Friends of St Mary's
The Friends of St Mary's formed some 12 years ago in June 1994. It is a small band of people who set out to raise funds for the special items for the wider church community that the PCC could not always find a budget for. Additionally the other side of our fund raising was to provide a fixed annual donation for the ever increasing 'Quota'.
During the time of our conception it was decided that as we only had a small group on our committee, we would try to run something that would generate some revenue without constantly trying to think of fresh ideas & the need for more & more time in this ever busy world we live in.
We decided that as we live in a village where a most people support the local church we would run a 'Local Lottery', which would be on the lines of the National one but we would deliver their prize if they won, rather than them applying for it.
Folks pay in a regular subscription of £2-00 per month to get a personalised 'lucky number' where £1-00 goes to the Church & £1-00 goes back in prizes, should their number be drawn.
Initially there was a lot of work to set this up, running campaigns, registering with the Local county council, visiting homes to see if they would join etc. but soon it became a nice visit to a local event to make the monthly draw. Occasionally a visit to our local pubs to draw the winners, nothing better on a Winters' night or even a Summers one come to that.
Quite quickly we found that with the odd 'special event' we were raising £3000 for the Church every year & having a great time doing it. We have grown somewhat since then & have recently increased this to £3600 per year.
We introduced to the Village a Christmas Bazaar, where the Children have a free gift when they visit Father Christmas in his seasonal Grotto in our Parish Hall. Initially this was set up to become a community event to give something to the children, with the few stalls & a small tea room paying for their gifts, however although really good gifts are given out we still generally make a reasonable profit.
As mentioned above, since we have been going we have also given some items to the wider church community which generally are those items that the local PCC cannot provide.
We have donated new carpets to the aisles of the Church & provided new electric sockets, Paid £1000 toward its redecoration, given a new computer to the Church; provided a computer printer to Daldry gardens community room; Donations to the Little Fishes childrens group, erected a flag pole within the Church grounds & provided new flags; Robes & dais for our choir; Hand bells for the brilliant Bells of St Mary's team; Ropes for our main Church bells; lawn mowers & scaffold tower for our gallant Church workers; upgraded the Church Vestry, refurbished the chandeliers & given a donation toward our youth support worker.
This has all been done not only with the great work of our small committee but of course with the massive & committed support of all of our members & the Community as a whole, & our heart felt Thanks go out to them all.
If you would like to make a regular donation to become part of the "Friends of St Mary's" or would like to know a little more about us .... Please send an email to Andy Phillips, address is andy_issy@tiscali.co.uk
Don't forget our motto "If you're not in, you can't win"