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| Helen, Angela, Thomas & Marcia collecting at Longacres |
Another element of the Great Daffodil Appeal is placing static display boxes of daffodil pins in shops and other premises who have agreed to take them, and of course collecting them afterwards. Thanks to the dedication of a small team, this brought in a further £1,700.
Shortly after the GDA, we were introduced to Pine Ridge Golf Course by Paul Deach of the Surrey Heath Residents Network. After a couple of meetings, they confirmed they would like our Fundraising Group to be their chosen charity and we have worked together on a number of events during the year.
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| Supporting the Marie Curie runners on Tower Bridge |
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| The egg boxes were ready to become daffodils, but the Surrey Heath Show was not to be |
We had a bit of a disappointment in May, when the Surrey Heath Show was cancelled due to the atrocious weather in the run-up to the day making the ground impossible to use. We hope the event will be back in 2013 and that we can make an appearance.
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| BGTP at Lakeside Primary School |
With a month or so to draw breath, summer was just around the corner, and along with it, another fantastic Marie Curie national campaign, the Blooming Great Tea Party. Thanks to Pine Ridge Golf Course, we were able to hold our first ever BGTP in their magnificent Baronial Hall, and were pleased to welcome lots of local families along, who helped us to raise £403. We also did as much as we could to publicise the BGTP campaign and encourage local people to get involved. Many friends of the Group held their own parties as well as some new people who we met through social networking. They helped to raise a further £548.
We managed to have a little rest over the summer and enjoy the Olympics (and a myself and Charmaine and our children took part in Marie Curie's Walk Ten event in Dorking), but were back and running in September when we attended the Siemens Fun Day on what turned out to be the last really hot day of the year. This would have been great if we hadn't been running a cake stall and spent most of the day catching the icing which was running off the cakes! But you live and learn, and somehow that day we raised £110. Thanks to everyone who kindly made some amazing cakes for us to sell.
Our next event at Pine Ridge was a Ladies Pamper and Golf Day. After some concern and sleepless nights, the day was well supported and we raised £487. We learnt that people don't much like to commit themselves in advance and most people who attended just turned up on the day. Thankfully.
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| The Secret Stage School creating a spooky dance routine at Family Spookfest |
As soon as that day was completed, we began promoting out very successful Family Spookfest, again at Pine Ridge. The splendid surroundings of the Baronial Hall provided a perfect backdrop for the event. Again, we needed to sell tickets in advance to know how many cakes to make, how many people to cater for, how many sweet bags, etc. etc. It was another uncertain run-up which thankfully turned out 'alright on the night' and was fantastically well attended. A total of £535 was raised.
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| Our amazing hampers - everything was donated by supporters and local businesses |
At the beginning of December, Pine Ridge invited us to join them at their annual Open Day. We held a Raffle and a Name The Teddy, and Pine Ridge organised a Tombola too, helping us to raise £350.
Finally, the Marie Curie Regional Office had secured us two Christmas collection venues - The Meadows and The Mall, Camberley. Both of these days were relatively quiet. The Meadows was a Tuesday which is clearly not that busy. But despite that, we collected £966. All we had to compare this to was the collection there we hurriedly coordinated just a few weeks after the Group was created at Christmas 2011 - that was a Saturday and took £1051, so not actually that much different. However, we were there for considerably longer this year, and with more collectors. We started at 9.30am and finished at 7pm, with 2 or 3 collectors at all times. The Phoenix Choir from Tongham sang carols and collected for us from 7-9pm and during that time they collected £258 of the days total, so we are very grateful to them for their support.
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| Pia - braving the cold at The Meadows |
The Mall raised £576 during the six hours of Sunday trading. I think we all agreed that we preferred collecting at a supermarket venue, but this was still pretty impressive, and brought our Christmas collection total to £1542. I had one gentleman who pushed two £20 in my tin in The Mall - people's generosity never ceases to amaze me. And the stories people have of loved ones cared for by Marie Curie nurses never get any easier to hear, but do bring home the reason we are doing it.
So, at the huge risk of missing out people, I will thank a few individuals who have helped enormously to make this a successful year we should all be very proud of.
Kim for all her support, ideas and for being there at almost every event; Pine Ridge Golf Course, especially Sarah, for supporting our Group and hosting our events; Paul Deach for publicising our events; Charmaine, Annee, Jane, Lisa, Georgie, Hayley, Helen, Tina, Katie and Emma for everything they do to support the Group; Sue for counting endless piles of coins and dragging them to the bank to pay in; Leigh of Pear Tree Photography who donated all the takings from his Photo Booth at the BGTP and Spookfest; Camberley Mummies for allowing me to post about our events in their Facebook Group and supporting our events.
So, our final total for 2012 was £12,022! I hope we can continue our success throughout 2013. Thank you so much for supporting us and the Nurses who are there every day of the year to help people through the last few days of their life, and support their families before, during and after their loss. Every £20 pays for an hour of care. Every £20 makes a difference.
Happy Christmas all, see you in the Spring!
Sharon
