2009 NEWS AND DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

ROUND-UP OF UPDATES FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER

Our Christmas Fair on 7th November was a great success, so a big thank-you to everyone who helped out on the day and all those who donated goods and of course everyone who snapped up the bargains and participated in the tombola. A special thanks to Babs Clark who brought along some delicious mince pies that kept us all going most of the day!! Everything had been donated so, as usual, there were no costs to deduct from the money collected on the day and I'm sure you will be delighted to know that we raised a magnificent £1161.

Our thanks as always go to Terri & Den Fitzpatrick (and their grandchildren) and David & Sue of W. English's, funeral directors, 464a Bethnal Green Road. They all work so hard to organise these sales days on their days off and the Christmas Fair was a particularly long and hard day of being on our feet, putting everything out and then clearing everything up. This now brings the total raised by English's for us in the last 12 months to over £11,017. So we are extremely grateful to them all for such a wonderful effort on our behalf.

They will resume sales days again next year, the first being Saturday 13th February, so think about buying your Valendintes day bargain presents there. In the meantime please don't throw anything away!! If you receive any unwanted Christmas gifts, clothes or other items that we can sell please hang on to them until the New Year when we will definitely need them again. We will be storing Christmassy things for next year's Christmas Fair so hang on to them too please until we can take them again in January. Just pop in to English's during the normal working weekday hours with any good quality items you have to sell and leave the rest to us. Thanks again for all your help and support this year.

The station collection at Canary Wharf station was a long one, as some of us (Derek, Lee and myself) were on our feet all day without a break from 6.30am until 8pm on Wednesday 18th November, but we had the help of Rhonda and her work colleagues at Canary Wharf who kept us plied with coffee and food, so a big thank-you to them. It was all worth the effort though as we raised £572 (and a few foreign coins) so we were delighted. Our thanks also go to Lynda and Alf who helped on the early shift (Lynda came along before work at 6.30, so that was brilliant) plus Babs, Joan, Tom and Dan. Their help was invaluable as it is a very big and very busy station. Also thank you to all the people who came through the station and put donations into our buckets. It was a super effort all round.

We are trying to organise another station collection before Christmas but don't know if that will come off. I'll keep you updated if so.

Alf Morris's dance night at the Hornchurch Conservative Club on 20th November was very successful, although he hadn't sold all the tickets after all. He had obviously got a bit confused on the numbers as there were a few spare tickets at the end, which is a pity as some of the committee members gave up their tickets because Alf thought he was over subscribed. Anyway, it was a great evening for those who were there and Alf, Vera and their daughter Linda, worked very hard with the catering and organisation and the event raised £900, which was really brilliant. So well done and thanks to them and to everyone who went along and joined in the singing and dancing. Remember to book your tickets early next year so that you won't be disappointed.

If you need more information please e-mail me at info@stairwaytoheavenmemorial.org or ring Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168
Thanks
Sandra (Hon. Sec)


PLANS FOR 2010
The next English's sale will take place on Saturday 13th February 2010.

We are trying to organise a Race Night in Barkingside on Saturday 20th February (more details when finalised)

Also, a football match on Saturday 20th March between the Vicars and the Undertakers. It should be a fun afternoon with a barrel organ, lots of stalls, music, food, etc. So if you have something to sell and would like to participate or if you can just come along cheer on the boys, enjoy some refreshments or man a stall for an hour or two, we'd love to hear from you. Hopefully the location will be a football field near Bethnal Green Road and the tube station, so you can always combine it with a shopping expedition to the market if you wanted to.

NEXT YEAR’S ANNIVERSARY MEMORIAL SERVICE 2010
The 67th Anniversary Memorial Service to remember those who lost their lives or survived the Bethnal Green tube disaster will take place on Sunday 7th March 2010 at St. John on Bethnal Green Church at 2pm. The church is almost next door to one of the entrances to Bethnal Green tube station. There will be a wreath/flowers laying ceremony across the road at the top of the stairs where everyone died after the Service with a blessing. Refreshments will also be provided and an update on progress so far.

