Past Charity Events
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Clifton Fireworks Fiesta
Who would have thought that there are people mad enough to spend a Saturday evening in November standing about in a huge muddy field, in the freezing cold, torrential rain and howling wind? Yet that is exactly what nine people from the Bristol Bridge Rotary Club did on 1 November, when they helped man Gate 6 at the Clifton Fireworks Fiesta. Neil P, Neil G, Nick, Jon, Eszter, Claire, Fran and Andrew were very capably led by Gate 6 Leader Craig, who enjoyed spending much of his time talking in code on the walkie-talkie to "Alpha One" and "Charlie Bravo". Much entertainment was provided by trying to pick up change with frozen fingers, wringing rain water out of soaked clothing, and modelling highly flattering high-viz tabards.
Still, it wasn't all fun, fun, fun. A surprisingly large number of people turned up to these annual fireworks, so our volunteers were kept busy collecting tickets and money, and directing people towards the nice warm bonfire. And of course, the thing that kept the volunteers going was that the proceeds of this event were going to local charities. We don't yet have a final figure for how much was raised, but we'll let the club know once we have this information. In the meantime, have a browse on our Gallery for photos from this... um... enjoyable event.
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Summer Fayre
The Summer Fayre was our club's first major fundraising event, organised entirely by Bristol Bridge Rotary Club members, with a little help from friends and colleagues. The Fayre was organised in conjunction with the Bristol Music Festival, at Anchor Square in central Bristol. Numerous local tradespeople had stalls at the event, while club members ran a jumble sale, face-painting, cake sale and barbeque. A gloriously sunny day and fantastic music from the acoustic stage drew huge crowds, which meant that we sold out of burgers and cakes, and an awful lot of people got their faces painted! All in all, a great time was had by everyone.
In terms of fundraising, this event was a major success, having made a profit of over £1,300 for our supported charities. It was wonderful to see all the club pull together and work extremely hard to make the event a reality and raise so much money for charity. Thank you to everyone who helped either on the day, or in the run-up to this event!
As ever, there are plenty of photos from the day on our gallery page. In addition, if you have access to Facebook, you can listen to a radio interview we had on Bristol Community FM, plugging our Summer Fayre.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Run for the Future
Yes, the Smurfs have popped up in Bristol once again. Not content with being the highlight of this year's Dragon Boat Festival (for which, see below!), some of our club's closet Smurfs decided to come out again and take part in the annual Run for the Future, organised by the Rotary Club of Bristol. Matt, Kevin and Alex were joined at the last minute by Eszter, who, conveniently, did not have her Smurf outfit with her. Still, the Smurfs were a big hit on the day, as celebrity runner Carol Vorderman was desparate to have her picture taken with our Smurfs. Go to our Gallery for photographic evidence!
This event was raising fund for and awareness of prostate cancer, and a mobile medical unit was even on site to enable men to get themselves checked. In addition to providing a few keen runners, members of the club, who did not fancy a 5K run, were on hand to help with marshalling and handing out medals and goodie-bags to finishers. The event hopes to have raised over £30,000 for research into and treatment of prostate cancer.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Dragon Boat Racing in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support
The Rotary Club of Bristol Breakfast has organised the annual dragon boat racing festival in Bristol docks for the past several years. It has always been a fun day out and a successful fundraising event, so much so, that all the boats were quickly snapped up and reserved for teams entered by various local businesses and organisations. Our club was lucky enough to be working together with the Bristol branch of Macmillan Cancer Support, who reserved a boat and has asked for willing volunteers from our club to take part, in exchange for raising sponsorship for Macmillan.
Dragon boat racing involves 17 people working together in a long and narrow boat, with 16 people paddling on either side, and one (small!) person banging a drum and shouting encouragements to keep the team going.
A more detailed write-up of the day will follow soon! There are some photos of the day available on our gallery page. If you have any pictures you would like to upload on our website, please contact our webmaster.
Monday, 19 May 2008
Utopia's inaugural charity golf day - in aid of GUCH
Bristol Bridge members don't just support the club's nominated charities, but a few enterprising individuals also go off and organise their own fundraising events. Such was the case of Kevin Mashford, founder and director of Utopia the interior design and fit-out company, who organised a charity golf day to raise funds for GUCH - the Grown Up Congenital Heart Patients Association.
GUCH is a charity close to Kevin's heart (ba-da-boom!), having had several major sets of surgery on his heart, and having first hand understanding of the support provided by this charity to young people and adults with congenital heart disease.
Utopia's first charity golf day raised an incredible £6,000 for GUCH, a cheque for which was presented to Beth Greenway, chairman of GUCH. Bristol Bridge is very proud to have such hard-working, passionate and generous people amongst its members.
Check out Utopia's press release about this fundraising event, and have a look at some more photos of the day on our Galleries page.
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Zip-wiring for Above and Beyond
Above and Beyond is a charity which supports the hospitals that make up the United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust, and works to enhance healthcare in the Bristol area. Amongst their many exciting fundraising events, they have previously organised sponsored zip-wire events in the Avon Gorge, but apparently this was not scary enough, so the team went one step further and organised a zip-wiring event from the top of the Bristol Oncology Centre.
The club's participation certainly brought a few smiles (and some looks of concern...) to the many onlookers and hospital patients and workers with the unveiling of their very own Mr Incredible and a flying Vicar (complete with a Scythe of Death!).
The Saturday morning started quite normally (well, normal for Bristol Bridge). The usual crew turned up ready for their marshalling duties to be greeted by our very own President (Neil Gilbert) who, rumour has it, was possibly still intoxicated from the night before having entertained the good and great of Bristol all in the name of networking!
After taking their marshalling position at the end of the zip wire to provide much cheering (and dirty laugh from Neil) for all those brave souls making their way down the zip wire, talk soon turned to the club's turn on the zip wire and in particular the rumour that an appearance was to be made by Mr Incredible. Not to be upstaged, the club's Secretary (Matt Ashley) soon appeared with a bag of props guaranteed to provide much amusement to the crowd (and a probable appearance by the Avon and Somerset police helicopter if Matt's choice of clothing combination had been approved - come to one of our Thursday morning breakfast's on the Glass Boat and all will be revealed!).
After much cheering (and tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes - thanks Nicky) the call came from above that it was time! The moment had arrived and those taking part in the zip wire donned their costumes. To much amusement from the crowd, these included Mr Incredible, the "Vicar" and lady with bum cheeks showing, all who climbed into their harness and safety gear and weaved through the hospital to the roof ready for their decent.
The day ended in usual club tradition with a few beers in the local pub whilst trying to convince the Vicar it was best that he didn't cycle home with his outfit on…. A great day was had by all supporting a very worthwhile cause and helping Above and Beyond Charities raise in excess of £10,000 for the Heart of Bristol Appeal. Check out our Galleries for more photos. Saturday 19 January, 2008, saw the club's first fundraising event. The Winter Warmer drinks event held at Goldbrick House was a friendly and relaxing night, which enabled young business people from the city to socialise together and raise money through a raffle. The total amount raised was £900 for the benefit of CEED a small charity based in St Paul's whose mission is to 'improve the economic well being of those currently disadvantaged in the labour market and in business, in particular those from minority ethnic groups'.
19 January 2008
Winter Warmer Drinks