Summer is here and so are the brilliant community events that seem to be happening every weekend. I love wandering around a fete and trying my luck on tombolas. Sometimes, as I  pull out my ticket (hopefully) ending in a 0 or a 5 I get a brilliant prize.

Like a bottle of wine I won on a stall at the St Johns fair a few weeks ago. Other times I end up with ‘interesting’ wins like the bottle of versatile beautifying hair oil I won at the Weybridge community fair. (I hope I don’t get those two prizes mixed up!)

The fetes and fairs are a great way for local charities to raise awareness of what they do and raise some extra funds. These events are a lifeline for many small charities who often find funds a challenge and it's great to feel connected to the community.

At The Sunnybank Trust I have been involved with two summer fairs where we have had stalls.  A lot of work goes in behind the scenes getting everything ready beforehand. At the Nescot  college fair in Epsom recently, we raised more than £115 for our charity with our stall. With a raffle (with prizes donated from local companies), a tombola, and a guess how many sweets in the jar.

The latter was fascinating watching people's approaches to work out how many sweets we had in the far. In the end, the winner was only five out and ended up winning the whole jar. That led to a very happy reaction from the youngsters in the winning family.

Elsewhere at the charity our drama group put on a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Epsom last month. Again a lot of work went into this, working with our partners over many weeks of rehearsals, One of our partners was working hard behind the scenes making amazing props, and we were making use of various random items we could make part of the show.

The day itself was pure joy with care homes, families and friends coming to the church in Epsom where we had two performances. The audience loved it and many of them were happy to buy one of the giant souvenir Willy Wonka bars we had on offer.

This is another example of what the learning disability community can achieve, and how the arts can really nurture people's creativity and increase confidence. This is something we are also seeing a lot with our radio show – Sunny Sessions.

Listen to Sunny Sessions from The Sunnybank Trust on Surrey Hills Community Radio, Monday and Thursday 10am, and on Radio Woking every Wednesday at 9am. Catch up on demand at  www.sunnybanktrust.org/sunny-sessions

My other Radio Woking shows are Wednesday breakfast 7am to 9am and Sunday morning 9am to noon. Email me at [email protected].