All the Fun of Children in Need

OK, so we've had the build-up to last week's Children in Need, so how did everyone get on?

First up is Rowan House...

[caption id="attachment_7333" align="alignleft" width="300"] l-r: Sam Marlow, Kayla Watts (donning Pudsey ears!), Laura Morris, Jennifer Taylor, Jade Cholod[/caption]

Laura Morris said:

"We had a great selection of homemade sweets, cakes, cookies and truffles on offer - we did a trolley dash around both floors of the office so people didn't even need to get out of their seats :)"

Just like their trolley, the total raised is a bit of a moveable feast. The latest update we have is £168.62!

Next, we have the first of two reports hailing from Borehamwood: NNSC to be precise for the first...



...they had a pyjama day which was one of this year's fun activities suggested for all Children in Need participants.

I see we have an "elephant in the room" to rival the Tigger onesie Richard Osman was wearing on Friday's edition of Pointless!

The total raised was a nifty £80.

... and last but not least Kelly Carey from Smiths News Borehamwood completes our round-up...



... "our staff made Poppadums, Samosas, Onion Bhajis, Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Brownies and lots of other delightful things. We charged £2 a plate and raised £80.

We also took part in playing “Guess what song Pudsey and Gary sang live in concert” we charged £2 a guess and £30 went to Children in Need and £30 went to the winner.

Altogether Borehamwood Group raised a total of £121."

That makes a grand total of £369.62 - great stuff!

Nic Tries a Double Link-Up

Last Monday, Nic Hewlett of Rowan House swapped her desk in Swindon for a day at the Inner Wheel combined charity event in Cirencester.

She managed to combine two Community Link-Up elements by linking together fundraising and volunteering when she applied for her day's Volunteer Time. As you can see (to the left of the picture), her role for the day was helping out on one of the many stalls.

The money raised on the day - £234 - will go towards the many charities - both local and further afield - supported by Cirencester's Inner Wheel, who are celebrating their 50th anniversary in 2013.

Nic's fundraising - and Smiths News - were celebrated in the Inner Wheel's national magazine this summer when her fellow member Liz Tovey reported on her receiving Smiths News's Community Champion of the Year award last year. Said Liz:

"Nic our youngest member - and the first with no ties to Rotary - joined us two and a half years ago and is already on the committee, showing a great enthusiasm and totally 'being a friend'.

Well done Nic, we are all very proud of your achievement."

And so are we!

Update: This is post number 500 on the blog! Many thanks to all of you who've contributed news for us to publish over the past three years :D

Michelle Tells Us About Heartline

[caption id="attachment_3029" align="alignright" width="300"] Michelle with Kieran at Bertrams' Bake and Take last year[/caption]

Betrams' Michelle Ward has been in touch to tell us about an event, charity and a petition which are all very close to her heart...

I am helping to organize an event. We have had a teddy donated by a Norwich bear shop and it will be travelling around the country with a cloth nappy on to help raise awareness of Pulse Oximetry screening and to help raise money for Heartline. The teddy will be travelling to different companies who sell cloth nappies for fundraising and to get people to sign a petition.

The 1^st June will be the 1^st event the teddy will take part in; we are holding an event at Drayton village hall where we will have stalls, games, refreshments, children’s entertainment (including Peppa Pig) to help raise awareness and also raise as much money as we can. If you would like more details on the events that are happening over the country please have a look at  the Awareness Bear website.

Heartline is a charity that supports parents with children with heart conditions. I have used this lots to get support when I found out my son had a heart condition. They also organize holidays for children with heart conditions  and they can go free of charge.

What is the Pulse Oximetry test?  We are helping the Children’s Heart Federation (CHF) to help raise awareness for the test and to call upon the Government to roll out Pulse Oximetry screening. This will help to discover if the baby has a heart condition so it can be treated earlier. We did not find out that my son had a heart condition until he was 10 weeks old and by then he was in heart failure.

Research shows that this quick and painless test can detect the underlying signs of a heart condition, saving lives through early detection. Please sign the CHF petition to help push for Pulse Oximetry to be added to the national screening programme for all newborns.

Please help save babies life by signing the petition at

www.chfed.org.uk/campaigns/chf-pulse-oximetry-campaign

(Please make sure you validate your email address once you have signed the petition)

Thanks

Michelle

Thanks Michelle - hope all goes well on June 1st (send us your pics!) and that we get you some more signatures for the petition. I saw the test featured on Breakfast News last week and it seemed such a simple and sensible thing to do. You can read more about Michelle and her son Kieran's story here.

