June 2016
Tokens will be printed in the Press & Journal paper from Monday, 13th June until Saturday, August 27th.
11th June 2016
Concluding Celebrations for Volunteers Week with ACVO Aberdeen
9th June
** BREAKING NEWS **
Maureen Watt MSP
I have nominated David Forbes as the Local Hero to represent Aberdeen South and North Kincardine at the opening of The Scottish Parliament on July 2nd.
David is the volunteer chairman of Future Choices. I have chosen him because of his dedication to volunteering and care, giving up much of his time to Future Choices over the past 8 years. The charity provides a social setting for people with physical disabilities and supports inclusion by providing transport to a supportive environment, meeting every Tuesday in Inchgarth Community Centre.
By happy coincidence, my nomination of David has come this week during Carers Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness of challenges carers face, and to recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the country.
Carer’s Week runs from 6-12 June: www.carersweek.org/
For information on the Opening Ceremony of The Scottish Parliament:www.parliament.scot/99637.aspx
5th June 2016
Charity A.G.M. done and delighted to announce that David Forbes was Re Elected as Chairperson, The Management Comittee are focused and driven to continue the dedicated Voluntary work. Also a great bonus to have a fresh face being elected onto the Management team, welcome Devon Thompson.
4th June 2016
Thank you so much to The Balmoral Group for their very kind donation of £500.
01 June 2016
** Special Announcement **
Hey everyone, the news we got, even though we were unsuccessful, we are still bursting with pride:
The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service 2016
Dear Mr David Forbes, Future Choices
I am writing to inform you that Future Choices was nominated for The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service 2016. This award was created by The Queen in 2002 to mark the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, recognising excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community.
The nomination of Future Choices for The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service 2016 represents a tremendous achievement for your organisation. Everyone involved, and particularly your volunteers, should feel immensely proud of the recognition that a nomination for this Award represents.
The work your group does for the community was very much admired by the Independent Assessment Committee.
Unfortunately, given the large number of nominations and the very high standards throughout, I am sorry to say that in the end 2016 was not among those selected to receive the Award this year. However, on behalf of The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Team, please convey to your volunteers and other staff, our warm appreciation of the excellent work they do and of the enormous benefit it represents to the local community.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service Team are pleased to recognise the value of your work and the significance of your nomination for this Award.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service Team
Thank you All
30th May 2016
** YPI Update **
The Management Committee had a really
spectacular day at Aboyne Academy watching the Pupils' Presentations on their chosen Charity.
Future Choices didn't scoop the prize, but to be in the shortlisting was an absolute honour, out off 28 charities, then down to the final 7. My team and i cannot thank the 4 Pupils enough for putting
on a great presentation to tell the story about our charity to the judges. The amazing feeling to watch a group of extremely talented
individuals act out a presentation to tell the story Future Choices to the large audience was by far extremely emotional and very proud. Chairman
24rd May 2016
** Special Announcement **
Following on from last weeks amazing legacy that was left to Future Choices, we have secured Panto tickets & tickets to a christmas show at the beach ballroom which includes a 3 course lunch, plans are also in progress to take the members out later in the year for a lovely country run for an ice cream then a lovely lunch (hopefully on a sunny day!). With both sets of tickets costing around £2,000 then the afternoon out, the legacy has very much helped. We just wish we were in a position to say a huge thank you to Mr Fraser, but we're sure you would be thrilled to bits sir and looking down with a great big smile, god bless you
19th May 2016
*** Special Announcement ***
In the first time in our history, we have been donated a Legacy! We are simply over joyed and humbled with the amount we have been given - £6,643.36.
We would like to take this opportunity to pay a special tribute to the late William Ironside Fraser. Your money sir will be going to benefit the disabled community as per your wishes.
***Brand New Video***
Ladies & Gents, Courtesy of our Dear friend Devon Thompson, here we have our brand new video.
Voluntary drivers desperately needed...
Desperately seeking voluntary drivers...
*** PUBLIC REQUEST *** This is an urgent appeal to help us spread our message. We rely 100% on getting our vulnerable members to and from home via our 2 buses - so without drivers, we'll ground to a hault and this simply cannot be made to happen.
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Look who has won an award!
Congratulations Gladys
Today, team Future Choices took a day off it's regular routine and was there to support it's Treasurer Gladys Annand at the ACVO awards ceremony. Gladys was award the ACVO award for being an 'Active Citizen. Congratulations.....!
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Group Closure - Re-open date...
You may have gathered there was NO group gathering on Tuesday 29 March - SACK the web wifie!
NORMAL service will RESUME on Tuesday 5th April... looking forward to seeing you all there...
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Eyes Down... 09 March 2016
Eyes down...
Five and Nine...
We had 2 special guests from RBS (St Nicholas Branch), coming to see the valuable voluntary work we do.
RBS have pledged to support us as much as they can in the near future.
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**News Alert** 09 March 2016
Future Choices is delighted to announce that we have been chosen by a group of S2 pupils from Aboyne Academy to take part in a national project called YPI. They will soon make a presenttion to business leaders with the story of our charity in the hope of winning us £3000. We will of course keep you posted. In the meantime check this out http://ypiscotland.org.uk/
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Committee receiving cheque from Lawrence Milne Ltd
24 February 2016
Following last years amazing Social media competition when the public got the chance to nominate Future Choices. This meant Decorating Firm Lawrence Milne would donate 5p from every carrier bag charge. They raised a total of £200. Thank you all so much.
