Several people have been asking what we are doing about fund raising, both for Church funds, and to settle the outstanding debt for the organ repairs. Some have mentioned that parishes they visit (Denmead to name but one) seem to have no trouble whatsoever in raising money for Church causes. Denmead raised nearly a quarter of a million!! Another small local parish (much smaller than Waterlooville) raised a much needed £2000 from congregation donations in one week.
We do have an active fund raising committee which is trying to coordinate a series of events to bring in the much needed cash. We try not to hit the congregation each time, so many activities are planned to capture cash from outside, although we cannot get away from the hard fact that, as the active congregation of St George's, it is we who should pay the lion's share, as we are the prime receivers of the many benefits.
There is a fund raising calendar in the church hall on which all fund raising activities will be chronicled so that we can co ordinate events and not get too much all at once.
From September we will be selling "ducks" in our Grand Duck race which will take place on December 21st at Meonstoke. We want all members of the congregation to buy several ducks, and sell some on to friends and neighbours. There is a first prize of £100 plus many other prizes for runners up. Its rather like a big raffle, really, but with a bit of fun involved! The sale of tapes of organ music is going ahead quite well though now that most of the congregation have their copy, we need to get "out there" to sell more. How about buying one for a friend or neighbour? We produced 300 of the tapes so there are still another 240 to sell. The initial outlay has been covered so now each sale is pure profit.
There will be a Smartie Saving Scheme introduced in the near future, and there are many smaller events such as coffee mornings/bring and buys in the pipeline so please watch the bulletin and F.R. Notice board for details. A regular fortnightly afternoon Bingo session has been proposed, and some of the traditional events such as the It's a Knockout evening and Rambles will be designed to raise money as well as have a good time.
We are always open to new ideas, but ideally the sponsor must be prepared to run the event. Your fund raising committee is chaired by Ruth Loveman, and includes myself, Lynn Winter as Secretary and Linda Wainwright.
A full list of members will appear on the F.R. Notice Board.
written by Tony Rice-Oxley
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