News from Michelle, June 2013: I thought I would update you we did the event on sat and have raised £350 once everything has been taken away.

We Haz Plans...

We have news of a couple of plans for this year's Charity Fundraising.



Firstly, we have a sneak preview of the provisional plan The Consortium has mapped out for their fundraising activities in Trowbridge this year :)

This year they're raising funds to support the West Wiltshire Special Needs Activity Scheme and have a number of events planned for the whole of 2013.

Completed

• January – The Consortium presented a cheque for £12,132.77 to Wiltshire Air Ambulance, their chosen good cause for 2012


• February – TV Raffle (and many other prizes!) raised a massive £460


• 15^th March – Comic Relief – raised £237

The raffle and Comic Relief fundraising were both held as 'cross-site' events, involving The Consortium's Trowbridge and Shrewsbury sites.

To Come

• April – Grand national sweepstake


• 21^st April – Kim Valentine runs the London Marathon (again!)


• 14^th May – Quiz Night held at the Wesley Road Club in Trowbridge


• September – The Consortium Annual Golf Day


• 28^th September - Macmillan Coffee Morning and the annual Golden Spoon competition


• September / October – Race Night


• 25^th October – Wear it Pink day


• December – Christmas Raffle

There's plenty going on at The Consortium in 2013! We look forward to seeing more news and pictures as each event happens :)

Secondly Terri Baylis at Rowan House has given us news of her revised plans for her walk set for June in aid of CLIC. She originally was going to tackle 25 miles of the scenic Jurassic Coast and now...

I’ve updated my JustGiving page - we’re now walking the Ridgeway between Avebury & Streatley on 14-15^th July, which is around 40 miles over the two days.

Thanks for the update Terri - I see you've added quite a few miles to your proposed walk!

Do you or your area have a fundraising plan this year? Do let us know what you have in store... and don't forget it may also provide an opportunity for a wider Link-Up with your colleagues, suppliers or customers in some way!

Some Eggstra Fun at Rowan House

[caption id="attachment_5379" align="alignright" width="224"] Yum![/caption]

The run up to Easter proved the perfect time for some Eggstra fun [groan - Ed] at Rowan House! Various activities were organised with the following results...

• A Giant Easter Egg was on reception in the run up to Easter. This was a raffle for Cancer Research, (50p a ticket or £2 a strip), drawn on 28^th March. The raffle was organised by Finance's Carolyn Griffiths and raised £215.00. Viv Heydon was the lucky winner of the egg!


• Nic Hewlett arranged donations for the Cirencester Foodbank – not just Easter Eggs but also tins of food to help them out.


• Easter Egg hunt on Friday 28^th March 2013 – this was the fun bit!! Nic Hewlett hid nearly 100 chicks around Rowan House for staff to find and trade in for a small chocolatey treat! Plus there was a golden chick for an extra special prize – won by Nicola Donnelly in Smiths News Finance. Great fun had by all! :)

It may be only a few days after Easter, but Cirencester Food Bank have already sent a letter of thanks:

Cirencester Foodbank – emergency food for local people in crisis

March 2013

To

Smiths News   

I am writing on behalf of the Foodbank in Cirencester to thank you for your generous donation.  Your donations in March provided 72 kg of food that will help families in crisis in Cirencester and the surrounding area to put food on the table. 

The Foodbank helps to prevent family breakdown, housing loss, crime and mental health problems.  Volunteers at Ashcroft Church in Cirencester who exchange vouchers for 3 days of food also take time to listen and signpost people to further support.

This month donors in the Cirencester district gave the Foodbank 781 kg of food.  The Foodbank has given out food to 312 adults and to 200 children since it opened last year.

Your support is important to the long-term success of the Foodbank.

Thank you.

On behalf of the

Cirencester Foodbank

So Smiths News' efforts formed nearly 10% of the Foodbank's donations for March - well done Nic!

Eugene's Final Countdown For Paris

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5339,5342,5341"]

Eugene Howson, Distribution Manager at London Travel News (LTN) will be running in the Paris Marathon (26.2 miles) this Sunday (7th April).

But that’s not all. As reported previously he's been preparing for the big event by running a couple of half marathons! In addition he ran from Slough to Reading on a home run and challenged colleagues to guess how long it would take. Eugene explains:

"I've been following a strict 12 week training plan which included daily jogging and also a few competitive half marathons.

