Without necessarily intending to, December became a Nordoff Robbins month.
As mentioned in my previous post I'd been working for a few weeks to finalise the plans for carol singing at St Pancras but when Claire at Nordoff Robbins asked if I was available to help them with some other events I thought it would be a great chance to get to know more about the charity and meet some of it's supporters.
Heal's Christmas Wishes Party
Thursday 5th December
There were about 6 of us there on the evening of the Heal's Christmas Wishes Party and the department store had an evening of shopping and live music from the National Deaf Children's Society choir and cellist Corinne Morris. There were demonstrations around the store and mulled wine for the shoppers.
Although I don't think we made much in our collection buckets, I'm sure the profile of Nordoff Robbins was raised and, once most of the shoppers had gone we sat with a glass of (complimentary) champagne and I learnt more about the charity from Claire and Susie.
Carol Singing
St Pancras Station
Sunday 8th December
On the 8th December the planning for the carol singing finally came together. I had 18 lovely members of the Gamesmaker Choir who agreed to help me out and at 10am we all met at a venue close to the station to have a quick rehearsal. I was overwhelmed by the support of these people and was impressed that between them they knew multiple carols with harmonies and descants!
We headed over to the station early enough to scope out our spot and to have a spot of lunch.
I'd chosen about 10 carols and a few Christmas songs to make up our repertoire which we sang through almost twice in it's entirety. I'd expected that any money donated would come from people with loose change in their pockets as they dashed through the station to catch trains but was very surprised people were stopping to listen and to talk with our collectors. A request for 'In the Bleak Midwinter' led to a donation of £10 being put in one of the buckets and we handed out plenty of leaflets and educated people about the charity.
Everyone was in high spirits, fun was had by all and the total made from the 90 minutes of singing was a fabulous £211.41
In case you want to hear or see what we got up check out the following:
Thanks to Sarah Wilks for this video!
We were very fortunate to have photos taken as memories of the day. Many Thanks to Sam Lane Photography for taking them and letting me share them with you.
More can be found on Sam's website:
Classic FM Christmas Appeal
Thursday 19th December
Nordoff Robbins were one of the three charities supported by the Classic FM Christmas Appeal in 2013. I jumped at the chance to volunteer for them on one of the auction shifts. Getting up at 5am on a day off was not ideal but an easy sacrifice for one of my three charities. We arrived at the Capital Radio building in Leicester Square at 7am and were shown to our 'call centre'. Breakfast was put out and we got to know each other. The prize that we would be taking calls for was a holiday to Turks & Caicos and a pre-bid was made for £3000 which meant that the phones were quiet up until the end of the auction. I only took one call from a lady who thought it was a competition and not an auction but it was another great experience and chance to offer support to Nordoff Robbins.
