Lucy Howling - Mellor's Rose Queen

There are few better examples of our community's dedication than the story of Lucy who, as Mellor’s 2015/16 Rose Queen, chose to support EducAid in the fundraising events she organised for her village.

Over the past 8 months Lucy has been working hard to organise events for her community – these events have a great way of both bringing the community together, and to raise money for a charity which is close to their hearts. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Lucy for organising this series of events, the people of Mellor to whom we are extremely grateful for their generosity, and to wish them all the best of luck for the events still to come. This month Lucy wrote a letter telling us all about the events that they have carried out in the village, and how much they have managed to raise for the charity through doing so; it’s a really inspirational story from a driven young woman.

Hello, my name is Lucy and I am 15 years old. This year I am my local village Rose Queen and spend the year raising money for charity. I chose EducAid as I know Miriam and Kofi and I can see the fantastic work they do. My year started with me being crowned at the Fete in July.

 

My first fundraising event was a fashion show in which my mum, the local vicar, and a few others modelled clothes from SOS (a local boutique). Sherlocks hairdressers did the models hair and a friend did their makeup to make them feel extra glamorous. We gave everyone a free glass of bucks fizz on arrival and encouraged them to buy the clothes afterwards. We raised £850 which was really encouraging for a first event. 

Next up we hosted an Oktoberfest which featured a professional accordion player and our very own home grown oompah band. We served frankfurters, sauerkraut and apfelstrudel. We raffled a hamper filled with German goodies and had giant salamis as prizes for the best dancing. We encouraged people to come in their lederhosen and dirndls. People schunkled late into the night and we raised £1300.




In November we held a second hand toy sale and children’s Frozen party. We had lots of Frozen themed crafts and a Frozen sing along with ‘real’ snow. 

The weekend’s activities raised £600.


Throughout December we sold homemade produce at various local events. That put our total amount of money raised so far to £3736.55.

 

2016 has started with a bang. We transformed our village hall into a nightclub and hosted an awesome Beatles tribute band. Old and young boogied away the night together and we raised over £1500.

Still to come we have: Mellor’s Got Talent; a cake decorating workshop with afternoon tea; an African evening with a traditional African band and food and a children’s concert. My Dad and brother are also going to walk the Pennine Way in the summer and ask for sponsorship. 

So far this year has been so much fun and it is a privilege to support such an inspiring charity.  

Love from Rose Queen Lucy.

Lucy's story shows just how much a small group of individuals can achieve, particularly when one passionate and dedicated individual drives the team forwards. We at EducAid find it genuinely inspiring that a community will pull together to support children many thousands of miles away. We congratulate and thank you, Mellor, for all of your great work. Your generous fundraising and donations will go to an undeniably great cause: creating a brighter future for young people in Sierra Leone, and we will ensure that it is used in the most efficient and effective way possible.

If you know someone who would like to get involved with EducAid, in a fundraising or volunteering capacity, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can contact Farah by clicking here, or for any support in existing fundraisers please contact Marcus here.

Sew for Sierra Leone: Joan Keeps Going

Back in April we wrote about the ladies from District 9 of the Inner Wheels Club. They had hand-made over 400 sleeping bags that eventually contributed to the largest shipment of donations that we’ve ever sent to Sierra Leone. This is what I wrote at the time:

“Great fun was had by the ladies from Inner Wheel Clubs. From all across District 9, UK (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) they got together to ‘Sew for Sierra Leone’ on 26th February. They were busy creating over 400 cotton sleeping bags, requested by Miriam for the youngsters at EducAid’s schools and Interim Care Centres.

Friendship and service are key elements of membership in Inner Wheel, a worldwide service organisation for women, and this event provided an ideal opportunity for both. There was plenty of chat and large quantities of tea were consumed as ladies gave their time to sort, cut, stitch, iron and pack for EducAid!”

It seems as though one of those ladies never stopped – Joan has gone on to create a huge number more. This inspirational and committed woman has managed to find an unlimited source of cotton, and must’ve been working non-stop since 26th February. When Miriam went to visit her on 17th October, Joan had made another 125 sleeping bags, and she is on the case to make many more before the container leaves London for Sierra Leone in December. What a tremendous achievement! Thank you so much Joan, our youngsters will be so grateful! Thank you to Ernie, Joan's husband, for all the help and support you must’ve given during the time – it all counts!