• Bath on March 3^rd- I was pleased with the time- my chip time was 1:35:36, it was a good run and it’s beneficial to be competitive to improve fitness levels.


• Reading on March 17^th- It was cold and wet, not ideal running conditions, but I improved the time – my chip time was 1:34:06

My fund raising pledge is £1000 and it would be great to achieve this target and make an incredible difference to Stroke care. I've have received tremendous support from family, friends and work colleagues in order to reach my pledge."

[gallery type="rectangular" link="post" ids="5344,5343,5340"]

"To help reach my target, I've also held the following events:

• Digital Camera Raffle - in February the London Travel Team held a Raffle, £1 a ticket to win a stylish digital camera. This event raised £85 and the winning ticket belonged to Roy Heavens, Night Driver at LTN.


• Pool Competition - during February/March, the warehouse teams arranged a knock out Pool challenge, 50p a game. To add to the fun, there was a further sweepstake (£1 a tote) to bet against the eventual winner. This has proved to be a good fund raiser which has already raised £125, and has helped build team camaraderie, with staff mixing between departments.


• Cake & Curry Day - The LTN Team held a cake and curry day on Friday 22^nd March. Everyone at LTN joined in the feast and the curry’s sold out within the hour. The staff generally appreciated the effort made by those who cooked and baked, and commented that it should be done on a monthly basis! This event raised £76.


• Guess the ‘Home’ Run - as part of my training, I decided to plan a final long run, and came up with the idea to run from work to home (Slough to Reading) a distance of 21 miles. I challenged everyone to guess how long it would take (£1 a guess); the winner to receive 25% of the pot with tins of Quality Streets as runners-up prizes for 2^nd & 3rd. 

The challenge form was circulated amongst the Eastern Regional Managers meeting, Borehamwood Group and LTN teams. Guesses ranged from 1 hour, 8 hours, 2 days and never (these were the comedians!)

It was one of those days where the weather kept changing. The first 6 miles was dry, but when I got to 10 miles it started to snow, and then the weather turned to sleet and rain. I hit the ‘wall’ at 20 miles and slowed his pace, and finished in a time of 2:34:26

The winning guesses, were joint winners Kam Patel (Borehamwood) and Mike Doyle (Peterborough) who both guessed 2:35:00. This event raised £100.

The team in Borehamwood have supported me along the way, and have made a donation of £200. To date staff at LTN Group have raised an amazing £417 and this is still on-going."

Fantastic Eugene, thanks for the update and photos! Eugene has a Just Giving page, and the current donations total £1,232, smashing his target!. The support is really valued and appreciated. All monies raised will go to the Stroke Association.

He adds, "My training is going to plan and everyone is being really supportive - my personal thanks to all."

Good luck for Sunday, Eugene - here's to a great time and atmosphere in Paris!

The Consortium Are Go

The Consortium Charity Team have hit 2013 running with their latest fundraising event. Holly Cresswell-Jeal reports:

"This is our first event in our charity calendar raising money for our new nominated charity for 2013 - West Wiltshire Special Needs Activity Scheme. One of our suppliers was kind enough to donate a LCD 50” TV!! So we decided to raffle it off along with a number of runners-up prizes such as chocolates and wine."

The raffle ran for 2 weeks in Trowbridge and Shrewsbury with the draw taking place on Wednesday 13^th February.

"We managed to raise a whopping £460 which is a great start to our fundraising year. The charity was nominated by a number of our Warehouse staff as a local charity in need of our support. David Stanley within the Marketing Team at Trowbridge won the TV.

Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket and helped raise money."

Ensuring there's Hope for Tomorrow

[caption id="attachment_4421" align="aligncenter" width="640"] All set up and ready to go in Cirencester[/caption]

Nicola Hewlett at Rowan House has been in touch with news of her latest fundraising venture, in Cirencester this time.

On November 13th, she helped run the cake stall for the charity Hope for Tomorrow in the Cornhall at the Combined Charities Christmas Fayre. Over 20 local and national charities set out their stalls for the day to raise money for good causes.

Nicola says:

Hope for Tomorrow is a mobile Chemotherapy unit that goes around the small hospitals in the local area to support cancer patients to save them travelling to the big towns for their treatment. We raised £188.65.

