Merry Christmas

So as we come to a close for another year, there is a few more things to squeeze into the remaining blog!!!!

You may remember last week, Lisa (my sister) and I attended Winston Churchill School where Radio Woking is situated and were guests on The We Love Woking Radio Show presented by DJ Zahir Ahmed, you can listen to the two hour interview here : Radio Woking - Zahir Ahmed We had an absolute blast and my regular interviewer Jon Andrews came along too which was just awesome.

So the last Wednesday morning interview for the campaign with Jon Andrews can be listened to here if you missed it  - scroll to 18.16 in: Radio Woking - Jon Andrews

Darren and I attended Brookwood Christmas Tree light up and were approached by a couple who had come up from another nearby village, the lady of the couple was a little upset because she only had a few items of food to give, but as explained to her its a few more items more than we had yesterday and I was so pleased that they had made the effort to come up just for that purpose and how heart warming is that in the first place?



Massive thanks to all the donors including local companies:

Bentleys Garage - newbies this year and what a haul they provided. I had to take two trips to collect it all.

CSGI - Woking - Linda Silvester organised a great collection for me from this Company, way to go Linda they provided food parcels and a cash donation.

Walk the Walk Breast Cancer Charity - do contact them if you have any concerns about lumps or bumps or if you find yourself needing some help.

East West Indian Restaurant whom I have reliably been informed will now be open Boxing Day, so if you fancy a curry, get on their website and make a booking they are a great bunch.

Decormate tel: 07877 172066 for all your decorating needs

DIO Landmarc Securities  - again these guys were new to the campaign this year and I was very pleased to have them on board.

Pre-School @ St Saviours Church - these guys are great they come on board every year and always supply a beautiful parcel or two its almost a shame to take it apart...

Fulks Butchers, so if you have still not ordered your turkey I am sure they will happily take your order, but dont leave it too much longer.

Surrey Woodflooring who have just today very generously donated a cash sum.  Many thanks guys this will help the foodbank well into the New Year now and massive thanks for getting in touch again.

Brookwood Memorial Halls -massive thanks to these guys for donating the halls for the additional fundraiser for free, it defo pays to be a villager that's for sure.

Beard Construction  we literally had a last minute delivery from these guys yesterday, in fact I had no idea they were even collecting for us, so it was a fantastic surprise when I got a message from the Post Office to say that a large delivery had been left - massive thanks to you guys and welcome aboard this year and becoming another business to join our campaign.

Some of these Companies are located in the village, but its so nice to have companies involved that are outside of the village, its great that they have taken the time to get involved.  Please do visit their websites if they can be of any use to you.

A massive thank you to all my drop off points:

Bentleys Garage
Brookwood Club &
Brookwood Post Office/Bakers Dozen

And finally to all the donors....yes that's you :)

We have made two full van load distributions to Woking Foodbank already and we have lots of cash in the bank to help see them through to the early months of the New Year and that's all because of you guys.  What an absolute fabulous achievement its been this year.

I have reconnected with some old faces and made some new friends along the way.  May it continue for many years to come.


It never ceases to amaze me just how much everyone gets involved in this campaign and more so people that can't really afford to give, but still want to help out whatever way they can.

Here are a few more piccies of the load I have delivered this morning, lots of parcels from DIO Landmarc Securities, fellow villagers and a last minute delivery from Beard Construction who is located in Cemetery Pales, Brookwood.

In total we have delivered in excess of 120 food parcels which is way up on last year and will obviously benefit lots of needy families this Christmas and well into the New Year.

Jigsaw - Woking which is located on the ground floor have taken at least 20 parcels off of us too which is amazing, so lots of preschoolers will be getting books, toys and more importantly clothes and blankets.

All of the food that is delivered to the Foodbank is weighed
and this is whats happening here

We have plenty of cash in the bank which will be used in the New Year once Christmas supplies start to dwindle and taking into account the amount of people currently using the foodbank that won't take long to spend, but at least we have it to fall back on.

 Apologies if I have missed anyone off of the list.




Lastly, Darren and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a healthy 2020.

