We Won

We were invited to The Houses of Parliament by Blind Children UK after we entered their Easter themed competition. We supplied lots of different art things, such as coloured in pictures, a tactile (and noisy) 3d papier mache egg, a giant mural, decorated eggs and a video of us decorating a tree with the eggs. A small team of us, including volunteers that run the club and two families with their children, were able to go up on the train. One little boy was extremely excited to be on the train and when we eventually arrived at Westminster tube station he couldn’t contain himself as we left the station and ended up almost directly under Big Ben. We walked round Parliament to the side entrance and had to wait a little while to go through security, before our first important stop in the Parliament Jubilee Café. One reasonably priced coffee later and it was time to go in. Walking through the impressive corridors of power was thrilling. Seeing where Nelson Mandela stood to address both houses and where historic decisions have been made for many years was wonderful. We walked past the two entrances to the House of Commons and the House of Lords and up to the Upper Waiting Hall. Blind Children UK had a display set up to demonstrate to MPs the importance of support for visually impaired children. We had sent so much material that our pieces were on the front table, and scattered around the display boards. They had also taken our decorated eggs and pinned them around most of the room. The display will be there all week and it’s nice to think of all the famous MPs and Lords walking past our childrens’ work. I hope they all stop to have a look. They announced the winners of the individual categories and then the last award was for the group category – and we won! I think it’s fair to say I was louder than the children, although only a little bit. We had our pictures taken with our prize of art supplies for the group. We stayed for a little bit talking to a few MPs who attended and then made our way back to Luton tired but happy. Apparently they do a touch tour of the Houses of Parliament so maybe we’ll be back there soon.

Mark Chapman

Visual Impairment Advisor