Local children invited to a chocolate trail with a difference, collecting Montezuma’s chocolates along the way!
Come along to Priory Park on Easter Saturday and you’ll find a family event with all the trimmings that will make a great highlight to your Easter weekend. From 10 am - 2 pm children can take part in our fantastic Easter Trail, collecting Montezuma’s chocolates along the way and learning about our work with vulnerable children. All proceeds from the event will go to our projects. Entry fee is £3.50 or £6 for two. During the event treats and refreshments will be available including O’Hagan’s sausages, fete games, a bouncy castle and raffle. In the run up to the event Montezuma’s have launched a competition for children between 5-12 years old to design their own Easter Egg. Winners will receive a full size egg with the winning design on it and the top 2 winning entries will be displayed in Montezuma’s stores in Chichester, Brighton, Winchester, Kingston and Spitalfields. Closing date for entries (which are to be handed into the East Street Chichester store) is the 20th March and entry forms are available from either the store or the Children on the Edge office. Call the office on 01243 538530 or e-mail [email protected] with any queries. We'd like to say a huge thank you to Affinity Sutton, Graylingwell Park, Homes and Communities Agency and Linden Homes for their generous sponsorship of the event. ![]() Merton House at Glyn School in Surrey have raised a staggering total of £1024.22 for Children on The Edge through a month of fundraising. The school are working towards a full International Schools Award and aim for their students to grow into independent learners who are able to contribute to the society in which they live. In having a fundraising focus for January, the boys in Merton House did just this, and learnt about an innovative sports programme supported by Children on the Edge in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Haiti is a desperately poor country. According to UNICEF one in five Haitian children have no access to clean water. Since the earthquake in 2010 many children have ended up living rough on the streets where they are forced to depend on the kindness of strangers, making them vulnerable to traffickers and violent gangs. The boys at Glyn School spent the entire month raising money for boys their own age, living in the slums of Port-au-Prince. The programme they were raising money for provides football coaching, support and counseling. As the children gain a sense of belonging through team sports, they also have access to education, learn from positive role models and are provided with a food package after each practice session to take home. The amount raised by Merton House is enough to fund 819 children for a week’s worth of football coaching and food parcels. The Glyn boys used various ideas and events to reach their goal. These included a a sponsored silence, a sponsored 'Keepy Uppy' on the school field, a day spent with uniforms turned inside out, the hosting of a fiercely contested cross bar challenge and the running of a chess and X Box clubs for a week. We’d like to say a huge thank you to Merton house for their contribution, and will be keeping them posted on what their money has achieved. Find out more about our work in Haiti, and think about donating to the project. Donna Bosustow has been been fundraising for Children on the Edge since 1999 when she first joined The Body Shop at Home™ who do some fantastic fundraising for our projects.
When she went to The Body Shop at Home™ Christmas Conference last September she heard how some of the projects were threatened with closure unless consultants raised enough money to keep them going. “I sat there and started thinking what can I do to raise a bigger amount of money. I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before and that’s when doing an abseil popped into my head”. After the conference Donna went home and started looking for abseiling places in Cornwall. It was at this point that her 10 year old son Jowan said that he would like to do an abseil to raise money for Children on the Edge as well. Donna booked them both in for December and they both set about raising money. “On the day it was very, very cold, windy, very rainy. I was a little nervous and Jowan was very nervous but we walked up to the top of the old granite quarry and we did it. We both really enjoyed it and in the end we did six abseils between us,not forgetting the climbs back up to the top!” “I was very proud of myself but even more proud of Jowan who at age 10 helped to raise over £500. At the beginning of the abseil he was so scared, but he was smiling by the end of it”. Donna and Jowan have smashed their fundraising target and raised a fantastic £560! This money will pay for 112 children from the slums of Haiti to attend the sports programme supported by us for a week, each receiving a food parcel to take home! If you or anyone you know is interested in fundraising for Children on the Edge then please contact Euan Clarke, our Community Fundraiser. ![]() We are delighted to announce that we will soon be benefitting from an exhibition of paintings inspired by Shakespearian plays from stage and screen actor Jonathan Hyde. From February 7th – 19th Jonathan’s paintings will be on display in the Oxmarket Centre of Arts, Chichester to view and buy, with proceeds being donated to our projects. Jonathan Hyde has performed and starred in numerous theatre, television and film productions. Credits include 2011’s Rattigan’s Nijinsky at Chichester Festival Theatre, King Lear, Macbeth, Spooks, The Queen, Titanic and Jumangi to name but a few. He is soon to be seen performing in the UK tour of The King’s Speech. Jonathan is also a very talented artist and while at Chichester in 2011 was inspired to take brush to canvas and create a series of narrative pieces based on Shakespeare, principally King Lear. Jonathan skillfully captures the inner mood and emotional atmosphere of the characters he paints. This is an exciting opportunity to be able to view and buy this original artwork and to help raise awareness and funds for Children on the Edge. Jonathan's work can also be seen on Saturday 4th February The Minerva Theatre in Chichester alongside two performances of The Virginia Monologues, also in aid of Children on the Edge. ![]() There is no reason at all to despair at growing old. Your sixties and beyond can be the very best - and funniest - time of your life. So says much-loved and respected agony aunt and journalist Virginia Ironside in her production of ‘The Virginia Monologues’. Directed by Nigel Planer, the show premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2009, before going on to tour the UK. After 10 years as agony aunt at Woman magazine, Virginia became the problem page editor for the Sunday Mirror and Today as well as writing the ‘Dilemmas’ column for the Independent every Monday, and a monthly column for the Oldie. Now Virginia will be giving two special charity performances