the magic wand - november 2013

The festive season is on it’s way and we’ve got some

really great ideas for you to boost your fundraising be-

fore the end of the year! Turn to page 6 to find out

more.

If you are inspired by the children’s stories in this

month’s issue and would like to find out about inviting

more children to your attraction, get in touch with the Merlin’s Magic Wand

Team, who will be happy to help!

Who have you helped?

Days out with Magic Wand

2-3

Fundraising Stories

Fantastic money-raising!

4-5

Charity Champion Focus

Profile on one of our Champions

7

Festive Fundraising

And Christmas Visits

6

Inside this issue:Inside this issue:Inside this issue:Inside this issue:

Magic Wand The

November 2013

Page 1 Page 1 Page 1

Who have YOU helped? Madame Tussauds Bangkok Madame Tussauds Bangkok Madame Tussauds Bangkok Madame Tussauds Bangkok and Siam Ocean World Bangkok Siam Ocean World Bangkok Siam Ocean World Bangkok Siam Ocean World Bangkok recently host-

ed a visit from a local organisation that supports children with serious ill-

nesses.

The twenty children that had a magical day out in Bangkok all have ac-

quired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) which has been passed on

from their parents.

The children had a wonderful day out, meeting others that face the

same problems as them and having time away from the hospital to

enjoy themselves and their childhoods.

Who have YOU helped?

8 year old Phoebe su4ers from Down Syndrome

and Cystic Fibrosis, so life is very tough for her

and her family.

Phoebe had a wonderful day out at LEGOLAND LEGOLAND LEGOLAND LEGOLAND

Discovery Center DallasDiscovery Center DallasDiscovery Center DallasDiscovery Center Dallas and SEA LIFE DallasSEA LIFE DallasSEA LIFE DallasSEA LIFE Dallas.

Thanks to everyone who made her day magical!

Julia’s House Hospice in Dorset, UK looks after life limited children and helps them to make the most of the

time they have. They also provide support for the families of those children, which is why they applied to us

for tickets to Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park Weymouth SEA LIFE Adventure Park for the siblings of the children in the hospice.

The kids had a great day out, with n animal feed being the highlight of their day! Sibling Worker Maria spent the day with them and said “We had an amazing day on Saturday. The team at SEA LIFE were won-derful and spent so much time with us. The children got so much out of it and were asking lots of questions and loved getting involved in the feeding.”

“We had an amazing day on

Saturday! The children got

so much out of it”

Who have YOU helped?

SEA LIFE Timmendorfer Strand SEA LIFE Timmendorfer Strand SEA LIFE Timmendorfer Strand SEA LIFE Timmendorfer Strand hosted a visit from the newly opened Kupferhof in Hamburg, a recovery

home for disabled children and their families.

The children all su4er from a DNA defect and thoroughly enjoyed their day out.

"We have enjoyed the day and have many happy children! Thank you very much for your help – your team

has been great, competent, flexible, creative and very nice. The day out has been a great time for us".

Five teenage girls from East Valley

Charlee, a residence for abused

children, had an amazing day out

at Madame Tussauds HollywoodMadame Tussauds HollywoodMadame Tussauds HollywoodMadame Tussauds Hollywood.

The Merlin’s Magic Wand Champi-

on met with them and gave them

a special visit package, including

wax hands, and souvenir photos.

The girls from the residence were

so excited that the kids from the

boys home will be visiting soon as

well!

10 year old Kai su4ers from Con-genital Muscular Dystrophy and Scoliosis. He has been wheelchair bound from birth and finds it diFcult to have a normal childhood.

Merlin’s Magic Wand gave him and his family tickets to Madame Tussauds LondonMadame Tussauds LondonMadame Tussauds LondonMadame Tussauds London, and they had an amazing day out! Kai’s Mum said “The attractions that Kai can visit are limited as he can’t stand at all. He loved seeing all the celebrities that really looked real! He felt comfortable and not left out because of his disability”.

LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Ober-LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Ober-LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Ober-LEGOLAND® Discovery Centre Ober-

hausenhausenhausenhausen and SEA LIFE OberhausenSEA LIFE OberhausenSEA LIFE OberhausenSEA LIFE Oberhausen have

held two fantastic fundraising events! At a City Festival they gave children the opportunity to donate and spin the wheel of fortune. There were great priz-es on o4er and they raised €738.70! The other event was the "Olympiade Oberhausen" where sta4 from both at-tractions competed against each other in di4erent sports. Everybody donated €5 to be part of the event and they had a great evening together playing sports and enjoying a barbecue.

Fundraising Success!

On 26th October, SEA LIFE London SEA LIFE London SEA LIFE London SEA LIFE London and SEA LIFE Hunstanton SEA LIFE Hunstanton SEA LIFE Hunstanton SEA LIFE Hunstanton

both wore their onesies to work for Merlin’s Magic Wand!

Thanks to everyone who took part!

LEGOLAND DeutschlandLEGOLAND DeutschlandLEGOLAND DeutschlandLEGOLAND Deutschland decided

to do some fundraising at their

traditional end of season party.

Claudia Hoegel organised a fan-tastic tombola, by sourcing lots of amazing prizes from suppliers and partners.

Together with her team helping selling lots of tickets and handing out the prizes, they raised the wonderful amount of € 3168.52 for Merlin’s Magic Wand.

Are you going to

Are you going to

Are you going to

Are you going to

fundraise at your

fundraise at your

fundraise at your

fundraise at your

Christmas Party?

Christmas Party?Christmas Party?Christmas Party?

Fundraising Success! Fundraising Excellence

Award Winners

Congratulations to the team at Madame Tussauds Vienna Madame Tussauds Vienna Madame Tussauds Vienna Madame Tussauds Vienna on their incredible fundraising!

For their first fundraising event, they organised an auction to support Merlin’s Magic Wand. The prizes were donated by the Austrian enter-tainer Peter Alexander. He auctioned some of his belonging, includ-ing his desk and his famous model railway set.

They raised a jaw-dropping €28,840, with half going to Merlin’s Mag-ic Wand and half to Peter’s own charity. Many thanks to everyone who took part and well done for raising such a huge amount of money!

The sta4 at SEA LIFE Gweek SEA LIFE Gweek SEA LIFE Gweek SEA LIFE Gweek

have been collecting money

for Merlin's Magic Wand

with the end goal of per-

suading GM Trevor Broome

to dress as Batman .

They reached a fundraising

target of £500 and Trevor

and Mark were dressed as

Zombie Batman and Robin

for Fright Night! Over £500

has now been raised, with

money still coming in!

Between witches, vampires, live pumpkins and crawling spiders LEGOLAND Billund LEGOLAND Billund LEGOLAND Billund LEGOLAND Billund invited guests to carve their own pumpkin heads, which was a great success. MUHA-HAHA! All donations from the pumpkin sale, a fantastic DKK 18,444,40, went to Merlin's Magic Wand.

The London Dungeon London Dungeon London Dungeon London Dungeon held a Hallowe’en Bake O4 to keep the sta4 fed on the longest shift of the year!

The amazing spider cake won crowned best cake and they raised a fantastic £70 for Merlin’s Magic Wand.

Children’s Visits Why not invite local children who meet the Merlin’s Magic Wand crite-Why not invite local children who meet the Merlin’s Magic Wand crite-Why not invite local children who meet the Merlin’s Magic Wand crite-Why not invite local children who meet the Merlin’s Magic Wand crite-

ria to your attraction for a special, festive magical day out?ria to your attraction for a special, festive magical day out?ria to your attraction for a special, festive magical day out?ria to your attraction for a special, festive magical day out?

You can invite groups of children to visit your attraction by following

the below process:

1. Identify a group of local children to invite. That fit the Merlin’s

Magic Wand criteria.

2. Give Merlin’s Magic Wand the numbers of people visiting using

the Visit Report Form and arrange for Merlin’s Magic Wand to

supply a travel grant (if applicable).

3. Your chosen group visits your attraction and has a magical day

out!

4. You send us photos and video from the day and tell us how it

went. Remember to get the picture permission forms signed so

that we can share your success story with everyone!

