Merry Christmas you fab-u-lous lot.....its a 10 from me all day long....

As we draw to a close for this year, can I say a massive THANK YOU to each and everyone of you that have been involved in my mad brain ideas, to everyone that has donated, your contributions will help over this special time of year, but more importantly will help the foodbank get through to at least the  New Year, you should be really proud if you have donated a food parcel/cash or just been involved.  This year the campaign has been a massive success, despite the fact that I have been in hospital, but everyone has rallied round and pulled out all the stops, its been a great team effort this year.

We have had a staggering 90 odd parcels and the cash donations have doubled since last year.  Our contributions have also enabled the Foodbank to close its doors for donations, yes can you believe that we have helped to fill it up.  

Talking of donations, I popped along to Brookwood Pre-School during the week who contacted me to say that they had two parcels for collection, now you may remember from earlier posts that I visited them last year, but had to take the wheelbarrow, well not this year, oh no.......the sleigh got another outing and I can honestly say it was so easy; 1 because my sister, Lisa had to pull it along and 2 no more lifting.  Success so again, massive thanks to Roger at Homebase, Brookwood for the trolley and massive thanks to Brookwood Pre-School, the children and parents for helping out yet again this year.

I know the pre-school currently have vacancies, so look them up if they can assist with child care needs they are a lovely and friendly bunch.

Also massive thanks to our local East West Indian Restaurant, in Connaught Road Brookwood - Miah and Imtiaz very kindly donated a £20 gift voucher which I put up for sale and it was literally sold in seconds of me putting it online so that tells you just how good the food is.  It's a lovely friendly restaurant and I can highly recommend it especially as it's my local.  They are always willing to help out in the community so if you haven't booked your Christmas party yet give them a shout I am sure they will fit you in some where or some how tel : 01483-472610, drop them an email : eastwestbrookwood@gmail.com or alternatively book through their website above.

Last week's Radio interview with Jon Andrews covered a lot, so if you were unable to tune in (shame on you), but luckily enough you can catch up here by clicking on the link: Radio Woking - scroll to 16mins in - just after Wham!!!

Its funny how you get talking to someone about one thing and literally end up talking about something else and that's exactly what happened with Linda Moss (you may remember Linda from a previous blog she very kindly stood in for me with the Radio Woking interview when I was unwell).

Linda  was invited by Jan - fundraising manager for Walk the Walk charity to pop along to their offices in Woking to see the new chemo bus and whilst Linda was there that got onto the conversation of volunteer work as I believe Linda may be volunteering for them in the future and Linda happened to mention the foodbank campaign which of course she very kindly gets involved with.  Well one thing led to another and before we knew it Jan had emailed the office to see whether the staff would like to get involved with regard to donating some items of non perishable food and to my surprise they delivered a very large box full of goodies.  Its fantastic that how something so simple like a 2 minute conversation can change everything and the fact that these guys work for a charity they are still prepared to help another charity in the community.

This WalktheWalk charity has been running for 22 years and for those of you that don't know its a breast cancer charity (you know the one where you walk for charity at night with just ya bra on, yes that's right a brightly coloured bra as pictured above......their next marathon or half marathon is on 11/12th May next year and guess what you can sign up now, so if you think this is something that you may be interested in, click on the link and get  Signed up ... but remember it's not just for women, so come on you guys why don't you take up the challenge after all its not just women that get breast cancer is it????

Having spoken to Jan on the telephone - she told me "the food parcel was very much staff led and they love being part of the community" - I personally think that its really fantastic that one charity can actually help out another.

We have now made a second distribution to the Woking Foodbank which is absolutely fantastic so that means that lots of people who are struggling are going to get fed this Christmas and that's all thanks to you guys.

oooo gosh I almost forgot, an update on the fuzzy felt tree, well you can see for yourselves there are now lots of baubles on the tree and these are all local companies that have donated - look how much it has grown.  I am gunna leave it up over the Christmas period, in Brookwood Club ya never know someone else may want a bauble....they currently include:

East West Indian Restaurant as mentioned above
Brookwood Club
Fletcher Autos - motorcyle repairs, Woking
Surrey Wood Floors and Doors
Brookwood Pre-School
Decor-Mate Painting and Decorating - Brookwood
WalktheWalk who have just joined as above
PA Carpentry - Phil Bayliss (Brookwood) who very kindly created our gorgeous sleigh
CSG International - (Sheerwater) Linda Moss
Don't Just Sit There Sell Something (Guildford) - Liam Brennan
Co-Op in St Johns
Homebase in Brookwood
Tudor News - Brookwood
Brookwood Food & Wine
Brookwood Post Office, Bakers Dozen
Pirbright Football Club

Remember there are lots of eyes looking at your bauble we still have room for more, so if you are interested drop me an email trudifletcher@rocketmail.com and it can be organised in a jiffy!!!!!

Saturday night saw the Brookwood Club christmas tree light up event and I have to say it was an absolute success despite the terrible weather.  Alison Buckland attended from Woking Foodbank to turn on the lights and Anthony Gurr from The Woking News and Mail also attended to get some snaps.  All proceeds from the sale of hotdogs and mulled wine will be donated to the foodbank so will let you know in due course how much we raised, but in the meantime you can feast your eyes on some snaps from Saturday night.

Courtesy of Anthony Gurr

courtesy of Anthony Gurr

The sleigh was also in attendance Saturday night and do you know we probably emptied it at least four times thanks to the generosity of the locals....people struggling in Woking are going to eat a little better this year with the help of Brookwood Village.

Next week's blog will be the last for this year and I will update you all on how well we did once having updated my audit trail.  In the meantime again, many thanks to you all.