Registered Charity No. 294354
Local Branch Patron :
Dr. Dorothy
Anderson
-
NORTH AND EAST HERTFORDSHIRE BRANCH
RECENT EVENTS PAGE
Tractor Rally at Ashwell - 6th Sept
The Tractor Rally was organised by the Ashwell Village Antique Tractor Club. John Stevenson and Colin Chambers organised the Rally and proceeds raised were donated to the MND Association. The day included several events, including a tractor rally, Raffle,
and several bands played in the grounds of the Rose and Crown Pub in Ashwell.
It all started in the morning with tractor owners having a run in the local area, finishing in the Rose & Crown car park. The tractors were then available to view. Our Branch organised a stall, which displayed information and our Display Boards. We also organised a raffle, with over 25 prizes. There was a hog roast and live music from three bands starting at 4pm until 11pm. Drinks and food were available at the Rose & Crown, and the pub promised a donation of 10p for every drink sold. John Stevenson, who is himself an international shooter, has arranged for expert friends to raise funds by sponsorship in a shooting competition. Thanks to Eric Eatwell for co-ordinating our Branch Raffle and Display. Special thanks to Sabina, Manager of the Rose and Crown too for all her help on the day.
River Stort narrow boat trip - 17th August
The Branch organised a very successful canal boat trip in August for Branch members and their families. We hired 2 canal boats and travelled down the river Stort, near Harlow. The weather was fine and everyone enjoyed a Cream Tea, with freshly baked scones, jam and cream, plus home-made cake and strawberries and cream. The canal boats were specially adapted and fully accessible for wheelchairs. The trip lasted for nearly 3 hours and we had to negotiate a couple of locks along the way. Grateful thanks to Marilyn Dodson, our Branch Secretary, for organising the day.
Branch Annual General Meeting
At the last monthly meeting, the Branch held its AGM. Liz Garrood (Regional Care and Development Officer) gave a talk about her work and latest developments in Hertfordshire.
Heads Together Black Tie Dinner
event - MBDA, Stevenage
On the 11th October, a magnificent Charity Dinner was held by
MBDA of Stevenage. The Dinner was attended by over 110 people and was in aid of
four local Neurological Charities, who have joined together as 'Heads Together'
in order to raise funds as a Group. The Charities are: Headway North Herts and
Stevenage, Alzheimer's Society, Herts MS Therapy Centre and our branch of the
MND Association. The evening started with a champagne reception and was
followed by a sumptuous 3 course meal. A Charity Auction and prestigious raffle
followed. After this, Gordon Banks, ex England Goalkeeper and member of the
1966 winning World Cup Team gave an after dinner speech, which was humorous and
enlightening. At the end of the evening, a cheque was presented to the four
Charities for £7,400. Our thanks go to Alan Fuller and Louise Parfrey
from MBDA, who organised the whole event and to all the MBDA staff who helped
on the night. It was a special evening and we were glad that several Branch
members attended, representing the MND Association locally.
cheque presentation ceremony with Gordon Banks (2nd from left)
Fundraising
Concert
Singing for Pleasure Choir from Welwyn.
On 29th September, we organised
a Charity Fundraising Concert, with the Welwyn Garden City Choir 'Singing for
Pleasure'. See poster below. The concert was held in the United Reformed Church
in Stevenage. The Concert was well received and the audience enjoyed the wide
repertoire of songs. The Concert was in aid of 'Heads Together', which is a
joint venture between four local Charities - the Alzheimer's Society, Herts. MS
Therapy Centre, Headway and our MND Branch. Proceeds from the Concert were
split between the four Charities. Our grateful thanks to the 'Singing for
Pleasure' Choir for a splendid performance and to the United Reformed Church
for all their help and support.
Visit to the de
Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre - London
Colney
On the 9th
September a small group visited the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre,
London Colney and were met by a charming man named Reg, who flew Mosquito's in
the war, who introduced the group to the history of the site. This was
followed by a tour of the hangers that housed their collection of De Havilland
aircraft. A ploughman's lunch was laid on for the group in the Museum clubroom,
and they were then able to wander around at their leisure for as long as they
liked. A highly enjoyable time was had by all. We would like to thank all the
people at the Heritage Centre for entertaining everyone and for spending so
much time answering all our questions. By the way - the museum is very keen to
find volunteers who are interested in helping them restore their aircraft.