Go and visit children in your community! Our Taking the Magic to the Children projects are doing a great

job of providing children who are too ill for a day out with a bit of

Merlin Magic. Another way that you can spread the magic to chil-

dren in your local community is through Outreach VisitsOutreach VisitsOutreach VisitsOutreach Visits.

Contact your local hospital or children’s hospice and see if you can

visit them to bring a smile to the faces of children bring a smile to the faces of children bring a smile to the faces of children bring a smile to the faces of children that will be

spending the holidays there. If your attraction is a SEA LIFE, per-

haps you could take a mobile touch pool, or a LEGO attraction

could take a mascot along.

We have funds available now funds available now funds available now funds available now for you to use as part of your out-

reach visit - you could buy presents for the children or pay for your

team to travel there and

brighten their day!

Contact Sarah Ford now

for more information!

Festive Fundraising & Visits

Christmas is fast approaching and it is a great opportunity for you to

spread the Merlin magic in your local community! Here are three ways

for you to bring the magic to children this festive season…

Themed Fundraising There are lots of ways to combine the

festivities and fundraising, why not try

one of these ideas?

♦ Get a member of sta4 to dress up

as Santa and ask for a donation

to tell Santa what you’d like for

Christmas!

♦ Sell mince pies and cake to em-

ployees

♦ Bad Christmas jumper competitio

♦ Pin the antlers on the reindeer

♦ Festive Quiz Night

♦ Carol Singing - Invite a local choir

to sing with you and raise money!

Make sure you let us know about your festive Make sure you let us know about your festive Make sure you let us know about your festive Make sure you let us know about your festive

fundraising and visits so we can feature it on fundraising and visits so we can feature it on fundraising and visits so we can feature it on fundraising and visits so we can feature it on

the intranet and in our newsletter!the intranet and in our newsletter!the intranet and in our newsletter!the intranet and in our newsletter!

Charity Champion Focus

Charity Champions are our unsung heroes! There is a champion at each at-Charity Champions are our unsung heroes! There is a champion at each at-Charity Champions are our unsung heroes! There is a champion at each at-Charity Champions are our unsung heroes! There is a champion at each at-

traction and they cotraction and they cotraction and they cotraction and they co----ordinate all Merlin’s Magic Wand activity throughout ordinate all Merlin’s Magic Wand activity throughout ordinate all Merlin’s Magic Wand activity throughout ordinate all Merlin’s Magic Wand activity throughout

their attraction and communicate their fundraising success and ideas with their attraction and communicate their fundraising success and ideas with their attraction and communicate their fundraising success and ideas with their attraction and communicate their fundraising success and ideas with

the team.the team.the team.the team.

This profile highlights one of our fantastic champions This profile highlights one of our fantastic champions This profile highlights one of our fantastic champions This profile highlights one of our fantastic champions ---- we couldn’t do what we couldn’t do what we couldn’t do what we couldn’t do what

we do without them!we do without them!we do without them!we do without them!

Do you know who your Charity Champion is?

NameNameNameName: : : : Mili Fernando

Attraction: Attraction: Attraction: Attraction: Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium

Job Title: Job Title: Job Title: Job Title: Senior Accountant

What was the last event you or-What was the last event you or-What was the last event you or-What was the last event you or-ganised for MMW? ganised for MMW? ganised for MMW? ganised for MMW? Merlin’s Magic Wand RaTe held at our sta4 BBQ.

Where is your favourite holiday Where is your favourite holiday Where is your favourite holiday Where is your favourite holiday destination? destination? destination? destination? Italy!

What is your top tip for fundrais-What is your top tip for fundrais-What is your top tip for fundrais-What is your top tip for fundrais-ing? ing? ing? ing? Make it fun, people are more than willing to contribute towards a good cause!

Describe yourself in 3 words: Describe yourself in 3 words: Describe yourself in 3 words: Describe yourself in 3 words: Fun, cheerful, outgoing

Who would you like to play you in a movie of your life Who would you like to play you in a movie of your life Who would you like to play you in a movie of your life Who would you like to play you in a movie of your life story? story? story? story? Rachel McAdams