We have indeed been busy during lockdown! After registering as a charity just before the first national lockdown last March, we had to think and move fast when they went from “no screens” to create and perform to “only screens”. 

The hard work has paid off, and our team of 20 volunteers delivered over 1500 hours working with children when they lost access to so many other activities. 

We expanded the programme to work with children who have autism or anxiety and ensured no child was left behind during the pandemic when it comes to using their creativity and imagination to find their potential.

The children have connected with senior citizens remotely over the last 12 months to hear stories of life in the UK since the Second World War.

The culmination of their hard work is a multi-media performance with puppets, animations, illustrations and digital art “The Princesses’ Play” draws parallels between life during the Covid lockdown and the realities of yester years, telling stories of resilience, hope and the human spirit. 

Inspired by the true story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s childhood, and the pantomimes she put on with her sister to raise funds for the soldiers Wool Fund during World War Two in the Waterloo Chamber of Windsor Castle.  

This performance of “The Princesses’ Play” is completely free to watch. We wanted as many people as possible to see the beautiful work the children have created, and hear the wonderful stories they have to share.

But in a parallel to the fundraising origins of Her Royal Highness, this performance will be raising much-needed funds for the charity because the performance almost didn’t go ahead. 

Sadly, we lost out on some funding for this project that we were relying on. It happened at the last minute, and we knew there was no way we could cancel and let down the children who have worked so hard on this project. 

So now we have some funds to raise to make sure we can continue delivering many more Busy Buttons programmes, and helping more children across our community learn more about themselves, build their confidence and discover their potential. 

If you can and are able to, please make a donation for this performance. 

A gift of £19.50 could provide an art kit to a child from low-income family. £170 could enable that child to join our theatre programme.

Please give generously and help another child who would so urgently benefit from exploring their creativity with us.  

• Your kindness today will help make sure that more performances like this can happen. 
• Your generosity will help children in our communities find and tell more stories from the older generations. 
• Your compassion will help more diverse groups of young people come together, to tell stories creatively and learn about themselves and the world so they can become the citizens our communities need. 

“I’m really pleased Busy Buttons stayed open. There’s no other place like it where you can really be creative and let your imagination run free.” 

You can help make sure we can run more programmes like this for the children in our community. Please give generously. Thank you.