Digital Stories at Stroke Association Wales Conference

Katherine Daneski introducing the Digital Stories

 

 

Gareth, Christine and Sharron travelled to Cardiff on 3rd October 2012 to attend the Stroke Association Wales annual conference.  They talked about their experiences whilst making their digital stories - part of a pilot initiative run by  Community 2.0 working with the Stroke Association in Wales.  The pilot project enabled Ammanford BLAS members to create their stories with support and guidance from Katherine Daneski and Sue Hagerty.  We had a great afternoon at the conference and the digital stories received fabulous feedback.  We hope to upload the stories within the next few weeks.

Art Classes

This term Julie is teaching watercolours at the group, here she is showing Pam how to do a colour wheel.

We're Back

After a long summer break we are now meeting again on Wednesday mornings between 10 and 12.

Fund Raising Tea Towel

Here's a fabulous tea towel that has been created to help raise funds for the group. Each drawing is of a local Ammanford landmark and were drawn by stroke group members as part of our ongoing art activities. The tea towel was then designed and printed online.

The tea towels are £5 each and all proceeds go directly to the group.

An exceptional project, well done to everyone.

Mair on S4C

Mair got quite a surprise when Alwyn Humphreys from S4C (the Welsh language TV channel) came to the group with a TV crew for the programme Prynhawn Da to congratulate her on her continued charity work. Mair has been involved with our group since its inception and has been involved with countless charities in the local area including Heartbeat Wales and Cancer Research. The programme was aired at the end of May. Congratulations Mair.

Ammanford Rotary Donation

Many thanks to Ammanford Rotary for the kind donation of £200, here's John being presented with the cheque by the Rotary Chairman and Mayoress of Ammanford. Thank you for your continued support.

Donation in lieu of flowers

Many thanks to Mr. Keith Davies and family for their kind donations totalling £140 given in lieu of flowers in memory of the late Mrs. Florence Davies. Your donation is gratefully received.

Wire Sculptures

Everyone has been working their fingers to the bone with these wire sculptures.

Using the hands in this way can be very challenging after a stroke, so very well done to all.

Digital Stories

Sue and Katherine have been working with the group on their Digital Stories project for the past six weeks.

Sue says: "We all have a story to tell and using digital stories allows the storyteller to tell the story using visual images such as photos or other artwork and maybe a soundtrack as well to illustrate it." 

Digital stories are constructed by the story teller writing and recording their story and then using various software packages to edit the completed story into a short video – about two  minutes in length.  Sue and Katharine have been working with two groups of stroke survivors in West Wales to help them produce their own stories – the group members have come up with an array of different topics, some about their own experiences of stroke and others on all kinds of subjects.  This is a new project and we hope that the participants will enjoy the whole process of sharing stories as well as trying out new skills by using the computers, camera and scanner.  The stories can be very powerful – some are poignant and others amusing – but they are all fascinating.

The project will run for a further 8 weeks, after which the films will be available on this website.

We look forward to seeing them.

Sue Ladd and Friends donation

Many thanks to Sue Ladd and Friends for their kind donation of £500 to enable our good work to continue.





Here's John accepting a cheque from Bev at a presentation evening in February at Pen y Banc Rugby Club.

Hand Printed Quilt

Everyone from the group worked on this hand printed quilt with Julie, the new art teacher.

Each piece was hand drawn and hand printed by group members and then stitched together.

It now hangs proudly in the hall.

Hello Hello Hello

Welcome to the new website for the Ammanford Stroke Group.

This page is a blog that will document our activities - keep checking back for regular updates.