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Fundraising team meeting – 9 December

Want to help with fundraising?

We need people to join our fundraising team. Anyone interested is welcome to drop into our next fundraising meeting on Tuesday 9th December 4pm-5:30pm. Your children are welcome to play in our adventure playground, supervised by our playworkers, while you attend this meeting. Give Charlotte a call on 01733 340605 if you have any questions,  or email charlottenewark@gmail.com. We’ll bring the biscuits, you bring the ideas and offers of help! Items on the agenda include:

  • Ideas for fundraising to repair our playground equipment – we need to find £3K to repair our ‘banana board’ climbing frame.
  • Putting together a diary of fundraisers. So far we have pencilled in the following events:
    – Thursday 18th, Friday 19th and Saturday 20th December 2014 – Charity bucket collection at Peterborough Garden Park/Van Hague.
    – Saturday 7th February 2015 11-2pm – Mother and child table top sale
    – Friday 3rd April 2015, 11-3pm – Good Friday Easter Hunt
    – Saturday 20th June 2015, 12-4pm – Midsummer Festival
    – Saturday 28th November 2015, 1-3pm – Christmas Bazaar

fundraising

 

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New doors thanks to Biffa award

Have you noticed the brand new UPVC doors in our main building? If not then here are some of our playgroup children showing how pleased they are now that the main playroom has been made warmer and safer by the new doors…

Children with Playroom Fire Exit Doors - After jpeg

The new doors have been installed thanks to a £7,440 grant from Biffa Award – a multi-million pound fund that helps to build communities and transform lives through awarding grants to community and environmental projects across the UK, as part of the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF).

As you may remember, last year we gained funding to improve our heating system, but the integrity of our external doors had also become compromised. Problems include poor insulation, reduced security and swelling in the rain – it made them difficult to open.

Charlotte Griggs, Operations Manager, New Ark Play Association Limited, said:

“The main New Ark building is 35 years old and over the past two years I have worked with organisations and local businesses to renovate the premises. The new doors will dramatically enhance the appearance, reduce heating costs, make the building more energy efficient and improve safety and security.”

Lisa Sachse, Parent/Committee Member, New Ark Play Association Limited, said:

“The new fire exit and external doors will create a safe environment for children to use, as the old doors are not practical and children struggle to open them. As the old doors have holes in them, it causes heat to escape out of the play room, but after the doors have been fitted this will no longer be a concern, creating a warm environment.”

Gillian French, Biffa Award Programme Manager, said:

“This work is an excellent example of how the Landfill Communities Fund can help improve facilities for the benefit of the local community. For more than 16 years community buildings across the UK have benefited from the scheme and the organisations that award grants through the fund look forward to supporting more in the future.”

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Fundraise for us while you shop

Please help us fundraise this Christmas by doing your online Christmas shopping via easyfundraising. You raise a FREE donation each time you buy! It’s easy and won’t cost you a penny extra! Support us at http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/newark

We’ve found a great way to raise money for free, simply by shopping online through a website called easyfundraising (www.easyfundraising.org.uk).

Whenever you buy anything online (e.g. Christmas presents, groceries, clothes, books, train tickets, hotel rooms, etc.) you can raise a free donation for New Ark. There are over 2,700 retailers registered with the site, including Amazon, John Lewis, eBay and Tesco who will donate a percentage of what you spend to us to say thank you for shopping with them.

Here’s how it works:
1. Sign up – go to http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/newark and click on the button to sign up.
2. Shop – from the easyfundraising website, search for the retailer you’d like to shop with and click through to the retailer to make your purchase. This tells the retailer you came from easyfundraising. The price is exactly the same as if you’d visited the retailer directly.
3 .Get a donation – after you’ve made your purchase, the retailer will give you a cash reward that easyfundraising turn into a donation for Newark Play Association (our charity name).

No cost, no catch!

Please be assured that using the easyfundraising website will not cost you a penny. There are no catches or hidden charges and New Ark benefits from any donations you make once registered.

Thank you for your support.

easyfundraising xmas

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New Ark alumni and reunion

Do you know someone who used to go to New Ark? Then forward them a link to this blog post!

We are planning an event for early 2015, possibly on Saturday February 14th, to which former and current users of New Ark will be invited. This will first and foremost be a reunion and family event. But we will also be asking for your ideas about how we can secure our future – finding funding to cover our running costs is getting more and more difficult.

Sign up for news

For now, please sign up on our website home page to receive our “reunions and alumni news” emails. Also please pass the word onto others who might wish to help.

