FUTURE FUND-RAISING EVENTS AND UPDATES

LATEST NEWS & FORTHCOMIN EVENTS>

LIBRARY EXHIBITION SATURDAY 18th JULY
There will be an exhibition at Bethnal Green library on Saturday 18th July from 11am until 4pm all about the disaster and the Memorial we are raising money to erect. Please come along and support us and bring your friends and family along too. The library is just behind Bethnal Green Gardens (which those of us of a certain age still call Barmy Park!!) where the Memorial will be built. There will be several speakers, films running all day long about the Bethnal Green tube disaster and also about East London just after the war. Refreshments will be available and some of the committee members will be there to talk to and ask questions and the model of the proposed Memorial. We still need any survivors or relatives of those who died to come along and tell us about your memories or anyone to help direct people to the exhibition or hold buckets for those wanted to give donations, so please let us know beforehand or just turn up on the day if you prefer.

BLUES JAM BAND DAY, SUNDAY 26TH JULY

This promises to be a super day out. There will be 8 different bands playing throughout the day at the Coach & Horses pub, High Road, Leyton, E10 5NA (a short distance from the back of Leyton Orient Football club and Leyton underground station, from 12noon until late. Tickets can be purchased on the door for £3 each. This will allow you to stay all day or pop in and out any time during the day. There will be face painting, refreshments and lots of other events all in aid of the Stairway to Heaven Memorial, so please come and support us and make it worth the efforts of all these wonderful musicians. The jam session in the evening will be magical, so you can join in if you would like to. More details from 077324 60 444
or check out their website www.coachandhorsesbluesjam.com.

ENGLISH'S SALES DAYS CONTINUE TO RAISE MONEY FOR US
The sales day at English’s on 27th June raised £435.50, which was brilliant considering we had so much competition from other events that day. This brings the total they have raised for us to date to £5,865.74 and we are so grateful to all their staff and all the people who donate goods to sell and all those who snap up the bargains. The next sales day will take place on Saturday 1st August so if you have any goods for sale please drop them into the funeral directors, W. English & Son at 464a Bethnal Green Road, during normally weekday office hours or bring them along on the sales day between 10am and 4.30pm.

Before that we have a stall at the London Chest hospital fete on Sunday 12th July from 12noon until 5pm. If you have things for sale on the day please let me know or come and see us on the day.

If you need more information please phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or 078 28 197 236 or 01474 702513. Hopefully all the telephone problems are now behind us!!
Sandra


STATION COLLECTION DAYS
Thanks to all those who contributed during our collection day at BG tube station on Friday 3rd April. We raised £411, which was really magnificient. Our thanks to LUL for allowing the collection.

The station collection at Victoria mainline station on 23rd April raised £425.55. A lovely young man gave us a cheque for £1500, but sadly it bounced and we have not been able to reach him since!! Thanks to all our helpers who turned out on the day. We really do appreciate all your efforts.

TV COVERAGE ON MISSING LIVE
No doubt many of you have seen Margaret McKay and Alf Morris on the BBC morning programme 'MIssing Live' in April & May. Both did brilliantly telling their story and we thank them very much as it must have been quite nerve-racking, especially for Margaret broadcasting live in the studio. We hope Margaret will find more connections for her mother, Ellen Ridgway, who she never knew. We also hope it will create more awareness about the tragedy and perhaps bring in more relatives and surivors and donations. We were not allowed to mention our charity or that we are raising money to build the memorial, but hopefully people will be able to find out more by looking at our website.

Alf Morris had an article in the Daily Mail in May and as a result he finally found Mrs. Chumbley's last remaining daughter and granddaughter. Mrs. Chumbley was the air raid warden that saved his life and her granddaughter Suzanne appeared with Alf on Radio 4's Weeekdn programme in May and many people heard it. There will hopefully be more news about this in due course.

FETES & FAIRS
If you hear of a history fair or fete in your area could you please let us have full details as we might be able to have a stall or table there to raise awareness and funds. So please keep an eye on your local paper or library for upcoming events.