Hopley's Charity Evening - 21st
July
On Saturday the 21st of July, Hopley's Garden
Centre in Much Hadham held a charity evening 'extravaganza' in aid of the Motor
Neurone Disease Association, where amongst others, 'Bjorn Again', the world
famous Abba tribute band were be playing. Over a thousand people attended the
event and despite the weather being very wet at times a great time was had by
all. After several hours of musical entertainment, the evening concluded with a
spectacular fireworks display.
Our Branch
were kindly invited to be the named Charity for the event. We held a large
tombola (see below) and a raffle. Both went extremely well and we made over
£3,800 in proceeds on the night, which was fantastic. Following the
event, we were then given a further cheque from Aubrey Barker of Hopley's
Garden Centre, who hosted and organised the event. All together we raised
£7,867.43p, which is a marvellous amount, way beyond what we could have
hoped for.
We would like
to say a big thank you to Mr Aubrey Barker and all the staff at Hopley's Garden
Centre in Much Hadham, who gave us the opportunity for this fundraising event.
Also, a big thank you to Marilyn Dodson for co-ordinating all our Branch
volunteers and making sure that the tombola and raffle went off smoothly.
As part of
the fundraising effort we held large tombola, a raffle, and sold glow in the
dark 'glowstick' necklaces, bracelets and glasses. We would like to take the
opportunity to thank Aubrey and all his tireless staff and helpers in raising
such a magnificent sum of money.
Ware Festival - July
2007
On the
7th July, we had a stand at Priory Gardens in Ware on the day of the Ware
Carnival, which is part of the Ware Festival Events. We have been chosen as one
of the three special Charities who will benefit this year from the Ware
Festival. Sarah, Stuart Milner's sister organised a 'Guess the Name of the
Teddies' competition and people had to guess the correct name of both a boy and
girl Teddy Bear (see picture below). Each child who took part was given a
balloon with the MND logo on it to take home. In all, we raised just over
£70 towards our Branch funds. A grateful thanks to Stuart Milner for
donating the Teddies and to his sister and family for organising the
competition and helping on the day. Pictured is Marilyn Dodson, our Secretary
with the two stars of the show!
Following the
event, the organisers of the Festival presented Marilyn Dodson and Annette Ward
from the Branch with a cheque for £714 
November Monthly Branch Meeting
2006
Our November meeting was our Christmas Social,
an enjoyable evening with plenty of food and soft drinks. We had a large turn
out, as you can see from the photograph below and it was lovely to see so many
people there. We also had a quiz arranged by Gloria and a raffle too. Thanks to
all that came along and we hope to see you all again in 2007 at our Monthly
meetings.
During the evening Stuart Milner, one of our members, presented the Branch with a cheque for £1,500, which was collected by the group - 'MND in Sport'. You can see, pictured below, is Stuart with his sister - Sarah (on the far right), with members of the Committee of The Branch.
Branch Outing on the River Stort - 20th August
2006
The trip - which was organised and led by
Marilyn - took place on one of the specially adapted narrow boats of the Canal
Boat Project on the River Stort. The crew navigated the boat through six locks
along the river. Marilyn and Gill prepared the afternoon tea and cakes, which
was enjoyed by all. It is hoped that The Branch will repeat the trip again next
year.
Garden Party at Digswell - 9th July 2006
Gloria, one of our Committee members organised this event with her friend, Joyce. The event was entitled 'P.M. Tea on the Lawn' and was held in Digswell, near Welwyn Garden City.
Link to National
Office Web Site
www.mndassociation.org
Contact us
e-mail us.
Visit of the MND Association Chief Executive
We were delighted to welcome our new Chief Executive of the MND Association, Kirstine Knox to our October 2005 Branch Meeting. Kirstine came along to meet everyone and to find out more about our Branch. After a short talk, she then answered questions from the members on a wide range of topics. The photo below shows our Treasurer, Denis Cole (right) and our Chairman, Eric Eatwell (left) presenting a cheque to Kirstine for £6,000 raised from our Branch funds and given to the MND Association towards research into Motor Neurone Disease.
Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir Concert at St Albans Abbey
Welwyn Garden City Male Voice Choir held their 70th anniversary concert at St Albans Cathedral on the 15th Oct 2005, raising funds for Motor Neurone Disease in the process. Supporting them were the Luton Vauxhall Male Voice Choir and Serenata. The choir was formed in 1935 by a group of Welsh miners who had settled in Welwyn Garden City looking for employment. The only remaining member of the original choir was present in the audience, which made the evening special. Our Chairman of our Branch, Eric Eatwell, gave a short speech at the end of the concert, thanking the choirs for the superb concert and to everyone who had attended and helped to raise money for the MND Association (see photo below). We were also thrilled that our new Chief Executive of the MND Association, Kirstine was able to be present for the concert. A big thank you to Hugh Smith from the WGC Male Voice Choir for organising the concert and choosing us as their charity for the evening.