If you want to get involved sooner, please call us on 01733 340605 and leave your contact details for Elisabeth Buck.

fires_1_colour

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Help needed for Christmas fundraiser

We’re getting ready for our Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 29th November. Can you help with any of the following? If so please contact Nikki on 01733 340605 or email nikki_newark@hotmail.co.uk.

  • Donations of chocolate for our tombola stall
  • Donations of “as new” cuddly toys and general unwanted gifts (for any age)
  • Lend a hand on Thursday 20th November 5-8pm. We’ll be preparing for our Christmas Bazaar including sorting through donations, wrapping presents, tombola ticketing, etc.
  • Lend a hand to set up on Friday 28th November 6-8pm.
  • Volunteer on the day of the bazaar. We need people to help set up from 11am and stay behind to clear up after 4pm. We are also seeking volunteers who can help out during the bazaar e.g. making refreshments, manning one of the stalls or craft activities, etc.
Volunteers get into the spirit as they set up stalls at last year's Christmas Bazaar
Volunteers get into the spirit as they set up stalls at last year’s Christmas Bazaar

Planning future fundraisers

Now, more than ever, we need people to join our fundraising team. Everyone is welcome to drop into our next fundraising meeting on Tuesday 9th December 4pm-5:30pm. If you’d like to come please call Charlotte on 01733 340605 or email charlottenewark@gmail.com. Your children are welcome to play in our adventure playground, supervised by our playworkers, while you attend this meeting. We’ll be planning a calendar of fundraising events for 2015/16 and ideas pencilled in so far for the next year include:

  • Saturday 7th February 2015, 11-2pm – Mother and child table top sale
  • Friday 3rd April 2015, 11-3pm – Good Friday Easter Hunt
  • Saturday 20th June 2015, 12-4pm – Midsummer Festival
  • Saturday 28th November 2015, 1-3pm – Christmas Bazaar

After that our next fundraising planning meeting will be on Thursday 15th January, 1-3pm

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Fundraising news November 2014

Lots of cheers and thank yous in our fundraising news this month…

We are delighted to announce that our Indulgence Evening on Friday 7 November raised £679.52. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us – no matter how small or great your contribution we couldn’t do it without you 🙂

So far we have raised over £350 on our Little House moneybox fundraiser and will be announcing the winners of the decorating and most money raised prizes later this week. We know that a few people still have their boxes – please can you return them to us as soon as possible so that we can add up the final amount and work out if we have raised enough to buy a sunshade tarpaulin to put over our sandpit area.

David Wilson (husband of Linda Wilson in playgroup), gained £105 for us in sponsorship donations by running the Great Eastern Run. This will go towards buying a new carpet for our quiet corner, to help make it a cosy and inviting place to read books and talk. Hope you’ve recovered now David!

Nationwide Building Society customers helped New Ark to receive a £500 donation in the last Community Match scheme.  Thank you to everyone who voted for us with their blue tokens.

We are super proud that Waitrose chose a New Ark playground regular, Lucas, to help open their new store in Peterborough recently. He also helped some of our staff to collect a cheque for £290, which was our share of Waitrose’s green token Community Matters scheme for October. Thank you also to Waitrose staff who are currently helping us to improve some of the facilities on our city farm – hopefully we can post some pictures of the improvements shortly…

cropped staff and lucas

We’ve recently heard that New Ark was chosen by Norwich and Peterborough Building Society to receive a donation of £100 as part of their Make a Difference Week. We’ll be attending a cheque presentation with local MP Stewart Jackson in a couple of weeks – keep an eye on our Facebook page for a picture.

Planning future fundraisers

We need people to join our fundraising team. Everyone is welcome to drop into our next fundraising meeting on Tuesday 9th December 4pm-5:30pm. If you’d like to come please call Charlotte on 01733 340605 or email charlottenewark@gmail.com. Your children are welcome to play in our adventure playground, supervised by our playworkers, while you attend this meeting. We’ll be planning a calendar of fundraising events for 2015/16 and so far the ideas pencilled in for the next year include:

  • Saturday 7th February 2015, 11-2pm – Mother and child table top sale
  • Friday 3rd April 2015, 11-3pm – Good Friday Easter Hunt
  • Saturday 20th June 2015, 12-4pm – Midsummer Festival
  • Saturday 28th November 2015, 1-3pm – Christmas Bazaar

After that our next fundraising planning meeting will be on Thursday 15th January, 1-3pm

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Fundraising news October 2014

There has been so much exciting fundraising news this week! Below is a handy summary for you – if you only do one thing for New Ark this week please vote for us in the YBS legacy.

