BE Bosom Friends Information and Fund Raising Events

[PanBiker]

The regular monthly coffee / tea and cakes event went well again round at the centre yesterday morning. It's settled now on the first Saturday of each month, makes posters and such a lot easier without specific dates.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

Generic poster for our monthly Coffee Mornings.

[PanBiker]

The centre now has a coffee making machine that can produce various types. Two of our trustees Carly and Kirsty have both worked as barista's so we will now have more choice for folk who come to our regular coffee mornings. Latte, Cappuccino, Flat White, Espresso anyone?

Our upstairs room is nearing completion and we will soon have it available for corporate, training or other events. It will have display facilities for presentations and such. The display will be internet enabled and their will be WiFi availability throughout the building. A full kitchen and toilet with facilities for the disabled are also available upstairs. We are in the latter stages of decorating at the moment and I have recently fitted the support bar for the 55" display. I will post some images when we have finished the room.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

We went to the Red Lion down in Earby last night to collect a cheque from the pub and their regulars. They have been fundraising for us at the pub, culminating with the the Kelrock festival last autumn. They presented us with the magnificent total of £3172.27 from their efforts.

Red Lion Presentation

The link takes you to Gus's photo's of the evening. If you close the photo's and visit our Facebook site you will also see our other news.

We have taken the decision to close our charity shop for the duration of the coronavirus threat. This is to protect both the general public who visit the shop and our volunteers who run the shop on a daily basis, the majority of whom are from the "at risk" group who should be restricting contact with the wider community. The shop will close from this Friday until further notice. This will not affect our ability to give continuing support to those in need.

[Whyperion]

Speaking of Charity shops, some goods come from deceased persons households, while the corona and simiar virus will not survive a prolonged length of time out of a host, there presumably is some worry that processing or accepting too soon may pose a risk ?

[Stanley]

Wonderful effort Ian! Well done all concerned.
Closing the charity shop sounds sensible but is of course a worry. Let's hope it can reopen soon.

[PanBiker]

Our shop on the town square has reopened today. I fitted screen to the counter, our volunteers have face shields and there are hand sanitisers available for customers. We are restricting the shop to three persons only and asking that customers maintain social distancing, all customers should be wearing face coverings of course.

[Stanley]

Then you are no more a health hazard than anyone else. Best you can do in the circs.

[PanBiker]

We have had a couple of trustees meetings over the last couple of months at the centre. At the last meeting we decided that we will recommence the Coffee Mornings in August and the Cancer Support Meetings in September. Sally and I run the latter and we will be holding an evening session and a Tuesday afternoon one for those that would prefer a daytime session. We don't know how these will pan out yet but as we are only round the corner it is no real problem to open up the centre and see if anyone turns up. The Cancer Support Meetings are never rammed so to speak, normally half a dozen or so. We can still maintain social distancing if folk attending feel more comfortable. Anyone undergoing treatment will make their own judgement about attending.

[Stanley]

Sounds sensible, only improvement would be to have an outdoors space with shelter that could be used.....

[PanBiker]

Not really workable for confidential discussions Stanley but I know what you mean. We can all have a table each in the centre if we want and we will open the windows etc. We have sanitiser available. Can't hide forever but we will still keep the guard up. It will be up to individuals if they feel safe enough with their own circumstances to return. We will not be offering hugs though which would normally be part of the support when required.

[Stanley]

[PanBiker]

A very successful Coffee Morning yesterday, the second since we re re-opened the centre and a lot more busier than last time. We only take donations for the beverages and cakes and biscuits etc. We also ran a craft fare upstairs which was a first for the group. Sally organised it for our local talented crafter's, we had a total of 10 tables with different folks crafts on display and for sale. Again we only asked for a donation for the table space. The morning raised over £200 for the group.

Next Tuesday (5th October) will be our cancer support meeting in our downstairs room 2pm to 4pm.Tea and biscuits and a chance to offload or discuss anything regarding treatment and personal journeys in complete confidence. Talk or listen, it's up to the individual.

[PanBiker]

It was our trustees meeting last night and amongst other items discussed and due to the ongoing success of our monthly coffee mornings we have decided to upgrade our coffee making machine. We have a small barista machine but it only makes one cup at a time. We need something a bit more versatile to meet the demand.

[PanBiker]

We are having a bit of a do tonight. Not a fund-raiser but a thank you for our volunteers that look after the shop etc. We are having a meal down at Rolls Royce. This will not impact any monies raised for the group or existing funds either. We received a "welcome back" to the economy type of grant from a supporting organisation which will cover all costs and is awarded to recognise what volunteers do for organisations. It can only be spent on hospitality. No free bar but it will provide three courses and red and white wine for each table.

