Describe what you did and why?
The Old Millmeads Estate NW in Horsham, West Sussex held a 2-hour coffee morning fundraising event for Macmillan Cancer on Friday 4th September 2020. Over 50 residents came along in the morning, all helping to raise money for such a good cause.
You can see from the photo we made good use of a members driveway, front gardens and even the public grass verges opposite to spread out to relax, chat and safely enjoy themselves over coffee, tea and delicious cakes.
One resident had painted a beautiful, framed, watercolour picture of Horsham Market Square which, because it was so good, rather than be included as a raffle prize as intended, it was auctioned raising £52! It is already gracing the wall of the happy successful bidder.
The raffle with its donated prizes was also extremely popular and raised a lot of money.
Thank you to everyone who attended the Macmillan Coffee morning, and to all of those who donated in spite of the fact that they were unable to attend. We had a most enjoyable morning chatting to neighbours over coffee and cake and in doing so we managed to raise over £1,000 so far (and even more when gift aid tax is reclaimed by Macmillan) and there are still donations coming in.
We were so fortunate to have such good weather and such a positive response from the neighbourhood. Our thanks go to Trafalgar Road Baptist Church who lent us all the coffee making equipment, mugs and tables. This made it possible for us to run the morning safely under the present coronavirus climate. Our thanks also goes out to our residents who kindly baked the most delicious cakes and gave so generously.
Old Millmeads Estate Neighbourhood Watch
Duration of project:
2 hours
What worked well?
Being able to use the driveway and front gardens plus the public grass verges for the event. Having the use, courtesy of a local church of the borrowed tables, coffee making equipment plus tables and 200 mugs (to enable no washing up on the morning). The event being a NW event was covered by the NWN public liability insurance. Members of our NW scheme baked cakes, donated raffle prizes and helped on the morning.
How did you overcome any challenges?
Used a Whatsapp group on our mobile phones to keep in contact with the volunteers to organise the event beforehand.
How did you cover any costs?
All tea/coffee/milk/cakes/raffle prizes etc. donated. All money raised and donated paid to Macmillan cancer.