It looks like there were lots of goodies on offer!

Putting the Fun Into Fundraising

[caption id="attachment_3584" align="alignleft" width="300"] The tombola in full flow. From left to right are Chloe Webb, Aileen Newsome, Vicky Rhodes & Kate Jewson[/caption]

We're still catching up with all your fantastic news from Community Week! First up for this week's blog posts is the following report from Chloe Webb and Vicky Rhodes...

[caption id="attachment_3585" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mike Ward with his tombola loot[/caption]

The NAC used Community Week as an opportunity for some Fun-Raising.  Having already held our main events in April and May, our thoughts turned to sweets, cakes and ice cream, all of which helped us reach and beat our original fund-raising target of £1600 by £400.  The now infamous NAC Baking Sale was arranged by Chloe Webb and Vicky Rhodes and this raised a fantastic £103 in one day with BLS and Aldermore Finance who also occupy the building joining in.

Chloe and Vicky also arranged a Tombola which was great fun and again raised £120 in less than an hour!

Many of the staff paid to dress down for a whole week and we rounded off the fun with an ice cream parlour treat for everyone on Friday afternoon.

[caption id="attachment_3586" align="alignleft" width="300"] Kathryn Johnson, Kristy Carr and Vicky Holdsworth finishing their well-deserved ice creams[/caption]

You may remember the Smarties Challenge that we started in March which involved filling an empty Smarties tube (having eaten the Smarties first of course) with spare 20p coins.  Around 50 people took part and we raised £550 in total, smashing our £500 target.  A great result.

Fun-tastic everyone! The money raised goes to NAC's nominated local charities: Cancer Support Bradford and Airedale, and SACAR.

Donated Books Help Raise Funds

[caption id="attachment_3566" align="alignleft" width="224"] Schoolteacher Mrs Lupton, pictured with Aaron[/caption]

Jaimie Dorward and Adrian Warner have been in touch with news of BLS' latest book donation activities.

Books were given to St Paul's C of E primary school in Wibsey, Bradford, which is attended by Jaimie's son Aaron.

On 22nd June, the school held a book sale to raise funds for the library. Their efforts resulted in a  magnificent total of £822.

BLS Keep Calm and...

[caption id="attachment_3035" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Cheerful mugs AND chocolate cake - a perfect combination![/caption]

BLS' Analyst Programmer Sarah Toes with help from Account Manager Michelle Pringle proved they were no mugs recently by ensuring their colleagues could buy something cheerful for their morning cuppa!

They sold a selection of 3 different 'Keep Calm and...' mugs for £5 each, with 100% of sales going to Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Not only that, buyers were rewarded with a slice of scrummy chocolate cake to accompany their next cuppa :)

Sarah Toes explains why she supports Redwings:

I love animals and I have been a supporter of the charity for over 20 years. They are the largest horse sanctuary in the UK, providing a home for unwanted and neglected equines.

Sarah and Michelle raised a total of £95 - Keep Calm and Carry On would appear to be an appropriate motto for this venture!

I see quite a few of the mugs looked most patriotic, so this is an appropriate post to wish you well for any Jubilee celebrations you're involved with over the bank holiday weekend :)

Wakefield House Gets Swapping

[caption id="attachment_3010" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Rebecca Hedges sets out her stall[/caption]

On Wednesday 16^th May, the communal area of Wakefield House became a swap shop! It wasn't just for Smiths News staff either. As it was held downstairs, all the other businesses in the building were invited and many did take part!

All proceeds were in support of Mark Charlton, who has chosen The National Autistic Society for his From S to N bike ride. All remaining stock will be donated to a local Cancer Research charity shop.

Rachel Cook (joint organiser with Rebecca Hedges) reports:

The idea was simple. For every item brought in, people could swap it for another item. We charged a £2 fee per person (not item). So for just £2 people could swap something they didn’t want, for something they did! There was also the opportunity to just make a donation if people didn’t want to take part in the swap.

We swapped new, or nearly new clothes, shoes and bags, as well as DVDs, books, CDs and games.

Although uptake on ‘swapping’ was relatively low, the generous donations from staff within Wakefield House gave us plenty of stock for the shop. The sale of those items went fantastically well, at £1-3 per item, raising a fantastic £133.09 on the day. And I’m sure the charity shop will raise even more with the donations we still have left.

A great idea - well done ladies!

