Village Hall news - January 2012

Our project won through the extremely testing Stage 2 of the Big Lottery assessment of our application for £315,000 towards the project. The news came just before Christmas, so it was a great present for all those involved.

THE MONEY IS NOT GUARANTEED. Although the Big Lottery is happy for us to say we are optimistic about the outcome. Before we finally qualify, we have to

- meet various legal and technical requirements, which should not be difficult for us, the things involved were sorted some time ago

- get planning permission for the revised scheme; this is now being put in hand, but the existing planning permission for a larger scheme makes this reasonably straightforward

- take the scheme forward to the detailed design stage so that it is ready to go out to tender when we get the money; the Big Lottery has awarded us £22,800 of the grant now in order to pay fees etc for this work

- produce a detailed Business Plan for the overall project; this involves hard work but we have all the information already

- raise or get secure promises for the rest of the money; this is the tough one.

At this stage, Big Lottery staff work positively with us to handle this work and produce a good application. They have already visited the village to discuss things in depth.

We have until June to get everything organised. The main obstacle now is raising the rest of the money. The total scheme cost is estimated at

£550,000. Taking account of money already raised or promised, we are currently about £150,000 short of what we need. However, major funders will be much more willing to help us now we have the Lottery behind us, and we should be optimistic that the money will come in.

Locally raised funds continue to be critical. We have about £40,000 in our “kitty”, but we need to raise about another £10,000 for our local fund to demonstrate that we are “doing our bit”. So this is where the village can really get behind the scheme by:

* supporting fundraising events and activities

* joining Dot Benson (79256)and Sarah Rose (79343) on the fundraising team; new faces, ideas and helpers are urgently needed

* making donations, large and small; Gift Aid donations are especially welcome, there is a special “plug” for these elsewhere in the newsletter

* signing up to the Easyfundraising scheme and raise cash for us every time you buy anything online or search the internet

* run a fundraising event yourself; see elsewhere in the newsletter for an invitation to do something sponsored in aid of the Village Hall.

We will keep you posted about developments in Beneath Blencathra.

FUNDRAISING NEWS

ThrelkeldCalendars sell out We have sold 196 calendars, making a profit of about £650 for the Revitalisation Fund. Thanks to Barbara Lowesmith for producing this and also for doing much of the selling – and also to Sarah Rose, Jane Roberts, the Post Office and newspaper shop for help with sales.

Recipe Books income tops £1000 The total sales of the ThrelkeldRecipe Books passed the £1000 mark recently, a remarkable achievement. They have been selling steadily since 2007. This has been printed and reprinted free by a friend of Pat and John Knifton, we are very grateful for this. Volume 2 is still on sale, £3.50, contact Pat Knifton (79448).

Supper Dance The Supper Dance on 10 December was a great occasion, and made £120 for the Revitalisation Fund. Thanks to Dot Benson for organising this, and to Sylvia Tuer, Alison Tuer, Ros Shirreff, Elizabeth Beresford, Sara Rose, John Knifton and Neil Beresford for helping run the event. Attendance was a bit disappointing (it clashed with a few other events), especially as Dot put a lot of effort into it. But the contribution to our Fund is still significant and much appreciated.

Other things still on sale

* Threlkeld Mugs– we still have a lot of these to sell, £5 each – at the Post Office, newspaper shop or from Steven Oldfield (79950)

* also still a few Threlkeld T-shirts left - £10 (Steven Oldfield 79950)  

* Threlkeld Notecards - two sets of 6 beautiful note cards and envelopes, one featuring local views, the other featuring close-up textures of rocks, plants, etc. £5 per pack. Get them from Barbara Lowesmith (79045) or Sue at the Post Office.

Details of all these products are on the Threlkeld Community Website http://www.threlkeldweb.co.uk/taxonomy/term/23.

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS IN THE VILLAGE HALL

We got a lot of comment on how attractive the Hall looked at Christmas, when it hosted many events. Special thanks to Roger Bragg, Steven Oldfield and Sylvia Tuer.

KENDAL MALE VOICE CHOIR Saturday 14 April 2012

We have arranged a concert by the well known Kendal Male Voice Choir. Book the date and wait for details (Dot Benson, 79256).

VILLAGE HALL TEAS

New volunteers are needed for the Village Hall Teas which will start again at Easter. Contact Pat Knifton (79448), Elizabeth Beresford (79017) or Jane Roberts (79359) if you can help. Serving teas to locals and visitors is enjoyable; it usually involves a half day “shift” working alongside someone else.  

Trevor Roberts (79359)                                                Steven Oldfield (79950)