This is another incredible story of how our committe community helps us to provide a comfortable and caring home for our youngsters.

You can read more about the shipment coming to Sierra Leone here. If you would like to contribute, you can find out what items we are trying to collect for the shipment in that same post. If you would like to discuss contributing something else, please do get in touch by sending an e-mail to this address, and we can discuss how best to support you.

If you have not watched our new video, you can do so on the homepage of our website or on facebook. Please do share this post and the video to help spread our message.


EducAid – Learning for Life in Sierra Leone

Lucy Howling - Mellor Rose Queen 2015-16

Hello, I’m Lucy! 

This year I am Mellor Rose-Queen. The tradition of crowning a young girl as Rose Queen developed in the farming communities of Northern England as part of the celebration of and thanksgiving for the growth of the food crops. Today, in Mellor, this tradition continues but the role of the Rose Queen and her team is to raise money for a charity of the Rose Queen’s choice. I chose the charity EducAid. I chose this charity as I know what they do is amazing and would love to be able to be a small part of helping children fulfil their dreams. I have only been Rose- Queen for two months and I feel proud of what I am doing.

The events we are hosting are for all ages. The first event we are hosting is a Fashion Show! This event includes Mums from my team modelling clothes from a local shop. People can buy the clothes and accessories and 10% of the funds go to EducAid. People also buy tickets to come to the event. There is a bar and raffle, as in all of our events. Other events include an Oktoberfest, Threatles concert, Mellor’s Got Talent, a Children’s Bear Hunt, and many other exciting fund raisers! Thank you for taking the time to read this. It would be great if you could support me when you can!

If you would like to know more about EducAid's work with vulnerable young Sierra Leoneans, please go to www.educaid.org.uk and if you are able to donate to support our work, please go to one of Lucy's events, or to the Donate page on the website or to https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/educaidsierraleone

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

Sewing for Sierra Leone

 

It is from the generosity of so many that we are able to continue our efforts in Sierra Leone, and can deliver such needed change in a country with so little amongst its general population.

EducAid is not just a network of schools that provide education, we also provide the residential and pastoral care that so many of our students desperately require. Our needs are great: financial donations enable us to keep buy educational materials, pay our 180 or so staff in Sierra Leone, and to keep our students fed; material donations are also very much needed. As shown in the post about a huge shipment of clothes and educational materials sent to Sierra Leone, we can see how much we rely on the generosity of our loyal donors. Again this has been shown this week, with District 9 of the Inner Wheels Club coming together for an event they called ‘Sew for Sierra Leone.’ Below is a brief report written by one of the ladies in charge of this fantastic effort.

“Great fun was had by the ladies from Inner Wheel Clubs. From all across District 9, UK (Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) they got together to 'Sew for Sierra Leone' on 26th February. They were busy creating over 400 cotton sleeping bags, requested by Miriam for the youngsters at EducAid's schools and Interim Care Centres. Friendship and service are key elements of membership in Inner Wheel, a worldwide service organisation for women, and this event provided an ideal opportunity for both. There was plenty of chat and large quantities of tea were consumed as ladies gave their time to sort, cut, stitch, iron and pack for EducAid!

EducAid is District 9's chosen International Service charity for 2014/15 and members were keen to provide some practical help in addition to their on-going fundraising efforts. Members of the public gave tremendous support too, arriving at Inner Wheel club meetings beforehand with bags of sheets and duvet covers for members to transform.

A donation of washable printed labels was received from Beaconsfield company Ooh La Label, who heard what was happening and wanted to get involved. Showing the Inner wheel logo, these were attached to the completed sleeping bags. A Rotarian, Alan, generously helped to pack and transport the completed items at the end of the day, to be added to his next shipment of aid bound for Sierra Leone.”

This superb effort by the ladies at District 9 of the Inner Wheel Clubs again shows us how much can be done when people come together and work towards a single goal. Donations from their community, effort from the Inner Wheel Clubs organisation, and work from private companies have ensured that EducAid is receiving some vital bed-clothing for our students.

We can’t reiterate how essential these kinds of fundraising efforts are for our work in Sierra Leone. Not only does it provide vital items for use by our students, but it also spreads the word of the work that we are doing in Sierra Leone.

Many thanks to all of those who supported this effort through their hard work, organisation, and generous donations. Without your efforts we cannot continue to do what we do so effectively.