The Show (of Hands)
Hello everyone!
A big thank you to everyone who got involved with the Show of Hands night, everyone who voted, turned up, drank, donated, joined in, helped out and turned the night into a success. It felt a bit like being a bride on her wedding day (but with extra wigs) as the night passed in a blur, with so much to sort out, I don’t think I spoke to anyone properly for most of the night, until after we left Native State and there was more time.
Due to the chaos of the night, the number of people and later on, the tequila (which I kept drinking but really don’t like), some of the events went by in a blur, and I don’t think I will credit everyone correctly here, so please don’t be shy about getting in touch to remind me if I have things wrong!! I know that every time I turned round, all I could see were people doing something extra to help out, and I know that for the night to have worked out like it did, there must have been a lot going on that I didn’t even see. Sometimes when you’re so used to seeing your friends and having fun with them, you forget how amazing they can be.
For anyone that didn’t make it, a quick recap of the night...
My friend Stew kindly carted everything around, including me, a massive PA system and all of the beers and wine, which we set up and started to get the ready in the Forest Hall. Setting up the hall was a much bigger job than I had thought it would be. Rik and his family, and Lou all proceeded to sort out all of the hall and make it look good and sort out the bar and the seats and did an amazing job to get things ready, Rik’s family were up visiting him and not sure they were expecting to be roped in to help out, even raffling drinks in the bar! I don’t know what would have happened if not for them and original 'bar manager' Lou who did an amazing job. I realise now that I am going to use the word amazing a lot in the rest of this email.
My sister Ellen did a great job getting donations from people into the buckets, Julie and Laura put in a fantastic shift in the bar, I know this as they were there each time I tried to get a drink. As the majority of people had turned up, we found an electrical problem where most of the electricity stopped at the Forest Hall. Then we were asked to leave as they needed to shut down the venue for safety. Due to the quick thinking and can-do attitude of my friends, I think Rik and Stew again, and also the Mayfield road gang, we sorted out a backup plan, and very kindly Native State agreed to give us a place to play and still try and make the most of our night.
We still managed to have music (thanks to Kimberley for the Frankenstein wig making, Sam for the Parrot costume, the random Alan for Harmonica backing), magic (thank you Jim Campbell! I will get details from you and pass them onto everyone!), Bingo (thank you to my Bingo caller Michael who has done similar work but only in Dunbar) and balloons (from the amazing Puffin) which for me meant that we still had the main things we wanted to do, even if it was more of a challenge to put them on.
In the end, like Cher, if I could turn back time, I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. As things had started to fall apart, everyone pulled together that little bit more helping, donating, singing along, and making a success in the face of difficult times!! We didn’t have fancy things such as projectors, or slideshows, or even electricity or our own venue, but I’d like to think we still made our own little bit of magic!
Together we managed to raise (including gift aid) over £2000 for Marie Curie, so that’s also pretty magical!
Once I work out how to sort the gift aid part and get the funds updated (thanks for looking into this Nigel!), it will all be on the JustGiving website at http://www.colinasquith.com/justgiving/ so you can track the final amount there. It was a bumpy ride but that everyone that came was utterly fantastic, so many people kindly donated even though they couldn’t make it along, and I truly have an amazing group of friends.
THANK YOU x
The winners of the Boy Band Bingo were Jo and Suzanne, congratulations, the alcohol and the McFly tickets were a fantastic prize! Although I guess it is a matter of taste which one is better. And let me know if you’d like me to send out the slides/songs and stuff I was going to do, or if you’d have any memories, pictures, video or anything you’d like to share and I will add it to the website.
Multimedia
Thank you everyone, for being amazing.
Colin
To make a donation, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/colinasquith
