Two of the Friends Fund Raising Committee recently got together with the person who recruited them to celebrate the 15th anniversary of them joining the Charity.
Isabel Liddle explained that she recruited Tracey Lennard after being invited to a school reunion which Tracey had organised. Isabel said “I first new Tracey when she was 12 and I was her needlework teacher at Newbold Grange High school. She was always a bright and capable girl and I was so impressed with her organisational skills when she arranged the school reunion that I asked her if she would like to help fundraising for the Friends.”
Tracey accepted and quickly recruited Julie Gordon who Tracey had be-friended when their daughters were at Brent House nursery school together. Since then the two have co-opted a number of their friends to join them in running a wide variety of social events that are targeted at both volunteers and supporters of the Charity. Over the years the team has raised over £70,000 with an the annual calendar of 3 or 4 events which has included fashion shows, football tournaments, treasure hunts, murder mystery events, quiz nights and flower arranging demonstrations.
Last year there was a boat trip on the Avon, a luncheon at Ferguson’s restaurant and a Wild West Hoe Down in addition to the Black Tie Dinner Dance and Christmas Fayre which have become regular features and the total raised was £10,000.
Julie said “I was a district nurse at the time that Tracey recruited me and appreciated the importance of the work that the Friends do for the community. I have great fun helping organise events and in particular choreographing dance demonstrations that help create the atmosphere for the variety internationally flavoured dances we have held”.
Tracey echoed this saying “Having fun is the glue that keeps the team together. I have fun in three ways - organising the events, hosting them and then presenting the equipment to the hospital using the funds we have raised which fills me with pride. But I could not do any of this without the support of Julie and my other friends who are all still working and fit this into their busy schedules. And then, of course, we have many supporters who donate prizes for raffles and auctions as well as coming along to the functions.”
Isabel concluded by saying that “Everyone who has attended any of the events that the team have organised also has fun and really appreciates the teams hospitality and the attention to detail and that goes into making each and every event such a success.”