Can't remember how many will be attending but it should be a nice event. The dining room down at Rolls is big enough to accommodate our group with room to spare so it won't be a huddled together affair. Everyone in attendance is of the age to be double jabbed and boosted.

Best iron a shirt.

[Stanley]

I hope you all have a good time. That sounds like a very sensible support organisation!

[PanBiker]

It was a very nice night. About 30 in attendance with trustees, volunteers and partners. The young women who were running the bar in the Trent suite switched to waitress mode when we were all seated in the dining room. We had the room to ourselves as we had booked it as a private function. The service and the food was excellent. Meals were preselected from a selection of four options for each course. I had tomato and red pepper soup, roast beef with all the trimmings for my mains and then followed by cheesecake on a chocolate biscuit base.

First such event for us since the start of the pandemic and also the first larger event taken on by the new management regime at the Social Club.

[Stanley]

Sounds like a very nice occasion. Glad it went well.

[PanBiker]

Thanks Stanley. It's nice to be able to give a little bit back for our volunteers. Bosom Friends is a fully voluntary organisation, none of the trustee's or shop workers are paid. So when an opportunity of a grant funded occasion comes along it is always nice.

Next fund-raiser on our calendar will be our monthly coffee morning on the first Saturday of the month which is the 4th December. The craft fair upstairs will be Christmas themed.

[PanBiker]

We have just taken delivery of the tickets for an anniversary concert event which will be held on behalf of the group in October at St Joseph's Community Centre. The concerts will be over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd October. 7.30pm on the Saturday and 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon.

It's 10 years since local guitarist Allan Parkinson released his album "Fire Burns Inside". James and Ben Parkinson and friends will be performing the entire album along with other tunes at each of the concerts. Tickets for each event are priced at £5.00 and will be available in our shop on the town square, from James himself and via other outlets yet to be determined. Should be a good event. All proceeds to BE Bosom Friends.

[PanBiker]

Ten days of ticket sales for the concerts and the Saturday night event is almost sold out.

Tomorrow will be our monthly Coffee Morning downstairs and the re will be an Easter Fayre running upstairs.



We will need to go round today to set up for the event upstairs.

Barnoldswick and Earby Rotary Club are hosting a ticketed Wine and Cheese night at the centre tomorrow night. I think we have sold all the tickets for that as well. Penny and Alan Sagar will be presenting the wines and the evening normally involves a quiz about what you have been sampling and a raffle.

[PanBiker]

Excellent night with the Rotarians last night at the centre. Penny presented seven wines, three white, one ros'e and three red. A spread of old and new world wines with bottle prices ranging from £11.00 to £17.00. Tubbs at Colne generously provided all the wines at wholesale prices for the charity event. A good range of cheeses, crackers, grapes and cherry tomatoes on each table. Penny's quiz on what we had been told about each of the presentations was hard, or so we found it after all had been imbibed. We scored 8.5 out of 20 or so on our table. Swots over on on of the Rotary tables took the quiz with a score of 12 I think it was, well done to them. We faired better in the raffle, three prizes for our table, we came away with a nice bottle of Vodka but others at our table won Gin and Wine as well. All in all a very good night and we didn't leave until 12.45am, we wound down with a bit of banter with a few of the Rotarians and Penny and Alan who, as usual did the groups proud with their presentation.

[PanBiker]

The Allan Parkinson tribute concerts on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon were very well attended. Tickets and raffle proceeds were for Bosom Friends. Bar takings went to St Joseph's Community Centre. Sally and I did the door, other trustees ran the raffle. Both days were very well attended. So much so that Jane from St Joseph's said that the bar had done the best trade since they opened and the profit will go to the upkeep and repairs to the building.

James and Ben, Allans lads were well on form and ably assisted by Roy on Saxophone and Graham on Bass. Stav (Steve Jones), another local lead guitarist who played with Allan in the past and in other local bands stepped up for the final session of three that made up the performance each day. So a double lead guitar with James and Stev. Ben was on drums and vocals and between himself and James who did a first session acoustic set they belted out their dads compositions and some of their own. The middle session was homage to Allan's favourite guitarists. Gary Moore and influences from Jimmy Hendrix. They certainly did their dad proud. It's five years since Allan died and the lads efforts a fitting tribute.

Allan played at our Silver Wedding in 2002 with his band at the time, Dark Horse, some of those tunes were reprised as well.

All in all a fantastic weekend and fund-raising effort for Bosom Friends and St Joseph's. Not got the final figures yet but all will be gratefully received and recycled into the community.