Best wishes and once again thank you so much for getting involved in this joint venture this year.

Darren & Trudi xxxxxxxx

That's it for another year.....

Wow what a year its been for the campaign this year.  It seems to grow from strength to strength each year which is truly amazing and I have met some fabulous people along the way.

Do you remember Dawn from last week's campaign, she has been back in touch and has provided yet another bag full of goodies which will be passed to Jigsaw which occupies some space in the Foodbank. This is vital for all those young pre-school kiddies which wont have books and toys etc.  It also helps parents that are struggling with the basics that perhaps they cannot afford to buy and a few luxuries for the kiddies development.

Many thanks Dawn, you truly are an inspiration as it could have been so easy to have put the clothes into a clothes bank, but this way its helping local people in the Woking area.

Please do contact Jigsaw direct if you have anything that you would like to pass on to someone else.

At the time of writing this article we had in excess of 90+ food parcels so it was agreed with Alison from the Foodbank that we would make an interim distribution.  This distribution has now been done and you can rest assured that your parcel is now well and truly on its way to its new owner.  Take a minute to think about that!

You have helped someone have the basics this week and possibly a few luxuries over Christmas - thank you so much for all your help, this campaign would not be what it is without the input from all of you.

Its been a busy week out and about collecting parcels and donations, but there is always time to squeeze in another interview at my fav place - yep you know it, Radio Woking.  Radio DJ, Zahir who runs Wednesday evenings 6-8pm - The We Love Woking Show, contacted me and asked would I like to pop along to the studio for a couple of hours and talk about the foodbank and the campaign.  Well of course the answer was yes, so my sister, Lisa and I went off on Wednesday evening to Winston Churchill School and had a great time.  We were also joined by fellow DJ presenter Jon Andrews.  Piccies and interview recording to follow.

I also popped along to see Jan Treacher-Evans at Walk the Walk Breast Cancer Charity located at Genesis Business Park in Woking and look what they provided. Its a massive box full of goodies and also some much needed cash too.

Many thanks to Jan and her team for getting involved again this year.

Please do look at their website if you are worried about any lumps or bumps its important to get checked out especially if you feel unwell, as I found out this year!

So as the campaign draws to an end this year its for me and my team to thank you all as I said above we couldnt do it without you.  What a great team we all make and you should be so proud of our joint achievement.

Please do keep the parcels coming in I will of course still collect them.

For me personally the campaign this year has been an emotional journey. I don't know whether its because I have been so poorly myself this year or if its the generosity of people, some of whom really cant afford to spend the extra pennies, but have done so anyway.

May be its a complete mixture of all of the above.

And just before this article is about to go live, we have more donations in the form of kiddies clothes which have been very kindly donated to us by a very nice lady called Charlie from Knaphill and a bit like Dawn above, she didn't want them to go into a clothes bank she wanted them to go to a good home and to someone that can make good use of them.  Many thanks Charlie, your clothes and accessories will be working their way to Jigsaw in next 24 hours or so and will be helping out a local family.  I would say that that was perfect timing.

I am privileged to know so many generous people who are willing to help out and provide either a food parcel, cash donation or even just time. 

Next week will be the closing week for the blog and radio interviews for this year......hooooray I hear some of you say, I will let you know how we did, but in the meantime you can hear me live on Radio Woking next Wednesday morning just after 8am with Jon Andrews.

Thank you everyone that has donated so far

Trudi and Darren xx

We made the local rag!!!!

So here it is, the article in the Woking News and Mail: click on this link for the Online article following our fundraiser for Woking Foodbank in Brookwood Memorial Hall, Sunday just gone or alternatively pop into a local newsagent and pick up a copy as a souvenir 

There are lots more piccies online, so if you would like to purchase any please click on this link : Fun Day Photographs

Firstly, massive thanks to Anthony Gurr of Woking News and Mail and my very good friend Gary Avery for covering the event with their amazing photos and secondly to Brookwood Memorial Hall Committee, who very kindly donated the hall to me for free to enable the event to happen which completely took me by surprise.  That is such a generous and kind thing to do, but yet again it shows me just how much the community helps out when its needed.  I love it when things like this happen it certainly gives you that feeling that there are truly some lovely people out there who are willing to help out in a time of crisis.  You can't buy that sort of generosity! I have to say with a few simple decorations the hall looked pretty amazing and it most certainly put you in the mood for Christmas!

