Tonight we have another guest blog. This time it is thanks to Deb, the mastermind behind yesterday’s fundraising event in Puivert.
When I first had the idea of trying to raise some money for the SPA and Twilight (the Retirement home for Dogs in the Dordogne, run by a fabulous and dedicated British couple, Leeanne and Mike http://www.twilightchiens.com/), I thought it would be good to have a cake and book sale. However it grew from there and yesterday saw lots of different stalls selling a wide variety of items. We had local artists selling craft items which they had made themselves, an English food stall with lots of Christmas goodies, beauty products and a great selection of greetings cards which had everyone stocking up for Christmas. The stallholders all gave generous donations for their stall spaces and some kindly gave raffle prizes too.
Then there were the volunteers – wow! They were all amazing, working so hard to raise money for the two canine causes. A group of us set up the hall on Friday afternoon, watching with despair as the snow fell outside. We wondered if WE would get there on Saturday morning, and were sure that hardly any customers would turn up.
We left the hall that afternoon with a fatalistic ‘what will be will be’ attitude and with the knowledge that we had done our best anyway…
I woke up at 4am on Saturday morning and rushed to look out of the window to see if there was snow outside! Luckily it was only raining -so all systems go!
The other stallholders arrived early and set up their displays, it looked very full but we all wondered how many people would come?
At 10am we opened the doors and from then on it was BUSY! We had cakes, second-hand clothes, a gift stall, books, a doggy gift stall, a super raffle and of course the bottle-tombola (jeu des bouteilles) where everyone was guaranteed a prize. It took a while for our French neighbours to understand that concept but once they did they came back for more tickets! The coffee stall was very busy and made a great focal point for people to gather, chat and put donations in the collecting boxes!
Once the morning was over there were still some cakes left unsold so 3 of my French friends very kindly offered to go around the neighbouring hamlets, visiting many older people who had been unable to come to the event, and asking for donations in return for a cake. They did amazingly well and raised 70 Euros.
I would like to thank everyone who helped in any way. It would be wrong to name people individually as I would hate to forget anyone by mistake and cause offence, but special thanks go to Belinda for the enormous amount of work she has done. II went on holiday for a month and she organised so much while I was away. In addition she is working very hard for the secret auction in December. Also thanks to my husband Bryan – for his patience with me while this has been going on…and also for not stealing the cakes as I was making them! Each time he has come into the kitchen to ask if the cakes were for us only to be told he can’t touch them….so I think that deserves a special thanks!
Everyone else who helped in any way – THANK YOU so much, we could never have raised that amount of money without you all and I am truly grateful for your help, support and very hard work.
Our next event is on Friday 6 December, 7.30pm in Puivert. We are having a musical evening with the Puivert Choir and the Old Spice Girls. There will be mulled wine and mince pies, a raffle and gift stalls too. The silent auction will be running that evening too and there are some great items on offer. Entrance is free but we will be asking for donations which will again be divided between SPA and Twilight.
PS from Darcey
I would like to thank everyone too, as this event exceeded everyone’s wildest dreams, raising a total of 1200 Euros. This will be split equally between Twilight (who themselves are great friends of the SPA) and us. I would like to thank Deb particularly as well as her fabulous and indefatigable team, and also Rene, President of the Club Canin Carcassonne for lending the Club’s huge coffee maker, despite the pressure he was under to have everything in place for the Club’s nationwide agility competition today. And thanks to the Puivert team for getting the coffee maker back in time to not give Rene a heart attack!
Thank you all again. Have lots of sleep and get your strength up for the event on the 6th December!
Deb guards the cake stall!
Belinda with the SPA Board and doggy gifts
Cards and gifts
And the now famous “jeu des bouteilles”