at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, on 4th February 2012 (Performances start at 2.30 p.m. and 7.45 p.m.). All profits from the show will be donated to our work. The performances were bought for the charity by a local lady who wished to make a difference in the lives of children living in the most difficult situations. Chichester Festival Theatre has kindly given the use of the Minerva for both shows free of charge. Each show will be followed by a champagne reception where Virginia will be available to sign copies of her books and the audience will have the chance to enjoy an exhibition of paintings by stage and screen actor Jonathan Hyde. Hyde’s credits include 2011’s Rattigan’s Nijinsky at Chichester Festival Theatre and the forthcoming production of The King’s Speech which will tour the UK from February 2012. All proceeds from paintings sold will also go to Children on the Edge. Tickets cost £15 and it is advisable to book well ahead in order to avoid disappointment! Simply call the Chichester Festival Theatre box office on 01243 781312 or visit their website. ![]() For our Christmas Appeal this year we're keeping it simple. We describe a simple idea about what love in action is for us, and what it can be for you too. We outline three of our projects where we demonstrate love in action and give two easy ways for you to do the same. This Christmas you can: 1. Text 70080 to donate £3 to our projects. This will pay for a football in Haiti, a hygiene kit in Thailand, or two good meals in Burma. 2. As part of your Christmas shopping buy one of three products (100% Natural Roll-on Lip Oils from The Body Shop®, beautiful jewellery from Jewels for Freedom, or a stylish kids print from ISAK) which currently give either a portion, or all of their profit back to Children on the Edge! Please click the image on the left to view this year's appeal in full (or contact us for a full sized version) and consider donating to our work this Christmas. Thank you. ![]() On Sunday 20th November Chichester Youth Theatre put on a magnificent street performance to raise money for our projects. Dressed as guardsmen in full scarlet uniform complete with busbies they marched through the town centre. Parade ground drills soon gave way to a river-dance spectacular that entertained shoppers and residents throughout the day. Generous donations from the appreciative audience ensured that International Children's Day was appropriately celebrated. We'd like to say a huge thank you to the dancers involved. You can catch the Chichester Youth Theatre next in their Christmas performance of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ at the Chichester Festival Theatre, starting on the 17th December. Go to www.cft.org.uk for more details about the show! ![]() Here at Children on the Edge we’re asking the public to crunch their old cars for cash as part of a novel fund-raising scheme run by the Giveacar social enterprise. Unwanted cars are collected free-of-charge by Giveacar and either sold through an online auction, or disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Proceeds from the sale are donated to a charity of the donor’s choice, with ‘bangers’ that are scrapped still netting between £40 and £160 for the chosen cause. The scheme is intended to discourage irresponsible owners who may consider abandoning their cars – spoiling the appearance of the local environment and also costing local taxpayers’ money to remove and dispose of them. Here at Children on the Edge we are not only pleased to be one of the latest of hundreds of charities who have recognised the potential of Giveacar, but we are delighted with a very special first donation. Giveacar was set up by Tom Chance who was working in a three month job buying and selling scrap cars whilst at University, when he had the spark of inspiration which became Giveacar, an award winning donation scheme which has already generated over £500,000 for 500 charities. Tom’s parents, Sarah and Alan Chance own Grange Farm Shop in Funtington and are donating their farm van to their son’s scheme to raise money for our projects. Sarah Chance says “We are delighted to give our old farm van to Children on the Edge and publicise Giveacar at the same time. We know from experience how well this publicity prompts donations. So many people are truly delighted to donate their cars, especially following a death in the family. It seems to help people with their grieving process donating their cars. The team at the office are often very moved by some of the stories but equally glad that the money will help charities, such as Children on the Edge”. The £100 scrappage price might seem like a small amount, but it can make a big difference to the children we work with. £100 can provide a hot lunch for 200 working children in Bangladesh for an entire week. As we live in a country where 2 million cars are being scrapped each year, social enterprises like Giveacar stand to make an incredible difference where it is needed most. ![]() At the start of this autumn we had the pleasure of joining hundreds of our friends from The Body Shop At Home™ at their Christmas conference. The Body Shop At Home™ Consultants have been an incredible support to Children on the Edge over the years and raised a huge amount of money not only through their parties, but through their own fundraising events and sponsored challenges. This September they were set a fresh challenge. For every new recruit each consultant made, The Body Shop® Head Office would give £5 to Children on the Edge. Not only this, but if they could recruit a target of 1,000 new consultants, Head Office would double this amount to £10 per recruit! The ladies went away from the conference inspired by a great time together having seen what their efforts can achieve through a video update showing the work we support in the slums of Haiti. As well as concocting plans for balls, sky dives and all kinds of party activities to raise money for our projects, they went away determined to reach the recruitment target. When the results came in at the end of the month we were utterly bowled over. Not only had the ladies hit their target but gone way past it recruiting a staggering 1187 consultants! This was the highest recruitment level in 5 years and resulted in a total of £11,870 being donated from The Body Shop® to Children on the Edge. We’d like to say a massive thank you to all these amazing ladies for their hard work and effort both through this challenge and in everything else they do promoting and fundraising for our projects. If you want to support these ladies in their efforts then don’t hesitate to book a Christmas party with The Body Shop At Home™, where there are many opportunities to raise money for our work. Just call 0800 092 90 90 to find out more about hosting a party. This would be a great chance to stock up on 100% Natural Lip Oils which make perfect stocking fillers. Every time one is purchased 50p from the sale comes to our Child Friendly Spaces. |
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