Kenneth carves out holiday memories for deserving children

A great-great grandad has marked his 96th birthday by donating £1,300 from the sale of wooden objects he has carved to Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre.

Kenneth Goode, from Chellaston, raised the money by making quantities of beautiful wooden objects including bird feeders, both in a traditional design and a more quirky ‘caravan’ style, along with children’s forts.

The latest donation is in additional to £1,000 he had already raised for the centre.

Mr Goode spends hours a day in the workshop in his garden making things from wood, using offcuts and recycled bits and pieces such as bottle tops.

His bird boxes and children’s forts are then sold by his son Vernon and wife Susanna at the Royal Oak Caravan Park, in Skegness, where 133-year-old charity the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre is based.

Born in 1927, Kenneth’s engineering skills were honed from a young age when he started out as a messenger boy at the research centre for the railways on London Road in 1941, moving on to becoming an apprentice at the Derby Carriage and Wagon Works when he was 15.

Enjoying woodwork as a form of therapy after the loss of his wife, Winifred, to whom he was married for 73 years, Kenneth said: “Woodwork is something I’ve always done but I never had the opportunity to do it so much before, but when my wife passed away I had to do something to get out of a chair.

“I used to take my children to Skegness. Weekend after weekend we used to go. My father used to take me and we followed on.”

Alan Grimadell, chairman of Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre, said: “What Kenneth is doing for the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre is just wonderful.

“We’ve been going since 1891, giving five-day seaside stays in Skegness for children from across Derbyshire who otherwise may not get a holiday at all.

“There is still the same need for our charity that there ever was, which is why it’s so important for people like Kenneth to think of us when they dedicate their time to good causes as he has. We are so grateful for his support.”