We had a great start to 2013 as one of three charities to appear on the Asda Community Life (green token) scheme in January/February, which we had been on the waiting list for for a while. We were lucky enough to win the £200 for the most votes over the two months – with the container having to be emptied twice during that period! Thank you for your votes.
Along came the Spring, and with it the major fundraising
campaign for the year, the Great Daffodil Appeal (GDA). With many of our regular supporters being
joined by some new faces, we had a fantastically successful appeal, visiting
Longacres, The Meadows, Frimley, The Mall Camberley and Sainsburys Watchmoor
Park during March and raising £6,705 in loose change!
Running alongside the manned GDA collections were the
outreach boxes – static displays with integral money boxes – which are
distributed by our teams to pre-agreed shops and businesses and collected in at
the end of the campaign. These raised an
additional £1,592.
We attended the Surrey Heath Show for the first time in May
this year, it having been rained off in 2012.
It was a very windy day indeed, but was very well attended, and our
tombola and bracelet making activity attracted a lot of support from visitors,
raising £193. Also in May our name came
to the top of the list for the Waitrose Community Matters (green token) scheme in
the Frimley branch and customers voted us as their favourite charity that
month, bringing us a lovely cheque for £440.
In June, a rather ‘out of our comfort zone’ event took
place, which saw a number of the members of the Group and friends, take part in
the official Marie Curie Cancer Care Skinny Dip in Dorset. 
The Summer marked the start of the
nationwide Blooming Great Tea Party campaign and in early June, in
collaboration with www.camberleymummies.co.uk,
we held our own event at Pine Ridge Golf Club, who are a great support to
us year-round. The event was a great success, with
fantastic support from local Mums who came along to enjoy the activities laid
on for their little ones whilst they were able to partake of tea and cakes. Other local supporters also held their own
Blooming Great Tea Parties, raising a further £200.
Another windy day in June saw us fighting with my gazebo on
the patio at the Pine Ridge Beer Festival.
The unbelievable weather did not deter a heaving crowd of people
enjoying a very successful event and we did eventually retire our tombola to
the safety of the well pegged down beer tent and raised £165.
At this point in the year, we realised that whilst a
potentially exhilarating sport, extreme gazebo wrestling is not all that much fun, and
we began to consider how we could pay for a commercial quality gazebo to serve
us better. We were extremely lucky that
a private donor kindly offered to pay for a gazebo and we were able to purchase
one from a company in Bracknell (the same one as our colleagues at the
Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Fundraising Group).
And so it was that Gertie the Gazebo became ours, ready and willing to
protect us from the elements at future events. Later in the year we secured a grant from the Frimley Fuel Allotments Charity for three quality folding tables which complete the professional appearance we will be showing off during 2014!
As Marie Curie Cancer Care is the Superdrug Charity of the
Year 2013/14, we were offered the chance to collect in store over a weekend in
July. We collected £145 and Rachel, who
works in Superdrug, painted nails throughout the day and raised a further £109.
In August our luck came up again as we came to the top of
the list for the Waitrose Community Matters scheme in the Sandhurst branch,
bringing in £570 thanks to many votes from their fantastic customers.
Whilst we were unable to attend a charity day at the White
Lion pub in Yateley, a very kind patron ran a stall on our behalf, raising a
fabulous £115 and in September, we attended the Siemens Fun Day in Frimley,
where cakes, sweets and bracelet making raised £138.
Later in September we visited the Asda branch in
Farnborough, who had invited us to organise a bag packing fundraiser following
our Community Life success earlier in the year.
Lots of the children of the Group’s members came along to help on the
day, and received many compliments from customers for their excellent
representation of the charity. Bags were
packed and, as far as we know, no eggs were harmed J £727 was collected on the day.
In late November, we embarked on some early wearing of
festive headgear, with five collections dates across three days at Sainsburys
Watchmoor Park, Longacres and The Meadows.
The weather was relatively forgiving for the time of year and our
supporters layered up and braved the elements to raise a fantastic £2,927.
Finally, in December, we were invited back to Superdrug for
a weekend collection which was a great success, raising £242. I was very grateful for the supporters who
came out during one of the busiest pre-Christmas weekends to spare some of
their time to help with this at short notice.
Many thanks to all our supporters who have been involved
with our collections and events this year and made our final total (excluding
the Skinny Dip) over £15,600. This is
truly an amazing amount and will provide over 780 hours of care.
A huge thank you goes to our Treasurer, Sue, who works
tirelessly to pay all the money we raise into the bank on our behalf, spending
every evening for weeks after big collections just counting and bagging the
money. We couldn’t do it without her. Her employer, RBS NatWest, support staff commitment
to a voluntary organisation each year, and Sue was able to apply for a grant of
£250 again this year in recognition of her unpaid work for the Group.Lastly, thanks once again to Paul Deach of the Surrey Heath Residents Network for his continued support in 2013.
We really do have some fun as well as raising lots of money, so if you are interested in getting involved, please do get in touch by emailing camberleymariecurie@hotmail.co.uk or visiting our Facebook page www.facebook.com/mariecuriecamberley following us on Twitter - @CamberleyMarieC.
Bring it on 2014!
Sharon