Live Radio Interview from the Fundraiser - please click on the link to listen: Live interview from Fundraiser

Listen to some of kiddies wish lists here :  Kiddies wish lists

and finally my live radio interview Wednesday morning : Radio Woking - live interview

It was interesting listening to some of the kiddies at our fundraising event and how much they wanted for Christmas and I am most interested to see whether the little one who wanted a car, yes a car whether he actually gets it, I guess only Santa will know that answer!!

Its been a crazy old campaign this year, with lots of new people coming on board and also some amazing companies returning that are located in the village.

East West Indian Restaurant staff

This week I went to visit the guys in my favourite Indian Restaurant, East West - finest Indian cuisine They are a great bunch of guys and the food is amazing. East West very kindly donated some vouchers to dine in their restaurant, which I was so tempted to keep for myself!!!  Anyway as in previous years I put them up for sale for the cash value equivalent and they were gone in seconds that tells you just how good the food is.  

Its nice to have a takeaway, but much better to dine in - you get top class treatment.

Also returning is our village decorator Lewis from Decor Mate who provided a very nice food parcel.  No job is too much trouble for Lewis and his team, so if they can help you with any of your decorating needs interior or exterior do give him a shout.

To date we have collected in excess of 70+ food parcels so that's a lot of food and that has all now been delivered to Woking Foodbank to enable them to organise parcels which The Salvation Army will deliver to the elderly and vulnerable and that is a lot of families that will get the essentials and some little luxuries that they couldn't possibly afford otherwise.

I had a call from a nice lady called Dawn this weekend to see whether the foodbank could make use of any kiddies clothes, and the answer to that is absolutely YES!  The foodbank does not only supply food it provides a variety of other things too, so please do check on their website to see what else they help out with, massive thanks Dawn, your used clothes will help someone else.

And finally, for this week, don't forget its the Brookwood Club annual christmas tree lightup this coming weekend Saturday 7th December, commencing around 6pm.  Please do come along its an open event and all our welcome.  As explained in last week's blog the sleigh will be in situ so if you have not yet donated a food parcel and would like to you can leave your parcel that night.  Currently what the village campaign is short of is Marmite, oil/vegetable oil, mayonnaise, sponge puddings.  That of course is what we are short off, I am sure there are lots more.  Below is the wish list provided by Woking Foodbank so please feel free to provide anything that is on the list.

Please do leave a comment if you have enjoyed my blog, or indeed if you would like to get involved then send me an email: trudifletcher@rocketmail.com

Although my campaign finishes on the 7th December, please do not think that I will not continue to take supplies, so dont worry if you are a little late, I get that its a busy time of the year.

Massive thanks to everyone that has donated so far, whether it be time to help out, cash or food parcel donations, Darren and I could not do it on our own and for that we are very grateful.

Santa does exist.....

Photo courtesy of Anthony Gurr

Our hand and feet Christmas painting was a ho ho ho ho lotta fun, the kids seemed to love it and the parents sat with tea/coffee in their hands and just took a moment to relax. 

The gingerbread was great mindfulness for the kiddies, so if you need something to keep them occupied between now and Christmas I can highly recommend it.  When they weren't doing their hand and feet prints they were sitting nicely colouring in, or making themselves busy inside the house - it was lovely to watch. 

Photo courtesy of Anthony Gurr

We had a special guest arrive at the event, I have no idea where he came from, but I am guessing all these kiddies have been good and Santa wanted to make sure they were all on the good list.  Whilst at the event and of course it is the 21st Century, Santa made a note of their wishes for Christmas, but not by ole fashion pen and paper, but by recording and I will put the link up in next week's blog once its ready, I mean its up to Santa to do it and he is a very busy person this time of the year!  

