Funky Flamingo: the club for people with learning disabilities

David Fry of United Response attends a fundraiserfor a club for people with learning disabilities

I travelled from London to Cambridge for a special afternoon, an all-day fundraiser for Funky Flamingo. There was karaoke and live music, which I love because I am a big music fan. My mission was to find out more about what Funky Flamingo does.

The Funky Flamingo is a club for people with learning disabilities and their friends. They were raising money so they could throw a Halloween party as well as fund Funky TV, a TV channel for people with learning disabilities.

The best thing about the event was how friendly it was. I like doing lots of different things in my spare time with all sorts of people. But sometimes it’s nice to go to a place where people with learning difficulties are very welcome.

One of the first people I spoke to was Amanda Kleherer from the charity Inspire, which organised the event. She says: “Funky Flamingo isn’t about being different or exclusive,” she says. “It’s meant to be just as much fun whether you have a learning disability or not. I’ve got friends who came to our club night and didn’t know anyone who had a learning disability before, but they ended up loving it.”

When I was younger I didn’t know about anything like this. I think it would have been really fun if I’d been able to go to events like this and meet new people. I talked to a man called Darren Moore, who performs at the events as a Tom Jones impersonator and also helps organise them.

Darren says: “My advice to everyone would be ‘get involved’. It takes a lot of organising, but they train you to help and it’s all worth it. I’ve had so much fun.”

There was also a very good live band and lots of people doing karaoke. The people at The Rock pub were really good hosts.

If other people in other places want to organise events where people with learning disabilities can meet their friends, it would be a really good thing. And I definitely want to go to the club night!

This article appeared in the 13 September issue under the headline “Getting funky at the Flamingo club night”