CHRISTMAS FAIR 2009
Yes, i know it is early to start thinking about Christmas, but we are going to organise another Christmas Fair, probably at the end of October or early in November. So could you please snap up bargains in the shops to give to us or start to make things for us to sell at the Fair. We really will need your help with this. Can you make decorations, crafts, wooden things, shopping bags, peg bags, candles, cards, table decorations, holly wreaths, cakes, gifts, etc., that you can let us have to sell? Or could you buy wrapping paper, lables, toys, games, cuddly toys or tombola prizes to give us to sell or raffle? You have plenty of time to undertake the work or root out bargains and perhaps you could persuade the children or grand-children to help you during the holidays. If you think you live too far away then please let us know if you have goods to collect as we might be visiting relatives or friends near to you over the summer time and could pick things up. If every one of our supporters could contribute a few small items then we will have a bumper fair!!

MEMORIAL SERVICE & OTHER NEWS
The 66th Anniversary Memorial Service took place on Sunday 1st March 2009 at St.John on Bethnal Green Church and I'm sure that everyone felt comforted and uplifted by the Service. We are so grateful to the church for allowing us to hold our services there and also other events, so if you are ever passing please drop some money into their donations box or buy goodies at their regular sales days on the first Saturdy in the month. We are also, of course, very grateful to Fr. Alan Green, Rector of St. John's and one of our trustees, who works very hard to ensure that the Service runs so smoothly, gives an inspirational Address and provides the Service booklets which I know many of you like to keep as souvenirs of your day. It was also good to have a blessing and prayer from Rabbi Amanda Golby, so the whole event was very special for us all.

I hope you will enjoy seeing the photographs of the Memorial Service too and also on the website for Westminster University and the Labour Party video. Our thanks to everyone who helped out on the day and special thanks to all the survivors and relatives of those who died, who came along, as well as the Mayor and Leader of Tower Hamlets Council and Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor of London, and other dignitaries. Barbara Windsor was sorry not to have been with us but had a chest infection and Len Goodman was on tour with Strictly Come Dancing. Both sent their good wishes to us all as did Princes William and Harry.

It was so good to see so many people in the church and also talking to you all afterwards was a great joy, though i am sorry if i did not get the chance to talk to everyone of you. One of the more rewarding things to have come out of our project is to see people connecting with other members of their family, that they sometimes did not even know existed until we were able to put them in touch with each other. It was a very satisfying sight.

And of course a very special thank you to Tower Hamlets Council who have pledged a further £100,000 to our funds since attending the Service.
Sandra (Hon. Sec)

FILM SHOW DATE
Our thanks to Clive Bettington and the Jewish East End Celebration Society for organising a Mother's Day Film Show for us on Sunday 22nd March at Oxford House, just off Bethnal Green Road. We all found it very moving.

If you have any ideas for sales or fund-raising events or can help us to organise one please phone Derek on 07828 197 236.

RADIO 4 BROADCAST AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
If you heard Sandra on Radio4's Midweek programme on 18th February we hope it will generate a lot of interest and help us to raise more funds as well as tracing more survivors and families of those who died. If you didn't hear the programme let us know and we will be able to tell you how to listen to it online.

Newspaper articles about the disaster and the Memorial appeared in The Independent and Evening Standard on Thursday 19th February and also the Dartford Times on 19th February and 5th March - with special thanks to their reporter Lizzie Thornton.

We will be working very hard trying to raise enough money to approach the lottery for some grants, so lets make this a bumper year together. I would also like to thank all our supporters and helpers who did so much to raise almost £70,000 in 2008. Well done to everyone and please keep up the good work. We could not do it without all your help.
Sandra



Liverpool Street Mainline Station collection Day
This raised £254 and at Euston mainline station on 26th November we raised another £171.91, which was much better than we expected in these difficult times. So thank you to all the commuters and travellers at Euston & Liverpool Street who contributed.


ALF'S FUND-RAISING DANCE NIGHT
Alf Morris's fund-raising dance night at the Hornchurch Conservative Club on Friday 14th November was a sell-out and a great success. Alf raised a magnificient £865 and organised it all on his own, with the help of his wife Vera and his family. So well done to Alf. Our thanks go to Hornchurch Conservative Club and the entertainer, Peter James, for giving their services to the charity for the evening. Also Somerfield for helping towards the food costs.

It was such a popular evening that the committee members had to give up their tickets so that others could go, so Alf is now looking around for a bigger venue to organise a similar event, possibly early next summer. So keep watching the website for more details.