We raised a few more extra pennies for Woking Foodbank - the volunteers worked tirelessly throughout the day and I take my hat off to them, it wouldn't have gone so well without them

Some of our beautiful volunteers 

Anyhow, thank you to all that came to the event and supported our campaign.  Massive thanks to all the volunteers that turned up to helped out, look at them all smiling away, they are a lovely bunch of people.

The picture of happiness 

New comers to the campaign this week are: Bentleys Garage. Bentleys have been in the village since 1985 and are located at the far end of the village towards Pirbright. They currently have 8 staff.  Bentleys started out as a father and son business which has grown into a successful third generation family run business who are available for all your car/motorcycle vehicle servicing/repairs, please do give them a call if they can help you out in anyway.  You can also find them on Facebook so please check them out and give them a follow.  You never know when you might need them!

I went to visit Natasha at Bentleys during the week as they have very kindly offered to be an additional drop off point for the campaign and will be providing some much needed food parcels as you can see from the stash in the sleigh and that was just one visit.

Please do drop your parcels at Bentleys if you are in the far end of the village and I will happily pick them up on your behalf.

I understand from Natasha that they wanted to get involved last year, but thought that they had missed the deadline.  I know my posters have a deadline of 7th December, but please don't think that is set in stone. I am always happy to take any parcels after my deadline, but it's nice to get the majority of the donations to the foodbank in good time for Christmas to ensure that the vulnerable get what they need in plenty of time and this takes some organising.

.

We also have returning to the campaign breast cancer charity Walk the Walk.  They have kindly offered to collect some food from the staff for us which is just lovely.

Having been affected by breast cancer myself this year, it is important to get checked.  

Walk the Walk quote on their website "Pick a day in the month to check yours, and get to know your breasts or pecs (guys we’re talking to you too!). In the UK "1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in a lifetime and 350 men in a year".

Charities can offer you so much when you are poorly and for me its a huge honor to be able to give something back.  Should you find yourself at a lose end, please do look up a charity they are always looking for volunteers to help out with something whether it be fund raising events or administration, there is always plenty to do.

Saturday 7th December 6pm Brookwood Club - event not to be missed - Yes, its the annual village Christmas Tree Light-up. Its a great event where the villagers come together to drink mulled wine, eat hot dogs and be merry.

The lights are being turned on by the new Headmaster of Brookwood School, carols will be sung by the children of the school and students from Winston Churchill School will also be performing with musical instruments.

Our sleigh will also be on site, so if you have not had the opportunity to drop a food parcel off yet, then you are welcome to leave it in the sleigh on that night and I will ensure that it will get delivered in good time. Its will also be the closing night of the campaign so a fitting finish I think.  

Make sure you come back next week to hear some of the Christmas wishes from the kiddies from the fundraiser and indeed some of the interviews made by none other than the amazing Lara McNamee

Oooooo gosh I almost forgot, its been a busy weekend!!! This week's radio interview with the fabulous Jon Andrews can be heard by clicking this link :Woking Radio and don't forget I will be on the radio again this coming Wednesday just after 8pm so tune in to Radio Woking to listen to the interview live.

Have a good week everyone, and I ho ho hope you enjoy the blog.

Trudi xx

Christmas is coming...

Whilst I have been out and about this week, I have noticed that several houses have been putting up their Christmas trees.  This can only mean one thing! Christmas is coming!!!!!  

Now for me Christmas is a festivity full of family, friends, fun, presents and food glorious food, but for some families that find themselves in crisis its their worst nightmare.

Its that time of year when we go mad with food shopping, filling up our cupboards to the brim so the doors hardly close with luxury chocolates, biscuits, smelly cheeses and Christmas puddings!  

Could you imagine having a young family, waking up Christmas day to no food, not even a Christmas selection box for your little one?  For some families this is the reality and this is where we can hopefully help.  By you providing a small food parcel of non perishable food or indeed a cash donation, its one less family that will have to worry about that dreaded day and you never know it could be that one parcel that gets them back on their feet.

