The One With The Mayor and The Monster Raffle

Hi everyone,

It's more than a little late I'm afraid, but finally here is the post about the totally amazing day we had at our table top sale and charity raffle at the Corn Exchange in Hailsham on Saturday 26th February...
After under three weeks of preparation and much running around like crazy people, the early morning was upon us and with it the day of our event. Having spent the previous few weeks securing a license for the raffle, organising the venue, and persuading some very kind and very generous local businesses to provide us with our prizes, finally standing in the middle of our hall filled with fantastic stalls and local shoppers brought quite a smile to our faces.

Doors opened at ten and it wasn't long before a steady flow of people (all generously making a 50p donation to the Three Peaks Fund) were perusing the wares for sale and clamouring to buy tickets for the brilliant raffle to be drawn later in the day. We must say at this point a very big thank you to the lovely Steven Hayes (boyfriend of our very own Kelly) who braved the chilly weather outside to sell tickets on the street and entice anyone in the vicinity to come and join in the fun.

Delicious home-made sausage rolls, cakes and biscuits made by our very own Mel and Julie were snapped up in no time at all, and we were delighted by how little of our bri-a-brac we had left to take home. Other stall holders did equally well, with Jams and clothing being particularly popular with the Hailsham folk.

By the middle of the day our children's entertainer arrived, and a mini-disco and dancing competition ensued for our little ones who had a whale of a time.

Before there was time to blink, 2pm dawned and Hailsham Mayor, Councillor Robin Kempe arrived with his lovely wife to draw the tickets for our lucky winners, but with almost thirty prizes in the end it wasn't going to be over any time soon! Ticket after ticket was drawn and prize after prize chosen, shrieks of delight filled the room (including shrieks of a different kind when my six year old daughter stood on the Mayor's foot - oops!), and finally after almost an hour... we were done with only the tidying up and going home left to do.



The day was not only great fun but an incredible success with just under £900 going to our Three Peaks Fund in aid of Meningitis Trust. We must make sure we say our thank you's so here goes...

A MASSIVE MASSIVE THANK YOU! to...

• The Corn Exchange Hailsham for use of their venue and their willing and very kind help.
• Hailsham Town Mayor Councillor Robin Kempe for drawing our splendid raffle.
• The family, friends and staff of Chalvington Communications, without you there would have been nobody to put our posters up and collect all that lovely money!
•  Our very VERY generous donators of prizes; Sue van Heuvelen Herbalife, Forever Living, Freedom Leisure, Hotel Pelirocco, Royal Eastbourne Golf Club, Leeford Place Country House Hotel, Southdown Personal Training, Gate Court Foods, Green DIY, Brighton and Hove Golf Club, D B Domestics, D J Eade, Sara York, Steve Leonard, Knockhatch Adventure Park, Hailsham Cellars, Eastbourne Borough Football Club, Beauport Park Golf Club, Posh Nails & Beauty, the Cavendish Hotel, A M Cleaners, and Somefield Polegate (you can see why the raffle took a while - some of them gave more than one item!).
• The brilliant stall holders - we hope you'll join us next year!
• And finally the very generous people of East Sussex - you are fantastic.

Fundraising is really starting to take off, but we still have quite a way to go if we are going to reach our target.

If you are ready to make a donation - thank you VERY much and please go to: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ChalvingtonComms
Your support helps not only our endeavours but contributes to a very worthy cause too.

Until next time.

Team Chalvington x