Welcome everyone to our new website, kindly provided by The Capture Factory.
I thought I would write this before the Ball and the evening entertainment gets into full swing.
By now you will have already started meeting people and sharing light-hearted conversation. Perhaps you have even had your photo taken with Biscuit – who secretly is Damian, a resident of Catherine Court, shhhh.
You may also have managed to catch a glimpse of someone slightly recognisable from the old Corrie days, which are being currently re run on the TV. Debbie McAndrew an ex-Corrie star from the 1990’s, she played Angie, the friend of Curly. Debbie is now a playwright running the local Claybody Theatre Company who use ‘real’ places to showcase their plays. She is hoping to bring some of her connections and drama skills with her to help us promote what we do.
Tim Wedgwood from Radio Stoke is our compere and auctioneer, who will liven up our Charity Auction, for us. We have some fabulous auction prizes tonight. I’m sorry to mention it, but we even have a few Christmas themed items, Santa’s Sunday lunch, a Christmas cake and even a family trip out to see Cinderella on their opening night. I have my eye on a couple of items, but I will keep my choices to myself for now, as I don’t want to start a bidding war.
The turnout has been great, our friends and local business supporters having fun tonight will help us raise crucial funds to provide mental health support to the families that stay with us. We are committed to providing more than just a roof and aim to help families build a sustainable future, the mental health project worker has provided vital support for the well-being of many of our residents which in turn has a positive impact on their children too.
We will be playing a short film showing our residents talking about their experience of the Gingerbread Centre, I would like to express my thanks to all involved in the making of the film.
I must also mention our Mental Health Matters campaign. We are appealing to charitable individuals and companies to support the campaign. Individual donors can become Friends of the Gingerbread Centre by pledging as little as £5 a month. Businesses can also join the Mental Health Matters appeal and pledge £20 a month and we are appealing to larger businesses to donate £1,000 each from their CSR budgets.
Later in the evening, Paul Deakin, the soon to be Ugly Sister in Cinderella and also our Fundraiser, will let us know how much we have raised this evening.
See you on the dance floor later!
Wendy