Having got some statistics from Woking Foodbank it's actually pretty shocking how many more people are using the foodbank.  In some ways thank goodness its there, but in other ways it is a sad and troubling time.  Between January and September 2018: 1370 Adults and 649 children received help and yet the same time this year 2019:  2031 Adults and 1252 children.  This makes me feel very emotional, it has almost doubled which is pretty shocking- I am wondering whats going on in our society to make these figures double in just a year!

So what are Woking Foodbank looking for?  Well anything that is non-perishable please: Tins of biscuits, Christmas themed cakes, selection boxes, long life sponge puddings, powered potato, canned casserole meat, canned fish, UHT milk, canned spaghetti, rice pudding, canned chick pea......I think you get the idea.  

I get that some of you don't have time to do the extra shopping, so I am happy to take cash donations and do the shopping for you.  My drop off points are Brookwood Club, Brookwood Post Office Bakers Dozen.

I forgot to say that last week, I started my weekly radio interviews with Jon Andrews at Radio Woking which will continue until the campaign closes on the 7th December.  

Did you miss it, don't worry you can catch up with it here: Interview with Jon Andrews at Radio Woking  or indeed this week's chat was with Lara, so you can find out what I have been up to this week : Interview with Lara McNamee at Radio Woking .  

Do listen in Wednesday mornings just after 8am you can get more details about the fundraiser which is happening on the 24th November in Brookwood Memorial Hall and it only costs £5.00 yes £5.00 per child.  My advert is being rolled out on a weekly basis by Radio Woking so tune in to get the details or email me trudifletcher@rocketmail.com for more info.

Please get in touch if you would like to get involved we would love to see you, we have this giant gingerbread house which needs colouring in and I can't do it on my own, well I probably could, but where's the fun in that!  This is a great opportunity for the kids to have some mindful from their busy lives too.

Several companies have come on-board this week and a couple of newbies to the campaign.  DIO Landmarc contacted me to see if they could help in anyway and of course the answer is yes.

Graham from Landmarc told me "that the company is a world leading provider of integrated support services in military training facilities management, range and training area design, operation and management, range safety,specialist environmental services, rural estate management.  The company currently has 1300 people strong and is active across 120 military training sites in the UK.  Its so lovely having the military attached to this campaign again, I don't know if readers can remember? but a couple of years ago we had The Welsh Guards involved before they were deployed to Afghanistan.

Attached to Landmarc is Sandes Christian Charity  (The Soldier's Friend) which was founded in 1869. 

Sandes serves the military community working with the solders in centres located on military bases across the UK.  These neutral, non military spaces provide a home from home for soldiers and their families who can face incredible pressures and stressful working lives.  These centres are designed to be sanctuaries where soldiers can find a welcoming space on camp, free from rank and the pressure of military duties".

Landmarc and Sandes Cafe will be providing a joint effort which is amazing, I will let you all know how this goes. 

It's nice to have some people back from last year, Fulk Butchers in the village have provided a lovely parcel for me, its such a great community spirit - don't forget to call in and get your order placed for that Christmas dinner if you haven't done so yet.

Pre School at St Saviour's Church are kindly displaying my posters and the lovely ladies have said that they will do their bit to help with the foodbank campaign.  This might be where I will have to get the sleigh out for a little trip.  The parcels that the pre-school have provided in the past have been absolutely amazing, but my god so heavy and lets face it, its a great opportunity to get the sleigh out and get the villagers talking about what's going on in the community.

The absolutely amazing Linda Moss is back with her company CSGI based in Woking, again you can look back on  Last year's blog for more details.  Linda is an absolute treat to work with, she rallies around getting in parcels and cash donations for me and it just shows you that I don't do this campaign on my own, everyone does their bit.

Oooooo and do you remember Kris Kringle from last year, if not you can look back on my blog The Show Must Go On!!! well I am very pleased to say that he is back again this year and has kindly provided a very nice donation and some very kind words for good health. 

So Mr Kringle thank you so much for your contribution its going to make a huge difference to some people. 

