Christmas Tree Dinner & Presentation - January 2009

Again, we made a record collection .... of £5,426, [£1646 Tesco; £3,600 Streets; and £84 from our Beckenham Green excursion]; plus donations, to a total of £5,698.  The increase was due, especially, to our Wife’nfriendsForce; to help from the Langley Park Residents’ Association Social Committee; and, to Martin and Olive delivering flyers in Kenwood Drive ... all building on our sure foundations of yesteryear.  For comparison, we collected £5.117 in 2007, plus donations, to a total of £5,492.  Magnificent achievements by the Club. 

Again, the weather was kind to us .. chilly, perhaps – but DRY!  We were a jolly crowd, and, to my relief, lost nobody on the streets ... though I was worried about that once or twice.  
We had a good turnout of collectors – which encourages the Committee no end, and, I believe, increases the collection because we can stand on doorstops a little longer.  On the Tuesday night we were joined by five members of the Round Table.

May I, as Chairman, thank all those who volunteered to collect; those who were Santa [not only our Walking, and running, Santa’s, Charles Wood and Andrew Osborne, but also our amateur Santas at Tesco]; - and to Richard Shaw, Brian Dibb, and David Green for towing the sleigh. A lot of work goes into organising our main fund raising event of the year and I would like to thank Trevor Thorman, Martin Pruden, Richard Shaw, Brian Dibb and Charles Wood  - your Christmas Tree Committee - for their hard work, dedication and support in making the Christmas Tree Collection such a great success, again. I am in awe of our bionic money counter and money changer – Trevor -  who was still chinking at midnight more than once. We are again hugely grateful to Brian and Maria Dibb for letting us house the sleigh in their garage, for Brian helping to get the sleigh ready for each outing and for Maria in cheerfully supplying us with coffee and biscuits whilst checks were being made on the sleigh. 

There is a downward trend in the Tesco collections – about 15% down from 2006.  All except Thursday’s street collections were more than last year – Wednesday’s [especially Kenwood Drive] and Friday’s [Langley Park] substantially greater. The Kenwood Drive collection bears out our previous experience that flyers add some 25%, as last year we had no flyers there.

The net figure to be distributed to our chosen five local children’s charities, after expenses and a transfer to the President’s Charitable Emergency Fund [10%, ie £543.08], is £4,887. 

Demelza Hospice Care for Children was presented with our cheque for £1,000 at our Christmas Tree Dinner on 8th January. The cheque was handed to Tim Blair, Project Manager for the Eltham project. Bromley Friends of Demelza was represented by Janet Whitlock.  This is the first year we have “majored” on Demelza – in part because their new, local, hospice at Eltham is opening to children in January ... though our area has always been served from HQ at Sittingbourne, and the hospice at home service. Our donation will be marked by a commemorative paving slab in the Walk of Life around the new building at Eltham – which Tim promised will be on the sunny side.  If you want to know more – come to our Demelza talk at a Ladies’ Lunch later this year!

CASPA (Children on the Autistic Spectrum Parents’ Association - Bromley) was presented with our cheque for £1,000 by President Nick at their pantomime in January. We have supported this charity from the beginning – six years ago - and the Committee felt we should continue to support them in the work they do. Our donation will be used for a trip to France, in which the children will be taught some French so that they may buy items from a French market. CASPA will give us a talk later this year – including what happened on the French trip and benefits therefrom .... not least of which will be increased confidence. 

Friends of the Phoenix Centre for Children with Special Needs will be presented with our cheque for £1,000 by President Nick at their Black Tie event on 6th March. We have supported this charity for a number of years and the Christmas Tree Committee felt we should continue to support them in the magnificent work they do for severely handicapped children. Our contribution is to Phase 2 of the Sensory Garden – we contributed to Phase 1 last year.

Carers Bromley was presented with a cheque for £1,000, for Young Carers in the Borough, at their Board Meeting on 22nd January. Young Carers look after a parent or sibling who may have drug, alcohol, depression or severe disability problems.  Our donation will go towards Respite Activities – specifically, the Performing Arts Event in late February or early March – to which we are invited. That involves a week’s training in drama, from which the special benefit is confidence – as well as a refreshing and revitalising break from the young carers’ responsibilities, with the opportunity to meet other youngsters who are in the same situation. Carers Bromley will give us a [PowerPoint] talk, this year or next.

The Petts Wood Playgroup for Children with Special Needs will receive the remaining £887 from our collection. Being President Nick’s chosen Charity, this has been transferred to Nick’s special project fund for presentation later this year. The Playgroup was set up in September 1968 by a group from the Petts Wood United Reform Church and the Methodist Church, and provides pre-school education for children with special needs from birth to five years.

All very worthwhile, as I am sure you will agree. Speaking to the charities, I was struck that we have made truly meaningful impacts on our longer term charities over the years.