Keynsham Mencap have benefited from the support of Grenville Jones and his Good Afternoon choir performances.

During 2019, Keynsham Mencap have been very fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of the Good Afternoon choirs, which are run by Grenville Jones, who is also known for his involvement with the Golden Oldies charity.

The Good Afternoon choirs have performed across the region raising money for local causes. There are ten Good Afternoon choirs and in particular, the Keynsham Good Afternoon choir pledged to raise funds for the Keynsham Mencap Music Man Project.

The Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir performed three times this year and over £2,800 was raised for the Music Man Project. A project that offers music tuition for people with a learning disability.

It runs every Saturday morning and offers twenty members, two hours of music teaching once a week, with singing and percussion as a regular feature of each session.

The support from Grenville has meant that the Music Man Project has gone from

strength to strength, membership has grown by 50%, new instruments and new equipment have been obtained and there is a greater awareness of the project.

Laura Jefferies, Operations Manager at the project, said: “We are really delighted to have been Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir’s chosen charity this year. We are very proud of our Music Man Project and everything they have achieved. The money the choir have raised has made such a difference to the group by allowing us to expand our numbers and purchase new instruments and equipment. Our members thoroughly enjoyed joining the choir at their spring concert. We extend heartfelt thanks to Grenville and all the choir members.”

In April this year members joined in with other regional Music Man Project groups to perform together at the Royal Albert Hall, where over 200 musicians with a learning disability from across the UK took part. This was a huge opportunity for local people with a learning disability to access and perform in an iconic concert hall in the biggest celebration of accessible music-making there has ever been.

The Music Man Project has had a great year, as the musicians have also performed to family and friends, and to the wider community, including supporting one of the Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir performances, a performance in the Keynsham Memorial park and their second Christmas fundraiser at the Methodist Church.

Alongside the Music Man Project, one of Grenville’s other choirs performed in Bath and supported the Super Saturday Club, a weekend social club which runs every Saturday morning during term time for two hours, providing children and young people with learning disabilities a fully inclusive programme of activities.

Grenville Jones is a strong supporter of Keynsham Mencap and back in 2012 he raised in excess of £20,000 to enable the children who attend Super Saturday Club a once in a lifetime opportunity to go to Disneyland Paris.