Hi all,

We’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came to our first big fundraiser at Cafe Artisan on November 20th.  With sales of raffle tickets and money on the night, together we raised nearly £2000, so well done and thank you for your support.  We’d also like to thank all of the local businesses who donated prizes for the raffle and for the charity auction.  They are listed below.  Please do let us know if we’ve missed anyone off the list!

Blackburn Rovers FC
Blondies Hair Studio
Bolthole
Boogallo Baby
Burnley FC
Cafe Artisan
Just Gorgeous Bridal Studio
Kids Academy
Leabrook Nurseries
Moorey’s Health Store
Patricias Floral Fair
Preston North End FC
Rolands Florist
Strawberry Blue
Sunday Best
Tufties

As well as this, there were so many people who helped out.  Apologies in advance if we forgotten anyone, but here goes.  Ellen Houghton donated the hamper for the charity raffle, Jamie and Vicky Hoyland arranged the Burnley, Preston and Ireland football shirts, Chris Cornwall strummed away on his guitar for free, Ray Godwin loaned the Karaoke equipment for “The A Factor” competition, Tim and Nic from Cafe Artisan hosted the evening and did a lot of the organisation, Allice helped judge “The A Factor”, Michelle and Vicky from Tufties sold raffle tickets and helped promote the event, Stuart Bell and Jessica Maki helped out with photography and manning the registration desk, Steve Sullivan donated a days joinery for the charity raffle, Mark donated a days plastering for the charity raffle, and everyone else who came contributed to the overall total, so thank you so much.

The “A” Factor

Come down to our next fund raising event on Friday 20th November 2009 at Cafe Artisan in Rawtenstall.  We’re having an “A” Factor singing competition where there’ll be a prize for the best (and worse!) performance of the evening.  Along with that there’ll be loads more goings on such as our raffle with prizes ranging from signed football shirts (Blackburn and Preston*) to vouchers for local shops, so get yourself a ticket!  There will also be a charity auction including a signed Burnley match shirt from the Burnley vs. Arsenal game (captain’s shirt).  Bids can be placed via email if you can’t attend – go to our contact page.

*We have had to withdraw the Republic of Ireland football shirt from the raffle. We found out recently that this was not donated to the raffle as initially thought. However, we have been informed that we should be expecting a Northern Ireland football shirt after this event that we will hold a separate auction for. Apologies if this has caused any issues.

“Make us a brew”

“Make us a brew” is our annual tea and coffee drive that we run September/ October time for the special care baby unit at St. Mary’s Hospital in Manchester.  The unit is an amazing place with wonderful staff, and this is our little way of helping out.  When we stayed at the special care unit with our son Dexter, we were incredibly well looked after.  The month we got to spend with him, we drank more cups of tea than we care to remember.  For obvious reasons, all the money goes into care for the babies at the unit, but there are also parents rooms and a small kitchen area for parent’s who are staying on the ward if their baby is very ill.  Even though it’s not much, by providing some little things like tea, coffee and biscuits for the parent’s kitchen (and also as a treat for the staff) it goes some way towards helping.  As they say, it’s the little things.

We dropped off 3 boxes full of such items to the special care unit today (October 15th 2009) that were kindly donated by friends and family.  We’d like to keep this going and up the effort in the coming months, so watch this space….