THANKS TO ST.JOHN ON BETHNAL GREEN CHURCH
We had some stalls outside St. John on Bethnal Green Church on Saturday 1st November and shared their monthly fund-raising day with them. We raised £103.35 during the morning (before it started raining and we had to pack up!!), so thanks very much to Fr. Alan Green and his helpers for this opportunity. Also we raised a further £88 on 29th November.

NOVEMBER UPDATES

We collected £344.61 (plus a few foreign coins) at the collection day on 3rd October at Fenchurch Street station. So, thank you to everyone who contributed and a special thank you to all those who helped on the day. There will be another collection day on Wednesday 26th November at Euston Station and also Friday 12th December at Liverpool Street mainline station. Each event runs from 7am until 7pm so if you can help out for an hour or so to give others a break please contact me through the website e-mail.

If you have any ideas or would like to run a fund-raising event please get in touch with Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168.

CAN YOU DO SOMETHING TO HELP?
If you are able to run a small coffee morning among your friends, a raffle, boot sale, sponsorship event, jumble sale or basically anything you can do to raise some money, then please contact one of us with your ideas. It can just be a one-off event, you don’t have to commit to doing something on a regular basis. Remember – every little helps!!

I look forward to hearing more from you.
Sandra (Secretary) info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org


CHEQUE FROM THE MAYOR OF TOWER HAMLETS
We are so grateful to the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Cllr. Ann Jacksaon, for working so hard to raise so much money during her year in office. She presented the cheque to Alf Morris for £33,500 in July 08 and we are delighted with all her efforts and hard work.

Thank you Ann very much.

THE CHARITY'S AGM & PRESENT TRUSTEES

The Stairway to Heaven Memorial Trust’s AGM took place on 9th May 2009 and 2 new Trustees were elected to help run the charity. So, joining Chairman & survivor Alf Morris, Pastoral Co-ordinator Rev. Alan Green, Treasurer/fund-raising co-ordinator Derek Spicer, Secretary Sandra Scotting and Accountant Lee Scotting, marathon runner and fund-raiser Raju Vaidyanathan (youth worker), Jitkar Markova (youth worker) and June Cray (housewife & mother) will be Terri Fitzgerald from English's funeral directors and Anna Reid - who did a sponsored silence during her working day as a train driver. Our thanks to the new Trustees as their help will be invaluable.

All the Trustees pay their own phone, postage, printing and travel costs. Nothing is taken out of the funds of the charity for admin costs by the Trustees.

Sandra (Hon. Sec) info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org

MEMORIAL UPDATE

We now have the full revised planning permission from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for the Memorial to be sited alongside the stairway rather than over it. We are grateful to everyone involved as there were no objections whatsoever (not even from Transport for London) and in fact there were even letters of support, which is quite unusual apparently.

The Memorial Garden will also be sited in the park owned by the local council. We just need to raise the money needed now to build the Memorial, so we need all your help with this. Our architect has revised the look of the Memorial slightly which will keep the costs down and lighten the look of the volume. A new model of how it will look will be available soon to view.

We would dearly like to be able to tell you this time next year that the Memorial is being built. But to do that we need some more money to move the project forward. So if you can help us in any way, or know of anybody who can, please let me know.

Sandra Scotting (Hon. Sec)
info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

REMEMBERANCE BOOKS FOR SALE
The Civil Defence Association generously produced and presented a beautiful Remembrance Book to St. John on Bethnal Green Church for permanent display there. The hard-backed book contains a description of the tragedy and lists the names, ages and last known addresses of all those who died, along with details of their parents or spouses. Thanks to Tim Essex-Lopresti and Ian Pell, the Association has produce copies of the book for sale, which will be a wonderful memento for families to keep and hand-down to future generations. There are pages at the back to place photographs and other personal details in. We still have some copies left for £30 each (plus p & p if you are too far away to collect a copy from one of the committee members). However if you would prefer to purchase copies online you can do so through Amazon or Nielsen Bookdata for £40. The charity is making a very small profit on this as we feel it is more important for families to have the opportunity to own a copy for their family history records than to raise funds this way.

Please phone 07828 197 236 or e-mail info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org for more information.