Please put these dates in your diary.

PAST BLOG ROUND-UP:
OCTOBER : While I was away on holiday the sales went on at English's funeral directors and lots of money raised. If you have goods to sell please drop them into W. English & son, Funeral Directors, 464a Bethnal Green Road (just a short distance from BG tube station), during normal weekday office hours or on the day of the sales. We need good quality toys, puzzles, bric-a-brac, books, videos and DVD's or clothes to sell.

The station collection at Mile End was also very successful and our thanks go to all those who helped out there and at English's sales days while I've been away. They raised £157, £635, £650 and £384.20 respectively.

Also the Firemen at Bethanl Green fire station organised a car wash charity fun day in the summe and recntly presented Alf Morris with a cheque for £750 being half the proceeds, which was really magnificient of them. We thank them very much for this kindness and such a huge effort, especially the fireman who was dressed in the bear outfit on such a warm day collecting money in Bethanl Green Road and at the tube station.

If you need more information please use the website e-mail to contact me (Sandra) or phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168

The Harlow Halloween party on Friday 30th October at Holy Cross Hall, Traceys Road, Harlow, raised £500 which was brilliant. Our thanks go to the family of Louisa Tyrer, particularly Nichola and Emma McKie, for all their hard work. They also raised £335 for us at a recent boot fair. They are continuing with a Christmas Fair cake stall, boot fair and other fund-raising events in the Harlow area over the next few weeks, so if you would like to know more please contact one of us for more details. They will be at the Roayl british Legion Club, Harlow on 12th December so go along, buy one of our super keyrings that Anna Reid designed, and the other goods they have for sale.

On Monday 2nd November BBC1's Inside Out programme featured an item about war memorials with brief appearances of our architect, Harry Paticas, and 2 of our trustees. Also, Alf Morris was interviewed at length on The Discovery Channel programme recently about the 2nd World War. All these broadcasts bring in more publicity and survivors, it spreads the word and often brings in donations too. So we are extremely grateful to the producers and interviewers of the 2 programmes for their help and guidance.

If any survivor or relative feels they can ring their local radio station to talk about the disaster, wherever they are in the country, it will also help publicise our project and just might bring us other survivors and relatives of those who died in the disaster that we haven't managed to reach yet.

Sandra (Hon. Sec)

PAST FUND-RAISING REPORTS
The sales day at English’s on Saturday 22nd August 2009 raised £473, despite being a slow day with not so many people around in Bethnal Green as I think they might have been on holiday or staying in their gardens!!! So we are really delighted with that amount. This brings the total raised by W. English & son for us, to date, to £7,412. 74, so we would like to thank Terri Fitzpatrick and all the staff at the funeral directors in 464a Bethnal Green Road and to the boss of the company for their wonderful support and help to us over the last 10 month

HARLOW EVENTS
The Tyrer/McKie family have raised excellent sums from the boot fairs in Harlow. For more information please ring Derek Spicer on 022 162 168 or Nichola on 07841 776424.

JULY/AUGUST 2009 - BUMPER MONTHS
SALES DAY
The sales day at W. English & Sons, in Bethnal Green Road on Saturday 1st August raised just under £699, which was magnificent. If you have never been to one of our sales days you don't know what you are missing. We have so many different things for sale at real bargain prices (clothes, bags, shoes, bric-a-brac, toys, games, suitcases, lights, records, DVD's, CD's, videos, push chairs, carry cots, etc). Thank you very much to everyone who brings things in for us to sell and of course to all those who come along and snap up the bargains. Our sincere thanks also to Terri & Den Fitzpatrick who work so hard to organise the sales, put everything out early in the morning, spend all day on their feet and pack up and clear-up afterwards. It's a long, hard day and we really do appreciate all they do for us. Also to their grandchildren who often help out and to David and Sue who do most of the selling too - all on their day off. We just have to stand outside and persuade people to go inside and view the goods!! If you can help out at any time at future sales days please let us know.
Thanks
Sandra


