Wessex wishes limited arranged for 34 young carers and eight staff including Donna Stanley from Heatherlands school in Parkstone to visit Longdown Dairy Activity Centre in Lyndhurst on Friday 22nd May, 2026.

The very excited children arrived with Peter driving a Laguna Coach at 10.15 where they began the beginning of their day of surprises by meeting Wendy and Steph’s smiley faces at the entrance where they were introduced to Farmer Robyn who was our tour guide for the day.

First of all the children were ‘thrilled to bits’ to feed the calves, each giving them a bottle of milk (as did Jenny and I, just as excited as the kiddies, I must add lol).

We then moved onto feeding the ‘kids’ a bottle of milk each, then to hold baby chicks and guinea picks in another large barn area where the owner ‘Farmer Bryan’s daughter’ Kerry, was there to greet us with several small furry animals such as the most beautiful fluffy lop eared bunnies with coats of gorgeous colours.

The kiddies were then excited to have a ride down into a field and back up again, pulled by a tractor. We could hear them squealing with laughter. It was so great to hear their enjoyment.

They ate their picnic lunches in beautiful sunshine near the play area and for afters Pinnacle Training had treated each child to an ice cream.

Thank you to all of our supporters, those who attend our fundraisers, Pinnacle Training for covering all our expenses to enable all money raised to be spent on these very special children that we support from nine local schools, thank you also to all our fantastic committee including Hattie our photographer, Laguna Coaches and Shan and BC Club. We could not support the 3000 children without the ongoing help behind the scenes. Please take a look at our new website and logo which is progressing nicely and was built by Connor Hannon www.wessexwishes.co.uk where you can also make a donation if you would like to.