A CHILDREN’S charity in Dawlish received a major boost with a £5,000 donation from Dawlish Freemasons.

AIMS supports children with special and additional needs and their families through weekly get togethers.

Leader of St Michael’s Lodge in Dawlish, Alex Pennington, charity steward Paul Beatty and other lodge members who hold their meetings at the Masonic Centre in Barton Terrace, Dawlish, visited the charity.

They met team leader Claire Coombs and her team of volunteers, parents and, the children at Orchard Manor School, also in Dawlish.

Here, AIMS meets to support children with different needs, and their parents, who take the opportunity to get together and swap thoughts and ideas while the children have fun and games provided by the group of helpers and volunteers.

AIMS, which stand for Activities, Interests, Music, Support, was founded in 1992 by Dawlish paediatrician Dr Jill Diprose as a direct response to the needs of parents.

It offers free drop-in sessions every Saturday from 11am until 2pm.

The charity is totally self-funded and welcome all members of the family, from parents and siblings to grandparents.

Activities include craft, music, cooking and outdoor play, not only from the local area, but also welcomed from any part of Devon.

Alex presented Claire with a cheque for £5,000, which had been raised by the members of the lodge during his year as master.

Alex said that St. Michaels Lodge enjoyed raising funds for local as well as national needs and hoped that they could continue to support AIMS as they had done now for several years .

Claire said: ‘We are deeply grateful for this substantial donation which will allow us to continue providing support to local families who have children with special educational needs.

‘Even though we are a small organisation it costs in excess of £20,000 a year to stay open and as we do not charge the families we are totally reliant of donations from well-wishers like you.’