Lunch at Northampton Bowls Club Harborough Road - Speaker Jane Deamer

FARAWAY CHILDREN'S CHARITY

Jane Deamer, pictured here with Club President Jackie Brame, came to our lunch meeting to thank us for our support for the Faraway Children's Charity.  She subsequently wrote the letter below as a record of what we have done so far.

"It’s hard to believe it’s over a year since I was last here introducing Faraway Children’s charity to you all, and what a year it has been. I asked if I could return so I could personally thank you all and share with you the enormous collective contribution that the rotary club of Northampton members have made to FCC’s work for local disadvantaged children.  Your generosity and creativity has been truly amazing and very greatly appreciated. Hopefully I will be able to summarise the many actions that have been provided by the Club so you are able to understand the extent and benefit of your varied contributions.

In May 2016, I first attended a Rotary meeting at Richmond Villages, and then went on to present at a lunch event in August, The rotary club of Northampton have supported FCC in so many ways.  Before the August lunch event had even finished I had been approached with offers to coordinate collections of toiletries and hygiene bags which we gratefully received and distributed, and that same evening I had notifications of paypal donations received from individual members and received emails offering goods.

We have received so much support, but if I may, I would like to mention and give huge thanks to three particular individuals who’ve made the journey possible.  Firstly, the diamond that is, Claire Fry, who had the foresight to initially introduce FCC to the rotary club of Northampton and has ceaselessly supported FCC and I over the last two years. Secondly, Alan Jukes who has been an absolute star in supporting FCC and club members, he has helped with communications, sorting Christmas presents, moving FCC out of our Mawsley site in March, collecting and delivering goods and fundraising. Thirdly, Riaz Bhatti who in August immediately offered FCC free central Northampton garage space to help store FCC items.  By October last year we had use of the garage and stored all the donations collected by club members.

I know the club co-ordinated the distribution of flyers across your networks requesting donations of goods and the response was fantastic. The club also promoted FCC before Christmas in the Grosvenor Centre and collected £100 cash and donations of Christmas presents.  From all these donations, in June we distributed hundreds of used toys, games, arts and craft items and some clothing items to local children – including for use in school breakfast clubs, community youth clubs, refuges and for the benefit of individual families and children in poverty. The new items were used or saved for Christmas presents. We sold a few higher value items – particularly donated electrical gaming and digital equipment.  Our next task, now the schools are open again is to distribute 100’s of used books collected by club members and stored in the garage before we move onto distributing the rest of the donated clothing.  A very big thank you to you all for your support and to all club member’s families and friends for their support and generosity too.

On March 28th I attended a Rotary Club meeting at Richmond Villages to provide an update and during the evening received a £1,500 cheque after the very successful Towcester Race course fundraising evening on February 25th.  The race night was attended by our Trustee, Ann Bodsworth, who really enjoyed the evening and was taken aback by the commitment and generosity of the Club and the donation of the Racecourse towards the event.  These funds were partly used towards purchasing Easter Eggs in April, we distributed over 800 eggs, and the rest will be funding presents for Christmas, so local children who would otherwise miss out on festive celebrations, have the opportunity to receive a gift and share a smile."