And the above leads me onto my biggest question.......dun dun dun.......can I persuade anyone to be Santa for my fundraiser, guess you will have to keep tuned in and see what happens....

In the meantime, I will be about the village to see if I can get anyone else to come on-board with this amazing initiative - whats the worst that can happen, they say No!

I still have spaces available for the fundraiser, so please do get in touch if you would like to come along and indeed if you didn't feel like doing any hand/feet painting pop in for a cuppa tea/coffee (£1.50 per cup), put ya feet up, listen to some Christmas music and simply enjoy the moment of having some time to yourself. 

All are welcome and we would be very pleased to see you. 

And we are off!!!!

So its the 1st November and we are off again on this year's foodbank campaign for Woking Foodbank. 

Its been a difficult decision to go ahead this year.  Some of my readers will know and to some this may come as a surprise, but earlier this year I was diagnosed with breast cancer, so I have been struggling with hospital appointments, operations and treatments, but hopefully I am out the other side now and this campaign gives my family and I something else to concentrate on, but it also makes you realise that whilst I was having a very tough time with my emotions and my health I did at least have the basics in my life such as, food and that is what has led us back to this campaign food glorious food!!!!

Could you imagine having health problems, (physical or mental) having to leave your workplace for self care, having no money, trying to deal with your emotions along with your health issues and the pure fact that you have no food the cupboard!!! Your only choice is to visit a foodbank!  This takes guts, courage and for some I can only imagine its absolute hell on earth having to resort to this means just to keep going until you are able to get back on your feet. 

It's such a shame that in a place as rich as Woking which is only 27 minutes away from London via train that we have these facilities, but in some respects thank goodness we do.

This year we have brand new sparkly posters for you to feast your eyes on they are bright and colourful and most certainly catch your eye, so please don't let it just catch your eye look closely and see how one bag of food you could provide will make a difference to a family that find themselves in crisis this year, it is said that any one of us is only three pay packets away from the foodbank and that its pretty staggering statistics.

My drop off points are the same as in previous years :  Brookwood Club which is situated at the heart of the village.  If you are new to the village do pop in and ask for a membership form we are always looking for new members 😊 and;

Brookwood Post Office/Bakers Dozen which is a few doors down from Brookwood Club, you can get a nice bacon roll and cuppa tea in the mornings on your way to work, or pop in and sample some of the other confectioneries. 

Now to add some extra spice to this year's campaign we have decided to get the kiddies involved by including an activity for them for hand and feet painting.  This event will take place on Sunday 24th November in Brookwood Memorial Hall at 12-3pm.  

Did you know that The Memorial Hall was built on land donated by The London Necropolis Company, from funds raised by public subscription, to commemorate those Brookwood residents who gave their lives for our freedom in the two World Wars.

This gives me a warm fuzzy feeling just like us lot we are giving something back to the community by way of food and that extra bit of help.

If you would like to book a space for this event, please do contact me via email to reserve your space: trudifletcher@rocketmail.com or tel: 0788 7565163 as spaces are going quickly and the numbers need to be limited due to time!!!  For £5.00 your little one could make three placemats for your Christmas Table or indeed they will make great prezzies for uncles and aunties, you know the ones that you have no idea what to give them for Christmas!!!  All proceeds will of course be going to The Foodbank.  We will provide juice for your little one, we are conscious of plastics, so if you are attending or would like to come please bring an appropriate drinking up for your little one. Please also bring some extra pennies as tea and coffee will be charged at £1.50 per cup.

Ok that's enough blubbing for this week, just one more thing to add, the wish list for The Foodbank as below, anything non perishable would be awesome, but if you cannot provide food or simply dont have the time spare to purchase it (I know its a busy time of the year), I am happy to take cash donations and do the shopping for you or indeed I am happy to accept your spare carrier bags.

My team and I will be about the village with the sleigh again this year, it has bells and lights now, so if you can't hear us coming you will most certainly see us!!

Please contact me at trudifletcher@rocketmail.com or tel: 0788 7565163 if you have a donation or parcel that you would like me to collect.

Many thanks to you, Trudi & Darren xx