YBS £10K Legacy
We need your help to get a £10,000 legacy grant from YBS group!  Please go to www.ybs.co.uk/legacy and vote for “New Ark Play Association”, and let your friends know  as we need as many votes as possible. If we are successful we will rebuild our outdoor play equipment including our climbing frame – fondly called the ‘banana board’ by the children – which is currently out of action.

Vote for us at Waitrose
New Ark is one of the 3 Community Matters charities this month in Waitrose, Queensgate. When you shop there the cashier will give you a green token – we’d love you to put it in our box on your way out of the store. The charity with the most tokens at the end of October gets the biggest share of £1,000.

Little House boxes
Our Little House fundraiser has brought in over £170 so far and boxes are still going out. Please remember to return your box by 31 October. More details at www.newarkplay.co.uk/little-house

Grow your tenner
Donate £10 to New Ark – we get £20! Local Giving is currently matching one-time donations pound-for-pound up to £10, and monthly donations up to £10 per month for 6 months. Donate now at www.localgiving.com/newarkplay

Indulgence Evening
Do you know anyone with a beauty or therapy business? We have a few spaces left for our Indulgence Evening on 7 November which are prioritised for treatment stalls. More details for stallholders are here. More details on the event itself are here – tickets (which include a light buffet) are available now costing £5 in advance or £7 on the night

Nationwide tokens
We’ve just heard that Nationwide in Long Causeway included New Ark in its September ‘blue token’ charity scheme. It was due to be taken down this week, but if anyone is in town this weekend please do pop in and vote for us if you’re able to. Customers are given a blue token to vote for one of 3 charities to receive £500. Fingers crossed we win something from it

Half marathon sponsorship
Last Sunday David Wilson (husband of Linda Wilson in playgroup) ran the Great Eastern Run to raise money so that we can buy a new carpet for our quiet corner, to help make it a cosy and inviting place to read books and talk. Thank David by making a donation here. Please remember to Gift Aid it.

Dates for your diary
Finally, remember we have our Christmas Bazaar on Saturday 29 November 12-4pm, and our next fundraising meeting is on Tuesday 11 November 1-3pm in Charlotte’s office. More details in next week’s newsletter

 

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Double your donation

http://www.localgiving.com/newarkplay

Double your donation to New Ark. You give £10 – we get £20!

Local Giving is currently matching one-time donations pound-for-pound up to £10, and monthly donations up to £10 per month for 6 months. So if you donate £5 to New Ark we get £10, and if you donate £10 we get £20! And if you are a UK taxpayer, remember to claim Gift Aid for us. This means that your donation is topped up by a further 25% by HMRC.

Donate now at www.localgiving.com/newarkplay

P.S. You can help us to raise awareness of the Grow your Tenner campaign by signing up to the Local Giving Thunderclap, which will go out on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr on the 21st October. Remember to include in your message the address of the New Ark donation page, which is www.localgiving.com/newarkplay

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Vote to help us get £10k legacy

**UPDATE** We are gutted to have to tell you that we didn’t get enough votes to make the final 15 of the YBS legacy fund, so we won’t receive a £15K legacy grant. Thank you to everyone who shared our status and tried to get us the votes. Now we are left having to make up all that fundraising ourselves if we are to be able to repair our outdoor playground structures, especially our currently unusable “banana board” which will cost £3k alone to repair. If you have any good ideas to raise money please do come to our next fundraising meeting on Tuesday 9th December from 4pm-5.30pm.

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Your vote can help New Ark get a £10,000 legacy from YBS group!

YBS group is going to provide 15 charities with a donation of £10,000 each to fund a specific project. New Ark has made the shortlist and we now need your help.

  • Please go to www.ybs.co.uk/legacy and click the link to vote for your 3 favourite charities.
  • Look for “New Ark Play Association” and click on the box. You can choose up to 3 charities to vote for. Then click onto the next page to submit your vote.
  • Please encourage friends and family to vote as well – New Ark really needs this money to make essential repairs to our outdoor children’s play equipment.

Voting will remain open until 31 October 2014 and 15 lucky charities will hear whether they are going to receive a £10,000 donation in November.  Our intention is to upgrade and rebuild our outdoor play equipment, including the aerial runway, swings and the children’s favourite climber – fondly called the ‘banana board’ – which is currently out of action.

banana board

Our founder Elisabeth Buck MBE, commented: “We are thrilled that our project has been chosen to be part of the Yorkshire Building Society Lasting Legacy Fund public vote. We are now calling on all our supporters and members of the public to help us make a real difference to our community by voting for our project online.”