Registered Charity No. 702429

CUT BOTH WAYS

Now that winter is upon us, you might think that the Marketing Team could take a welcome break. But, such has been our success; we received invites to a number of events in the last few weeks of 2007 which kept us busy.

Our usual wind-up event for the year is the autumn entertainment and this year’s event produced a number of complimentary comments from those attending. Our two entertainers, Doug Parker and Steve Ashcroft, kept a full house at Whittington laughing all evening. Their blend of humour and songs, together with Doug’s way of involving the audience, meant that everyone had an enjoyable evening. As ever, Pat Barton and Terry Robertson served up an excellent supper. The event was a sellout. Even without the usual bar, we raised £1030 for the Trust, just £20 less than in 2006.

The venue also saw the drawing of the winning tickets in our Grand Prize Draw. Congratulations to the lucky winners. Thanks are due to Trish Humphries who undertook to arrange the Draw this year (thus relieving Bob Williams of one task) and to all the businesses and individuals who donated the prizes.

As I said earlier, we had some new invitations this year. The first was to the Staffordshire Country Markets Open Day at the Stafford County Showground. This is essentially a Women’s Institute day and only a couple of charities are invited to take part, so we were very pleased to accept. Thanks to Sue Williams and Bobbie Battisson, we raised about £100.

We were also invited to take our stand to a showing of the film “An Inconvenient Truth” at Whittington Village Hall, which was organised by the Whittington & Fisherwick Environment Group. We were represented by Sue Williams, Bobbie Battisson and Hilary Smith, making sales of £50.

The third invitation was to have a stall at the Lichfield Christmas Fayre, organised by the Lichfield Chamber of Trade & Commerce. As this was held in the festive season, we were expected to decorate the stand and the staff. So, wearing our Christmas hats and reindeer antlers (complete with flashing lights and tunes), we sold mostly bric-a-brac, some quality Christmas ‘antiques’ and Trust promotional items. The event raised £170 for the funds and, in spite of the cold; I think the team enjoyed themselves. Our stand was overlooked by the good Dr Samuel Johnson himself and I fancy he approved of our efforts.

Our new ventures, the L&H calendars and the limited edition prints of Ted Hiscock’s painting have provided useful income contributions. We still have copies of the prints available so if you require one please contact Sue Williams.

We were expressing disappointment with our results mid-year but thanks to these extra events, and the success of the ‘500 Club’, the Marketing Group raised a record £13,500 for the Trust over the year. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who has been involved in this achievement.

We are now planning for 2008 and it is obvious that we are going to need extra volunteers if we are going to maintain our momentum. If you feel that you can help in any way, please get in contact with us.

David Moore

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