LIVE BAND/JAM DAY
If you did not get along to the Live Music Band day at the Coach & Horses pub, Leyton High Road, on Sunday 26th July 2009 you missed a real treat. From noon until late there were 7 different bands playing some magical music. Everyone was so good that it was a joy to spend the day there. The young Bethnal Green band "Resigned" performed songs from their latest album about various places in Bethnal Green that they grew up in. Their final song was '15' which is about the Bethnal Green tube disaster and they gave a fantastic performance of it. They have also given us copies of their album to sell in aid of the charity at £5 and also singles of their '15' song to sell for £2.50. So if you would like a copy please get in touch. They are a very good group of lovely young guys. At the end of the performances many of the musicians carried on a jamming session which was also brilliant.

We raised £345.50 on the day, which was a fantastic amount, especially as it was such a pleasant day to be able to spend in a pub, eating and drinking, relaxing, listening to the music and enjoying ourselves. So our thanks must go to Terry & Vera Duggan who organised the event, along with Suzanne Lane and Ray Bartrip who all worked very hard to make it happen and run so smoothly on the day. Our special thanks also to all the bands who perforemd free of charge on the day for us and to the Coach & Horses pub who allowed us to use the venue to raise money. We are extremly grateful to everyone involved for making it such a special and successful event.

LIBRARY EXHIBITION SATURDAY 18th JULY 2009
The exhibition at Bethnal Green library brought in record numbers of people to look at the many articles, photographs and film shows on display, as well as the many books about wartime East End which the library had for sale. Talks were given by survivors about the disaster and their experiences. Others were happy to talk individually to those who wanted to know more. Our architect, Harry Paticas, who designed the 'Stairway to Heaven Memorial', was on hand to show the model of what it will look like in the park next to the staircase where everyone died. He was able to explain how and why he had designed the Memorial in the first place and how it had evolved since meeting up with Alf Morris and the trustees of the charity that was formed to raise money to erect it in April 2007. We laid on tea/coffee, cold drinks and cakes and people made donations for these and we raised £191, which was very generous of everyone who came along.

Our thanks go to all the library staff, especially Richard, who helped us so much on the day and made it possible for us to organise the exhibition in their reading room. Thank you also to all those who came along. It was good to meet some new surivors and relatives of those who died.

If you need more information or can organise a fund-raising event for us please phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or 078 28 197 236 or 01474 702513.

PAST EVENTS

We had a stall at the Chest Hospital on 12th July 2009 and raised just over £60. So we thank the hospital very much for the opportunity to have a stall there and help raise awareness about the disaster and the Memorial we plan to build.


If you need more information please phone Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or 078 28 197 236 or 01474 702513.
Sandra


STATION COLLECTION DAYS
Thanks to all those who contributed during our collection day at BG tube station on Friday 3rd April 2009. 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, Mr. Traynor, 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 Weekend programme in May and many people heard it.

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 BAZAAR 2009
This will now take place on Saturday 7th November at W. English & Son, 464a Bethnal Green Road from 10am until 4pm. There will be lots of bargains & gifts to buy plus tombola prizes to be won. Yes, i know it is early to start thinking about Christmas, but could you please snap up bargains in the shops to give to us or start to make things for us to sell. 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 time to undertake the work or root out bargains and perhaps you could persuade the children or grand-children to help you. 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 and could pick things up. If every one of our supporters could contribute a few small items then we will have a bumper fair!! For more details please ring Derek Spicer on 07722 162 168 or 01277 372 938.

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 2009 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 2009 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 2008
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 2008
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 2008 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 2008

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 or 01277 372 938.

CAN YOU DO SOMETHING TO HELP?
If you are able to run a small coffee morning among your friends, a raffle, boot fair, 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 (Hon. 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. Her great Nan died in the disaster. 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
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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.