Stuart's Skydive
Stuart Milner (centre below) and two of his friends, Michael Roberts and Jon Lewis, undertook tandem skydives to raise funds for our Branch. On the 8th Sept 2005, after a delay the previous week because of bad weather, they finally fell out of a plane at 12,000ft, then free-fell for a mile (which took about 30 seconds) upon which they then deployed their parachutes and floated back to earth doing a few twists and turns on the way. Stuart reports that the jump was exilerating and that they had a really great time. All three fully funded the costs of their jumps in order to maximise the amount of money raised. The fearless trio ended up raising a fantastic £2600 for the Association. Thanks very much guys!!
Fords on Tour - Sept 2005 - Job Done - £6500 raised !!
Click here to view a summary of the trip
We can now report that I, (Jon Ward - webmaster of this site) and two friends, father and son team Marc and Lee Lawrence, are now back in the UK having successfully completed our drive across the USA in our 33 year old Mk1 Ford Escorts. We had a fantastic time on the trip, a summary of which can be viewed on our 'Fords on Tour' website. You can go to the website by clicking on the link above. The trip took us from Baltimore to Los Angeles, via New York, Niagara Falls, Detroit, Indianapolis, St Louis, Tulsa, Alburquerqe, Amarillo, The Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and San Francisco - a distance that turned out to be over 5600 miles. I can also report that we raised about £6500 for MND. During the trip we stayed for a couple of nights with Hugh Anderson and his family in Baltimore. Hugh is the son of our Branch patron, Dr Dorothy Anderson, who put us in contact with Hugh prior to the trip. During the drive we also joined up with the Greater Los Angeles Branch of the ALS Association (the US equivalent of the MND Association) for their 'Walk D'feet' - a sponsored walk that they were holding in Bakersfield, California. The organisers of the walk were so please to see us that they insisted that our cars were positioned on either side of the balloon arch that marked the starting line for the walk. During the opening ceremony we were introduced to the large crowd of about 500 walkers and we were then asked to address them to tell them about our trip. We were then given a number of mementos of the day (baseball cap, lapel badge and charity wrist band) for us to take home with us as a reminder of the day. After being interviewed by the local press, we then witnessed the ribbon cutting ceremony and the start of the walk. Before we left we were informed that the organizers of the walk were confident that they had raised at least $75,000 towards their cause - a magnificent sum.
Chesfield Downs Charity Golf Day
In June 2005, a Charity Golf Day was organised by Chris Leary,
The Captain of the Ladies Golf Team at Chesfield Downs Golf Club. Chris chose
The Motor Neurone Disease Association as her Charity and an amazing
£2,316.21p was raised in total. Eric Eatwell, Chairman of the North and
East Herts Branch of the MND Association visited the Golf Club to meet the
Ladies Golf Team and to receive a cheque on behalf of the Branch. All proceeds
will go towards helping local people with MND.
Crafty Crickets have a messy Splat!!!
'Crafty Crickets' is a pre-school art and craft group which takes place in Bengeo each Tuesday morning at the local Cricket Club. On Tuesday 21st June 2005, Laura Lawrance, together with her friend Clare Blackman, arranged a special fund raising morning in memory of Laura's Stepfather who died 8 years ago. During the morning, Laura and Clare decided to arrange a sponsored hand painting session, where the children had to 'splat' a sheet of paper as many times as possible in one minute. The 'splatfest' resulted in everyone getting extremely messy, but needless to say a great time was had by all . About 40 children attended over two sessions and the parents kindly sponsored their children, raising £294.80 for our funds. Many thanks to all who took part.
'Open Gardens at Much Hadham'
This event was held on 26th June 2005 in Much Hadham, a beautiful village in east Hertfordshire. Several gardens were open to the public and people were able to wander round and view the fantastic gardens on show. Each garden had its own special charm and we were lucky to have quite good weather all afternoon. Thanks to Marilyn for helping with the co-ordination of this event and many thanks to all those who opened their wonderful gardens for display.
London Marathon
Every year in April our Branch
attends the London Marathon. We are based at a pub, which is on the route of
the Marathon, where we carry out our fundraising. Volunteers from our Branch
collect donations along the route. There is always a fantastic atmosphere
amongst the competitors and public. We normally have a jazz band playing
outside the pub and we have named runners, who are running on behalf of the
Motor Neurone Disease Association. 
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This document maintained by Jon
Ward.
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