11th February 2019

Welcome from Nigel Purse, NPHT Chairman

Welcome to the third edition of our Newsletter. The launch of the Heritage Centre at Stoke Mandeville is now only a matter of weeks away, so as you can imagine, we are extremely excited as well as busy with all the last minute details.
 
I was delighted to open Paralympic Heritage: Stories from Bradford on 26th January to an audience of 349 people. It was a huge success and attracted an audience more diverse than the beautiful Cartwright Hall had seen before, as well as some fantastic news coverage.
 
In addition to the design planning, community liaison and volunteer recruitment it is important to remember that we still have another £500k to raise for the project. Do share your ideas and thoughts with us if you can help in any way, and encourage your friends and family to support us with our small Crowd Funding campaign of £15,000 to help us enhance the learning experience at the Heritage Centre by visiting: www.spacehive.com/paralympic-heritage-centre 

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About Us

Our virtual research volunteers have been carrying out some great work over the last 4-5 months. As a result of their efforts we are very close to completing the sports history section on the website. Our next project is to look at adding more information to the Games history section. We wouldn’t be able to complete this history without help from our wonderful group of volunteers.

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Events

11th January 2019 - Meet the Chairman

Many of you were invited to join us for a buffet lunch and presentations following the Board meeting in January. It was an opportunity to meet Nigel Purse our new Chairman, and catch up on our work and our fundraising achievements and targets.

Aylesbury Town Centre Promotion

With the support of ‘I Have a Voice Too’ www.ihaveavoicetoo.co.uk we have been promoting the Heritage Centre and recruiting volunteers in Aylesbury Town.  Ten thousand flyers have been distributed around the area and we are now officially registered with the local and national tourist boards.

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Exhibitions

Paralympic History: Stories from Bradford

On a grey drizzly day we had a wonderful turn out for the opening of the exhibition that looked stunning in the central hall at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. Apart from the birth of the Paralympic Movement, the content featured local athletes and on the day itself several more athletes came forward with their stories, which will be featured on the website or when the display moves to Cliffe Castle.

Bradford has a strong and interesting disability sports history and this is a wonderful regional celebration of achievement from coaches, to event entertainment, and of course the athletes themselves. A huge thank you has to go to Tim Curtis, the local coordinator, for bringing this together. 

 

The Paralympic Heritage Centre at Stoke Mandeville Stadium

The Centre will open to the public on Saturday 30th March, do put it in your diary and we look forward to welcoming you to this permanent display celebrating the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement.

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History

Jean Stone MBE

Capturing and caring for the history is at the heart of our work. For this we are dependent on the many individuals who were pioneers of the Paralympic Movement.
 
It was therefore, with great sadness that we heard of the passing of Jean Stone who has been of great help to us.
 
Jean witnessed the first ever Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome, Italy, where she attended as a staff member on the British team. Moved by the experience, Jean became committed and passionate about creating opportunities for disabled people.
 
In particular, Jean was among the masterminds in developing the sports’ technical structures.

NPHT Honorary President Sir Philip Craven said:

Jean Stone was a long-term trooper for the Paralympic Movement and formed one of its strongest pillars. She will be sadly missed and always loved.

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Thanks

Considerable thanks must go to our Trustees, Vice Presidents, Advisory Panel and wider supporters, whose hands-on work and advice is invaluable.  In particular we must thank our founding partners the British Paralympic Association, WheelPower – British Wheelchair Sport, Aylesbury Vale District Council and Buckinghamshire County Council and our funding partners, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Wellcome Trust, Arts Council England, Rothschild Foundation, AiM Biffa, Section 106 Bucks County Council, Aylesbury Vale Community Chest, Norfolk Heritage Trust, South East Museums, Spirit of 2012 and Heart of Bucks.