Wrestlemania Time at Newport

[caption id="attachment_2737" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Wrestlemania winners!"][/caption]

Newport got their fundraising underway recently by holding a raffle to win tickets to Wrestlemania in Cardiff. Kevin Bridges, Newport Support Manager presented the tickets to Nathan Braine and Michelle Yalland who were the lucky winners. 

2 pairs of tickets were up for grabs with the proceeds going to CLIC Sargent for Children with Cancer.

Community Champion Judith Read explains their choice:

One of our colleagues has a friend with a child who has leukaemia and has asked us to support this charity.

[caption id="attachment_2736" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Yay!"][/caption]

£20 was raised for this worthwhile cause.

Connor Yalland on the right shows how excited he was to be going to see his favourite wrestling star Randy Orten.

Disco Divas

[caption id="attachment_2641" align="alignleft" width="300"] Marie Kirvan and family[/caption]

Newcastle House have again been busy raising pots of cash. This time it was from their Disco, Games and Raffle night held at the British Legion Social Club in Gateshead on April 5th.  Marie Kirvan and the team from Customer Service ensured the evening was a complete success, raising £790 in the process for their chosen charity, the Newcastle branch of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

[caption id="attachment_2642" align="alignright" width="300"] Bob Beat presents Susan Bowes with her prize[/caption]

There were around 45 attendees on the night, including family members. Susan Bowes looks very pleased to have won the first prize of a 42 inch TV in the raffle!

Newcastle House have certainly been very busy with their fundraising. Let us know how you're getting along by completing a Publicity Form.

Jumping For Ava

We have an update from Newcastle House about Martin Cooke's fundraiser day held at the end of March for his niece Ava Bainbridge.You may have seen her story on The One Show recently.

Ava contracted meningococcal  septicaemia (a form of meningitis) at the age of 13 months and the family were advised it would be 50:50 she would survive. She did,  however, she lost 75% of one foot and 50% of another.

So Martin arranged for a fun family day at The Springwell Inn at Wrekenton, near Gateshead complete with a bouncy castle, raffles and bungee jumping! Despite the horribly dark and cold day, around 50 people attended, including 15 bungee jumpers. So far Martin has raised £2,000 to help buy some special prosthetic feet for Ava.

The short slideshow below shows Ava and also gives a flavour of what happened on the day...

[slideshow]

Name That Duck

[caption id="attachment_2557" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Domino with the Easter goodies"][/caption]

BLS' Sarah Toes came up with an Easter themed competition with a twist when she asked colleagues to Guess the Name of the Easter Duck recently.

In their quest to get their hands on all the goodies, her colleagues helped Sarah to  raise £35 for Hillside Animal Sanctuary.

Mark Silver correctly guessed Domino was the duck's name and thus walked off with the prize.

In other news from BLS, Julie Barnett's weekly raffle goes from strength to strength. The total raised so far is over £500, which makes her target of £650 by August 31st look very achievable. The funds raised will go to Yorkshire Cancer Research, the charity nominated by her colleagues.

Jaimie's and BLS' Legacy is...

Many of you will have seen Jaimie Dorward's moving piece in March's paper version of Dispatches and the recent post on here about her son Aaron's fun penalty shoot-out held in Bradford.

In her ambassador role, Jaimie is running in a 5k Legacy event for the National Autistic Society (NAS) in Blackpool on 29^th April. You can add your donation on Jaimie's Just Giving page  or with a free text message TEXT RUNJ49 £2/£5/£10 to 70070 [Link and text no longer available - Ed]

Mark Charlton is joining Jaimie in raising money for NAS via his participation in this year's From S to N flagship fundraiser and has been adopted as an honorary team member of BLS' Community Week campaign as a result.

BLS have a number of fundraising initiatives already underway and are using this neat thermometer to chart how they're progressing towards their  fundraising target of £7,000. [Click on the picture to enlarge it if you want a closer look - Ed]

They've also set up the BLS Community Week Challenge Team Page on Just Giving to make donating just that bit easier for everyone. On there you'll find links to all their fundraising activities - including Mark's and Neil Barker's rides in From S to N (Neil is riding for the Jane Tomlinson Appeal), as well as Jaimie's penalty shoot-out, Gemma McGowan's Sport Relief Mile and Mark Silver's 'stroll' around Kirklees previously featured on Dispatches. There's also Julie Barnett's weekly raffle in aid of Yorkshire Cancer Research,  Adrian Warner's 10 mile Walk for Life in aid of the Terrence Higgins Trust, plus Siobhan Hay's promotional sale for NAS :)

As Jaimie says:

Lots of wonderful charities in need of support, we ask for your donations and your support by circulating this to your teams.

