Tempus Fugit*

The days whizz by when you’ve got a lot to do, and boy have we been up against it. Every single minute counts when you’ve only ONE WEEK LEFT. Yes, in exactly one week’s time, Via Wings will be opening the doors of its new community venture, Hope & Soul. But we will make it, because we have plenty of hope and plenty of soul. In fact, as Will.i.am would say, we have “soul on a pole.” In reality, this means we have a large, supportive team of people willing to work day and night to get Hope & Soul open on time.

So what have we been doing? The little room at the top of the building has been stripped of layer upon layer of paper and paint, thanks to stalwarts Anita, Cheryl and Debbie. Jackie, Linda, Nathalie and Rosie have sanded and painted over a dozen chairs, and a dedicated team of people, including Michelle, Ray, Mary and Helen have painted the walls up the stairwell and the first-floor room, while Patrick and Karl have even been painting through the night! Courtney and Julia have been cleaning up, and Brendan has been pushed from pillar to post fixing and mending things, hanging doors, and generally turning his hand to anything required. Meantime, Gail and Sue have been organising people and sourcing materials. If we’ve forgotten to mention anyone, we’re very sorry but a BIG THANK YOU to EVERYONE who has contributed so far.

Next will be wallpaper and floors, pictures and furnishings…on Monday we will be revealing one of our BIGGEST TIPS so far.

Meantime, WE NEED YOU!

You might not have the time to help with decorating, but you can still make a difference. Do you have any old-fashioned china tea sets – mismatching, old flowery china cups, saucers, plates and milk jugs? Are they collecting dust in the back of the cupboard? We would be over the moon if you have anything you’d like to donate.  ALSO, do you have any ‘occasional tables‘ that you no longer need? We would happily take them off your hands. Priceless antiques accepted but anything appreciated. You can drop them into the House of Hope (3 Iveagh Terrace, opposite Dromore Police Station), 3 The Square, Dromore (our new premises – there, we’ve given it away) or email sue@viawings.co.uk.

By the time this goes live, everything will have changed, but we’ll be updating again early next week. And please keep a date for next Friday, when Hope & Soul will be officially opening. More details to follow…

*For those who are interested to know the meaning of tempus fugit… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempus_fugit

Hope & Soul

Hello folks!

Sorry for going quiet on you but we have been extremely busy. Before getting into the nitty gritty of our recent activity, we have a BIG REVELATION for you — we have a name for our new venture – woohoo!  Yes, the new Via Wings project is going to be called Hope & Soul.  We made the final decision on the name today and already one of our volunteers is cranking up the creative genes and designing the new signage for our premises.

Now you might think that this doesn’t reveal much, but , as mentioned before, we are sticking to the same mission and therefore you know that whatever the nature of our scrumptious new project, it will be something aimed at spreading love and a positive outlook. We also wanted to maintain a link with our other main project, the House of Hope. And you thought that this was merely a new premises for the House of Hope? Wrong again!

Ok. Back to our volunteers. We are blessed to have such a supportive and dedicated group of people. When you see people from the whole community building something together like this, it gives you a good feeling about the future and what can be achieved with a little commitment and a shared vision.

Over the bank holiday weekend and this week, the last of the wallpaper was stripped off, the floors were sanded and the painting was started. One room has been painted already and our Centre Manager Sue Johnston already has it earmarked for her office (together with other staff members, of course).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old fireplaces have also been spruced up but there is a long way to go with three floors of skirting boards and door frames on every floor to be glossed. And that’s just the start – go Tina (and everyone else who pops in to help).

On the ground floor, 36 donated chairs are being given a makeover. At moment we’re at the sanding stage, a long, arduous task that is driving Jackie into fits of giggles.

Our final reveal or tip of the day is the brass lamps that hang outside the premises. Dull and rusty, they had certainly seen better days, and while many would have written them off , we have to make use of everything we have. Thanks to a great wee tip, these lights have been transformed with the help of some tomato ketchup and a cloth. Yes, you heard it here first – ketchup cleans rust from old brass lamps.  Now we know that, we don’t want to think about what it does to our insides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it for today. Have a good weekend and come back soon. We’d just like to remind you to keep spreading the word – we are opening two weeks from today. Yikes!