Make a Smile
Eleven years ago we were asked through our business here if we could donate four cheap or second hand mattresses to a children’s home in Benissa, we said yes and as they say, the rest is history.
After living here for nearly forty years and working with the children’s homes for the last eleven, we’ve built a trust with the children’s Carers, the people who we believe truly know what these children’s needs are. This led on to a formal relationship and understanding between what we do, the main association office and social services. For every project we are involved with we always ask for the advice of the children’s Carers about the home’s needs and EVERY penny we raise goes to these ends.
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Help us to help them
- Mahe Chain Bag Grey https://t.co/fQaI99GkUrMakeASmile64 years ago
- RT @SYSspain: Please join in with this appeal and share this post, thanks!! x http://t.co/Kik9yfSAfwMakeASmile65 years ago
- Check out 'sponsor a chicken' on Vimeo http://t.co/mMsZrgS8el #VimeoMakeASmile65 years ago
- News from Make A Smile #constantcontact http://t.co/t6S6krHVL8MakeASmile65 years ago
Tony GrandeFounder
- Tony Grande moved to Spain in 1982 but spent his childhood visiting with his Spanish father and English mother. He co-owned a successful satellite business in the 80s and a fast running catalogue distribution company with outlets all over Spain, the islands and Portugal in the 90s. Currently Tony runs The Bed Centre in Calpe with his wife Lucy. Passionate about inequality, Tony put his myriad talents to raising funds, creating a Self Sufficiency Project in a children’s home and feeding children in care through the recession. In his spare time, Tony is renovating a large house on the coast and is an avid reader.
Lucy Rowat GrandePresident/Founder
- Lucy Rowat Grande came to Spain in 1981 and decided to make her home in Calpe. She has run various businesses including a busy cash & carry and a popular catalogue import company. She also taught English in local junior schools and basic Spanish to private pupils. Lucy is the owner of The Bed Centre in Calpe and donates much time administrating the charity Make A Smile. In her spare time, Lucy loves to cook and spends many hours in her garden, creating relaxing spaces and growing unusual plants and herbs.
Gemma TonksTreasurer
- Gemma Tonks relocated to Spain with her family in 2002. She attended school in Calpe and worked in various small businesses locally. Gemma currently works at The Bed Centre in Calpe where she excels in her various tasks including admin, sales and especially customer relations. Gemma works hard to make Make A Smile what it is today. In her spare time, Gemma is studying Psychology & Business Studies to A level, she also likes to travel and is a fan of extreme sports.
Suzette JenningsSecretary
- Suzette Jennings first worked in Spain in 1987 as a Hotel Representative for a UK tour operator. Having worked many Summer and Winter ski seasons within the holiday industry Suzette married Shaun in 2002 and settled on the Costa Brava. They own an industrial launderette up on the Costa Brava and still work very closely with many holiday companies. With their twin boys they moved to Majorca for three years and then arrived in Javea back in the September of 2012.
A few years ago she attended a coffee morning with the new mums at school and was asked to participate in a fruit and vegetable collection organised by Tony from the Bed Centre to benefit the Emaus children. This was when she learnt about the difficulties facing the children’s homes in the local community and the fantastic work of the charity… She then went on to become secretary in 2015.
Suzette has been a keen organiser of fund raising events and with helping develop the Relleu Self Sufficiency Project!
She is looking forward to a future where Make A Smile no longer needs to provide the basics for the children’s homes and can concentrate on the older children’s accommodation, work experience, training and opportunities when they have to leave the homes at 18.