Jaimie was also keen to tell me how BLS and the NAC are working together on their fundraising initiatives for Community Week:

...we share the same building as the NAC and although we are classed as 2 separate sites for community week – they have a community week committee too and we have two representatives who are on the committee, so both sites can share ideas and support each other’s activities. I think it would be nice to mention that as a site we are also coming together to help each other’s teams raise funds where we can.

It's great to hear how Community Week is fostering such good team work :)

Are you working with another site, department or other part of the Group on your Community Week fundraising? Maybe BLS' thermometer or their Just Giving team page is just the thing for you to adapt for your Community Week contributions? Or perhaps you have another great idea to share, which others could use. It would be good to hear all about it and let everyone know via Dispatches! 

Jacqueline's Success is on the Cards

[caption id="attachment_2298" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jaqueline's stall at the Restore event, complete with Hamish the patchwork dog"][/caption]

Wakefield House's regular contributor Jacqueline Bunnett has again been out raising funds for the Torbay Animals in Distress charity with her Thoughtful Paws Hand Made Cards and Gifts stall. The total raised so far from 3 events is over £70.

This month she's attended the charity family fun day held at Swindon Restore, as well as selling her cards at Wakefield House.

Reporting on her sale at Restore Jacqueline said:

This was an outside event which at the time of booking I was unaware of but luckily the weather was lovely and sunny. I held a tombola to win a plush soft toy if they found the lucky ticket or some sweets if they found a 0 or 5. This helped to draw the people to the stand. I received an enquiry with regards to a Hamish Patchwork Cushion .  Mother’s day cards were the best sellers.

At Wakefield House last Friday, Jacqueline concentrated her efforts on card sales. She takes up the story:

This was originally only to sell Mother’s Day and Easter Cards but I took a selection of General cards. I was shocked at the uptake of the cards and most of the general cards had been sold.  By 9am I had raised £20 so I took the decision to phone my husband who was at home and ask him to drop off my other cards. After informing the staff in the office by email of this new range I was able to raise a further £12.50. 

It sounds like Jacqueline's going to have a busy time making cards to replace her stock for her next  event! This will be the Shaw Ridge School Table Top Sale on 31^st March - fingers crossed your running total tops the £100 mark after this one, Jacqueline.

Nicola's Sweepstake Raises Funds

News just in! We have another simple fundraising idea for you today which scored well at Wakefield House this time around. Finance's Nicola Hewlett ran a 6 Nations Rugby Sweepstake during February and March in aid of the Alzheimer's Society. She reports:

A nice easy way to raise money, whilst enjoying the rugby! Entry was a £1, and all money went into the prize pot. The winner received half of the prize pot, and the charity the remaining half. Information Assistant, Alexander Harding who works in Magazine Sales was the lucky winner - guessing the winning team 13 times (out of 15 games).

45 staff took part, thus raising £22.50 :)

Is this something which could be adapted to work well in your area? There's plenty of events coming up over the next few months to choose from e.g. Eurovision and the Grand National for starters!

Thoughtful Paws Sales Start for 2012

[caption id="attachment_2173" align="alignleft" width="640" caption="Jaqueline Bunnett sets out her stall..."][/caption]

Following January's post introducing Wakefield House's Jacqueline Bunnett and her charity handiwork, she has already started her 2012 fundraising activities for Torbay Animals in Distress via her Thoughtful Paws Hand Made Cards and Gifts/Babysitting Service.

She set up her stall for a couple of hours or so at the Toothill Charity Tabletop Charity Sale at the end of February, attended by around 75 people, including Brett from IT. Jacqueline said of her efforts:

Although not a large amount of money was raised a lot of enquires were made regarding my babysitting service and commission pieces.  I was also invited to another event in 2 week’s time so I am now back making a few more cards, Dolls Pram/Cot sets. Mothers Day and Easter Cards were best sellers on the day.

Donations were also placed in the pictured collection tin, which will be opened by the charity later. NB Jacqueline has more Mother's Day and Easter cards for sale if you're interested.

Don't forget Jacqueline is is appealing for donations of cotton and polycotton fabrics for her patchwork products if you have some to spare.