---------and more fundraising news --------
Gladys and Sandra with one of the rag dolls.
A massive sincere thanks to Charity member and dear friend Sandra McCabe for raising £250 by hand-making Rag Dolls. It is fundraising efforts like this that helps us continue our valuable voluntary work.
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21 February 2016
Pleased to announce that the club will be open for business as usual on Tuesday, 23 February. Look forward to welcoming you all back and hope we have a great session. See you all on Tuesday x
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15 February 2016
*** URGENT *** URGENT *** URGENT ***
THERE WILL BE NO GROUP GATHERING ON TUESDAY 16 FEBRUARY
HOPE TO RESUME AGAIN ON TUESDAY 23 FEBRUARY.
WATCH THIS SPACE
Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Kaimhill Primary pupils receiving cheque from Future Choices
18 January 2016
Some of the Management Committee joined the pupils of Kaimhill Primary School today to present them with a donation of £100 to go towards their fundraiing efforts for a future school trip. They need as many donations as possible so Future Choices were delighted to be able to assist them.
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Website
12 January 2015
Lesley has secured two new volunteers to take on the challenge of the website and look forward to having it updated on a regular basis. Do let us know what is missing or what's just right.
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Sainsburys Donation
7 July 2015
We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to announce that we recieved a cheque for a total amount of £7,092.03 from Sainsburys Garthdee following our yearly partnership. We would like to thank all the staff and management of Sainsburys Garthdee who worked tirelessly with us and also our friends and volunteers who helped make this possible. We are extremely grateful and overwhelmed by your kind donations and look forward to your continuous support to the charity.
- Team Future Choices.
New Postal Address
5 Dec 2014
From today we have a new postal address for any mail you may wish to share with us.
Future Choices
C/O ACVO
38 Castle Street
Aberdeen
AB11 5YU
Happy Birthday to Future Choices
10 Nov 2014
We are absoutely thrilled to be celebrating our 5th birthday of Friday 28 November. For the last 6 years, we have been tirelessly working to help those most in need of social inclusion. To help celebrate this anniversary, we're having a special gathering at our usual location, Inchgarth Community Centre on Tuesday 25th November from 11am-2pm. We hope to see you there!
Lawrence Milne Decorators
8 Nov 2014
Following a social media nomination process, bosses at the decorating firm wanted the new 5p bag charge to go to a local charity, so members of the public were encouraged to nominate their charity they wanted the revenue to go to - overwhelmingly, the public chose Future Choices. More updates in due course.
Just Giving Page
14 Oct 2014
Well it's been a long road to this day but it has finally happened. We have been able to create our JustGiving profile! Hard work and a lot of phonecalls to get to this point, we must ensure we make the most of it :-)
Will be used for general donations and sponsorships through Challenge Yourself. Trying to make things are easy and accessible as possible!
https://www.justgiving.com/futurechoices/
ACVO "Gold Certificate Recipients
2 Sept 2014
Individuals from the charity were presented with "GOLD" ACVO Certificates by Aberdeen's Lord Provost. George Adam, with the assistance of Mike Melvin from ACVO. This award recognises the contributions made by members of the charity over 55 years old.
Gladys Annand
Sandra McCabe
Moira McCabe
Tom Lakowski
New Freephone
17 July 2014
We have made it much easier to contact us - and it's free! Our new telephone number is just below and feel free to contact it as much as you'd like. We have definitely went from strength to strength in this last year and this is just another great avenue.
0800 566 8728
Sainsburys Local Charity of the Year
12 July 2014
Wonderful news for us and the community! The superstore Sainsburys has chosen us as their Local Charity of the Year 2014/15. Sainsburys based in the Garthdee area of Aberdeen will be promoting our services for the next year and we couldn't be happier. Let us know if you see or hear anything about this in the store - hopefully you will soon!
Volunteer's Week
19 June 2014
All across the UK in June 2014, there was an awareness week to celebrate the countries Volunteers. The 3rd Sector relies heavily on people giving up their free time to contribute towards helping the communities. Future Choices recognised some of their Volunteers and gave them praise, all of whom have busy lives but find time to help those who need it most. Well Done to you all!
Merchandise
17 June 2014
Our fantastic items on our Merchandise page is now available to purchase. We are very pleased with the quality of these items and we hope you will be too. All the proceeds raised from the sale of the items go towards helping our members.
New Website
24 May 2014
Our new website has finally launched. Now it is much easier to get in touch with us, donate to our cause, enquire about volunteering, take part in our challenge yourself campaign and even purchase a small support item :-) Please let us know what you think of the new site. Thanks!
2014 AGM
24 May 2014
As our AGM is approaching, we would like to welcome onboard our new committee members - Sean Gordon & Margaret Kennedy. We wish them all the best and have complete faith in their abilities to help take the charity to the next level.
Apache Bus
13 March 2014
We are truly honoured to have such a huge organisation choose us for a charity endevour. We really do appreciate their very generous donation of a new bus to help us better transport our members. Amazing news for us really. We cannot thank you enough Apache.
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