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posted: 30 May 2011
Family Fun Day, 25th June - Sandra's report
We had a great family fun day on Saturday 25th June at The Hare pub 505 Cambridge Heath Road, E2, thanks to its licensee Julian Apperley who organised it all. The children loved the balloon modeller and the rest of us enjoyed the ‘race night’ as well as the excellent choices of beer at the pub, the music and a brilliant buffet.
It was great for the children to be amused by Lennie Nosa, the balloon lady during the day. She had them all tied up in balloons of all colours and shapes!!
Before everyone arrived Barbara & Bev Spicer went shopping for the food for the buffet. The Beigel Shop in Brick Lane donated 100 beigels to us and Tesco’s provided most of the fillings, cakes, sausages and more rolls, etc. with the balance being paid out by the Spicer family. So our thanks to all those involved. Janet Collett and Sandra helped Barbara & Bev to butter and fill the beigels and then we were all able to put the food out on the tables in the pub in time for lunch. However, there was more than enough to last throughout the day until closing time and most people were able to take some food in ‘doggy bags’ as they left for home.
Our patron, Tommy Walsh, joined us at the pub in time for the race night to begin and remained there until well into the evening.
I don’t think he won any of the other races, but he bought a horse in the final race and that won, much to everyone’s delight. He very kindly donated his winnings to the charity and also auctioned two bottles of spirits that were part of the prize. Our special thanks go to him for spending the day with us and making the event go with a swing and being so generous too. By the time all the money was counted the pub had raised £633.13 for us, but that is not the end of it. Julian still has some sporting memorabilia that he will also put on EBay to raise money for the charity.
Then on 1st October Julian will bravely undertake a Skydive – something he has never done before - and would like some of you to sponsor him, so if you would like to do so, just get in touch with Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or pop along to The Hare pub and sign his sponsor sheet and have a pint with him to spur him on.
Our grateful thanks go to Julian and all his staff who worked so hard to organise the day for us and all the helpers on the day. Also, thanks for the lovely food prepared by Barbara, Bev and Janet and to the Beigel Shop in Brick Lane for supplying so many beigels and to Tesco’s for supplying vouchers towards the buffet costs and of course the Spicer family for their help and contributions too.
Sandra
posted: 19 May 2011
Sandra's report on the latest fund raising events
Foresters Scooter Club
On Sunday we had the wonderful Foresters Scooter Club of Woodford organising a fund-raising event at the Misty Moon pub in Bethnal Green Road. It was a great sight with all the scooters lined up on the pavement outside the pub. They caused quite a lot of attention as there were so many of them.
Their members have been raising money for us since March and carried on at the pub. Ian Bonner organised it and singer/songwriter Pete Sceats (both of whom lost relatives in the disaster) sang the most amazing version of the Led Zeplin classic ‘Stairway to Heaven’ to us. We had some of our goods to sell too and the whole event raised £622.41. So that was really brilliant and we would like to thank Ian, Pete and all the rest of the members of the club for such a fantastic effort and we look forward to seeing them all again soon.
Arts Auction
The arts auction on Monday was a lot of work. If I had known how much I might not have been so keen to take it on!! However, it was wroth it in the end. We raised £3,472.90 which was excellent and there are lots of items still not sold that we will keep for the celebrity lunch (hopefully in late September or early October), or maybe we will be brave enough to organise another arts auction.
My sincere thanks to all the artists that donated work to it, they were very generous and very helpful and of course without them we could not have had such a brilliant cross section of art of all kinds to offer. Special thanks go to everyone who came along on the day and bought items, especially Tommy Walsh and all his friends. Rich Mix and their staff were wonderful to us, giving us the venue for free and providing the support staff and food (which was delicious). Tesco’s and Iceland provided some of the drinks. Chris & Lee donated the rest. Derek did a lot of running around and on the day Jan, Lee, Derek, Chris & I hung all the paintings and cards, forms, etc. from early morning. Plus all our extra evening helpers Barbara, Edna, Frances & Jo. Our feet were aching like mad by the end of the evening, especially as we didn’t get home until 1am, but it was a great atmosphere and a really exciting evening.
The most amazing help came from Chris Foley (our new committee member) who basically stored, catalogued and did all the paperwork for the auction (weeks of work) and Laura Healy who produced the catalogue. They worked so hard to get everything right and the three of us were exchanging e-mails until the early hours of the morning most days leading up to it. The other super player was the auctioneer, Lord Shoreditch (Steve Edge), who is a real character and really made the auction. Hopefully there will be some photos on the website soon.
Coming soon: Family Fun day
Now we have the family fun day to look forward to at The Hare pub, Cambridge Heath Road (Victoria Park Road end), Bethnal Green, on Saturday 25th June from midday until late.
Sandra
posted: 26 May 2011
Letter of support from Prime Minister David Cameron.
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We have received a letter of support from Prime Minister David Cameron, which can be viewed
here.
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REMEMBERANCE BOOK FOR SALE
The Civil Defence Association generously produced
and presented a beautiful Remembrance Book to St.
John on Bethnal Green Church for permanent display
there. The hard-backed book contains a description
of the tragedy and lists the names, ages and last
known addresses of all those who died, along with
details of their parents or spouses. Thanks to Tim
Essex-Lopresti and Ian Pell, the Association has
produce copies of the book for sale, which will be
a wonderful memento for families to keep and
hand-down to future generations. There are pages at
the back to place photographs and other personal
details in. We still have some copies left for £30
each (plus p & p if you are too far away to
collect a copy from one of the committee members).
However if you would prefer to purchase copies
online you can do so through Amazon or Nielsen
Bookdata for £40. The charity is making a very
small profit on this as we feel it is more
important for families to have the opportunity to
own a copy for their family history records than to
raise funds this way.
Please phone 07722 162 168 or e-mail
info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org for more
information.
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