Fundraiser event: Nicholas Appeal.

53 Degrees North · 23-05-2007, 16:35

I have no idea if any of you are at all familiar with a little boy called Nicholas Robinson. He lived in Great Harwood, and had a rare and terminal condition called Alpers disease.

My band heard of his story and decided we'd approach the trust his parents set up to care for him (the Nicholas Appeal - www.thenicholasappeal.co.uk) to organise an evening to raise money for them.

The result is an evening planned at Snuffy's in Great Harwood, on the 23rd June 2007. There will be 3 bands in total, and a DJ. Various raffles and auctions will be held to raise money, and the money rasied would have gone to the Nicholas Appeal themselves, and both Derian House childrens hospice (http://www.derianhouse.co.uk) and the Rainbow trust (http://www.rainbowtrust.org.uk).

Tragically, Nicholas died on the 10th May 2007, at just 3 years and 9 months old, but having consulted with the family and trust, it has been decided to hold the event in Nocholas' memory, and that all money should now go directly to Derian house and the Rainbow trust.

If anyone who visits this forum would like to come along, you are more than welcome. We're negociating a late license with Snuffy's, we have some fine stuff to auction/raffle (we've had stuff donated from premiership and other football league clubs, we're in discussion with local businesses), and we have plenty of media coverage of the event planned.

Most of all, we want to raise lots of money for these charities, and have a great evening dedicated to this little boy.

Thanks for reading.

garinda · 23-05-2007, 16:37

A worthy cause, the best of luck with it.

Len · 23-05-2007, 17:06

That’s a great idea. We saw you play at snuffy’s last Thursday evening, you were good and we had a great time. Cheers

53 Degrees North · 23-05-2007, 18:14

Thanks a lot!

We had a good time that evening! We don't gig all that often, as we all have families and full-time careers - we do it for the fun mostly, but we like to think we play stuff that's different to other covers bands (but still enjoyable!!) Hopefully we'll see you at the fundraiser?

Incidentally, we're aiming to have quite a lot of 'smaller' prizes - we've done fundraisers before and the stuff on offer was ridiculous. Valuable yes, but who carries £500-£600 with them on a night out on the off-chance something comes up they want to buy???!!!!

So we aim to raise by selling loads of good stuff at reasonable prices (hopefully!), and the big stuff goes on ebay.

harwood red · 23-05-2007, 21:26

Good luck with the fundraiser, live in Harwood myself and would have loved to attend but in warmer climes that weekend!!

Hope it's a great night though and raises loads

davo69 · 24-05-2007, 11:19

sounds like a good night me and the wife will be there

53 Degrees North · 24-05-2007, 11:55

Thanks for the support.

Be sure to bring plenty of dosh to bid for the masses of stuff you just won't be able to live without!!

I even hear that one of the bands (not us thankfully) have agreed to be waxed onstage............. this was how they got themselves in on the act!!

now that's got to be worth a bob or two in itself!

aromalady · 24-05-2007, 12:52

hi very good causes, i,m a regular charity giver to derian house, a very deserving cause, as is the others, hope it,s well attended and lots of dosh donated

***Mr D*** · 24-05-2007, 15:56

Good luck with this well worth cause.

mallard · 24-05-2007, 17:15

It sound,s a good night ,good luck and all the best

cashman · 24-05-2007, 21:38

wish you a very sucessful evening. if my experiance of doing charity discos, (albeit years ago) are owt to go off it should be a great night.

53 Degrees North · 25-06-2007, 23:25

Evening all!

The Nicholas Appeal charity night was this saturday gone.
We ended up with 4 bands on in the end, not 3. I don't know if any Accyweb members came along, but thanks if you did. I hope you had a great time. It was a bloomin superb night!

The bands were all local - Snuffy (from Harwood), Small AMp and Avalon Way (from Darwen), and ourselves. All the bands were brilliant, but (in my opinion of course!) Avalon Way absolutely rocked!

We raised £1875, and there were loads of other things going on besides the bands. We had a local ex-army guy waxed (he's a good friend of the band, and a great sport as it turns out!), there were balloon raffles (much fun and chaos), loads of auctions (a signed man u top, a signed accy stanley top, signed burnley top, a portrait of bono - and loads more!)

Anyway, this is just an update. If you're interested, there'll be an article up on our website either tonight or tomorrow. its 53degreesnorth.co.uk

cheers!

Len · 26-06-2007, 19:30

Thanks for letting us know how much was raised on the night because I was there and as you say, it was a superb night. The bands were great, the food was excellent and the atmosphere was tremendous. Its nice to know that there were a lot of generous people there on the night making the all event worth while. I believe st John’s school had a none uniform day and raised around £70.00 for the appeal.

I felt sorry for the chap who was having his legs waxed, especially when the young lady ‘no names mentioned’ deliberately and with no mercy, slowly peeled back 'and I mean slowly peeled back' the waxed strip from the man’s leg when it’s supposed to be done with great speed. You could almost feel and hear every hair being slowly extracted.

Anyways, keep up the good work and we may see you again.

The attachment below is a copy of the Events Schedule.

53 Degrees North · 26-06-2007, 22:57

I'm glad you had a good time!!

Yes, £70 was raised by St. Johns (2 of us have kids at the school) - Mrs Birtwistle from the school came to present the cheque.

The chap who got waxed is a good friend of ours - an ex-army man, and I can't believe he hardly flinched during the whole thing!! I think my partner tried to peel back a wax strip from his leg really slowly too - she was trying not to hurt him believe it or not (she used to deliver avon to his wife and thinks he's a really nice man!!!!!!)

Did you stay till the end? We played a truly awful rendition of Chasing Cars! We've rehearsed it twice about 2 months ago, and when it got asked for (chanted for is more accurate though) we thought we could wing our way through it. Bit of arrogance on our part I suppose!!

There's talk of us arranging a band night (no fundraising) once every month or 2........ We need some sleep first!!

Len · 27-06-2007, 17:51

Myself and Sharon along with a friend left somewhere near to the end. I think you chaps were probably into your third or fourth tune. We had to go because we were rapidly running out of money.

Well anyways, we never noticed any awful renditions, but then, I ant no expert and also, there were quite a lot of things going on aswell.

I spotted and briefly chatted to an old friend of mine, someone I hadn’t seen for ages. It turns out that Nicholas was John’s grandson, which I hadn’t realized before. It was great to see him and also pleased that the event was a success.
I noticed John was taking plenty of photos and I was just wondering if he is going to put them online somewhere?

Anyways, we’ll watch out for ya and see when you chaps are playing again and if it’s local then perhaps we’ll pop in and have a gander.