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FOHP Christmas Fundraising

Coop

In late November, we had a publicity event in the Hamworthy Coop foyer. This turned out to be a quiet day due to the weather. But the main reason for being there was to be presented with a cheque for £3614.13 by the manager.

This amount was raised through the Coop Local Community Fund by the local Coop customers who have nominated the Friends as their favourite local cause. We then get 1% of what they spend on Coop brand products when they use their Coop cards.

FOHP have been accepted on to this scheme for a further year so if you are a Coop member, please register us as your favourite local cause.

We raised a total of £52.14 on the day for our funds so thank you to our volunteers who looked after our stall at various times throughout the day

St Edwards

Saturday 23 November saw FOHP attend the St Edwards Christmas Fayre where we had been offered a free table. We took our usual FOHP publicity material, Christmas cards, coasters, key rings and fridge magnets, etc and also some jams and chutneys. Either side of this on our table we had two tombolas – one for children the other adults.

Pictured is Pat at our stall when she had a visit from the Poole Town Crier and some stormtroopers! We raised a modest £47.30 – not bad for an event so far afield.

St Michael’s Church

The next fund raising event was the Christmas Fayre at St Michael’s Church, Hamworthy. There was a great atmosphere as children played games and met Santa for a photo and a present. This being home turf, we raised over £300.

Total raised

So, from all the events we raised over £400 – many thanks to all who helped and all who came to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere.

From all of us here at FOHP, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

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Donate to the Friends of Hamworthy Park with Amazon Smile

If you shop with Amazon –  and who doesn’t – Amazon smile is a great way to donate to Friends of Hamworthy Park.  Amazon gives 0.5% of the net purchasing price to your selected charity.

On the website

Simply go to smile.amazon.co.uk, sign in and select Friends of Hamworthy Park as your Charity.

On the App

If you are an AmazonSmile customer, you can now support The Friends Of Hamworthy Park in the Amazon shopping app on your Android device! Simply follow these instructions to turn on AmazonSmile and start generating donations.

  1. If you have the latest version of the Amazon Shopping App, open the App on your Android device.
  2. View Settings and select AmazonSmile.
  3. Follow the in App instructions to complete the process.

It’s incredibly simple and easy to do. So why wait!

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Easter Fayre 2019

What wonderful weather we enjoyed over the Easter weekend –  it really brought the crowds into the park especially for our Easter Fayre on the Sunday.

Getting started

We arrived before 9.00 am to assemble our event tent and lay out the tables for our cake stall, adult and children’s tombola, knitted toys (mostly containing Easter eggs), our publicity items and of course the Easter Egg trail.

Easter egg trail

When we arrived back at the stalls having laid out the trail, we had just three minutes to spare before our scheduled opening time – already a queue had formed at the Easter trail table and cakes were disappearing fast. By lunch time the tombola had sold out and there were empty spaces on the other tables. But the Easter trail was kept going until past 3.00 pm.

In all we think 158 children took part and successfully retrieved an Egg from Bunny’s Nest or Bunny’s Nursery.

What’s in the sock? 

At our publicity table we had a ‘What’s in the Sock?’ competition which was won by Vikki Ekema with a top score of 12 points –  Well done Vikki  – and many thanks for donating your £10 prize back to park funds.

For all those entrants who did not quite guess all the items correctly, here is what you felt through the socks:

1. Can opener/bottle opener.
2. Pen lid.
3. Electric socket cover/blank.
4. 1 1/2p (three old 1/2p coins).
5. Staple remover.
6. Bar of Imperial Leather soap.
7. Pastry cutter.
8. Pencil sharpener.
9. Bodkin.
10. Flower pot.
11. Rubber (eraser).
12. Padlock.

Total fundraising

The trustees consider it to have been a very successful event with plenty of positive feedback. In total £422 was raised for park funds. We thank all our park users for their support and a special thank you to those of you who donated such wonderful cakes – we could not get them all on the tables at the start! And let’s not forget all our helpers, it would not happen without you.

Should anyone have any suggestions for next year’s Fayre do please contact the Friends.

Next event

We hope to see you all again at our Plant Sale in the park on Sunday 19th May from 11.00 am.

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Fundraising – Christmas Indoor Market

Saturday 24 November saw the Friends at St Edward’s School, Oakdale, for their Christmas Indoor Market, taking advantage of their kind offer of a free stall.

In spite of the poor weather, there was a steady stream of customers throughout the day. Our stall was made up of an adult and children’s tombola supplemented by our usual calendars, cards, coasters, fridge magnets, chutneys, and knitted toys.

Oyez oyez!

Pictured is Poole’s Town Crier visiting our stall – his presence must have had some effect as our tombola table was completely cleared and I don’t recollect ever selling out on any previous occasion.  Considering the location was somewhat out of our area, we also sold a reasonable amount of our promotional items.

As is usual, an important aspect of these events for us is engaging people in conversation, hearing their views and promoting our park. It was encouraging to learn that many of the visitors were already aware of the Friends and particularly our project to save the paddling pool – okay, the Paddling Pool Van had been granted pride of place at the main entrance! Nevertheless, a number of the Oakdale community we met were park users who were fully supportive of our efforts. They also expressed appreciation of the many wonderful features of Hamworthy Park.

At the end of the day, our funds had increased by just over £125.

On the same day, we were also invited to have a stall at the Lake Avenue Community Centre where they were holding a Christmas Fair.  Two of our regular volunteers, Catherine and Jane, covered this for us. At this event, they have a raffle, a tombola, and a few stalls and it is aimed mainly at the immediate community.  The Friends often support their events and it seems our Christmas and blank cards were popular.