Chairman’s Message from our Newsletter published in September 2014
Full details of our income and expenditure will be given at our Annual Social Meeting (ASM) on October 11th. However, we would like to record that during the last 12 months we have been very generously supported by a number of local organisations including various church groups, Walton May Fayre and Walton Primary School.
One of the committee’s most important objectives for this year was to try to spread awareness of TWOAT and its activities particularly amongst younger age groups. The main action we took to achieve this was to collaborate with Travelling Trends in staging a fashion show at the Riddell Hall. This proved to be a great success from a financial point of view with over £1,400 raised for our projects. Perhaps more importantly for the longer term, we managed to attract a good number of people for whom this was the first TWOAT event that they had attended. We will use the contact details that we collected both to inform them of our plans to hold another Show for autumn fashions in 2015 and to tell them about the projects we are supporting.
We would be very grateful if our supporters could also assist us in spreading the word about TWOAT. If you have neighbours or friends and relatives who might be interested in helping some of the most disadvantaged individuals or communities in the world, then please pass them a copy of this newsletter.
We have been enjoying continued success with another approach to fund raising whereby supporters of TWOAT, celebrating a special occasion, tell their family and friends that rather than a gift they would be happy for them to mark the occasion by making a donation to TWOAT. These monies can then be used to support one or more of our projects. Mike and Jenny Shaw adopted a novel approach for their Diamond Wedding when they paid the normal admission fees for all those who attended the Good Shepherd Parish Lunch nearest to their Anniversary date. Mike made a speech saying that he and Jenny did not need any Anniversary gifts but collection boxes were available for TWOAT and another charity to share anything those attending cared to donate. In fact rather more than the usual lunch admission fees was donated and TWOAT was very grateful for its share.
Our traditional fund raising has also had an excellent year with good results at Sing Carols in Christchurch Walton, our Bottle Stall at the Walton May Fayre, our two Sponsored Walks, two occasions when we sold teas in Keith and Elizabeth Lewis’ garden when they were opening it as part of the National Gardens’ Scheme, our street collection and our Quiz. Roger and Anna-Stina Ponsford kindly ran the Spit Roast event again in September that they have previously hosted for us and that rounded off a highly successful year generating nearly £700.