Published on: Tuesday 30 May 2017 at 14:36
During the week of 22-28 May, St Clare supporters took part in our first ever ‘Go Bright’ campaign, which saw a flurry of bright events and celebrations take place across West Essex and East Herts – raising awareness and funds for St Clare.
More than 20 local schools, businesses and community groups took part in a range of fundraising activities to mark the week-long ‘Go Bright’ campaign, such as dress-down days, cake sales and raffles; as well as a number of creative events including a pie chucking contest, leg waxing challenge and fluorescent hair dying.
1st Great Parndon Scouts, based in Harlow, held a unique ‘Pie Party’ fundraising event on the evening of Monday 22 May, raising over £300.
Commenting on the event, Harlow Scouts group leader, Anneka De’ath, said:
“As you can imagine, the Scouts absolutely loved our UK Pie Party evening to raise money for St Clare Hospice. The kids had so much fun getting sponsored to push custard pies in each other’s faces – and to throw them at the adult leaders too! It was wonderful to be able to raise money for our local hospice charity, doing something fun and light-hearted. Everyone enjoyed it, whilst also learning about St Clare and the great work they do. We were thrilled to take part in Go Bright and had such a laugh doing it!”
For three members of St Clare’s Debden Shop team, the week turned out to be a very bright affair indeed. Volunteers Danielle Spicer and Carol Edwards, and manager Paula Smith, committed to dying their hair blue, purple and pink on Wednesday 24 May, raising over £350.
Paula Smith, St Clare’s Debden Shop Manager, said:
“’Go Bright’ is such a fun way to raise awareness of St Clare Hospice. Dying our hair in support of St Clare is more than worth it because we know the money will help to continue the charity’s amazing work. Our hair does look rather bright and crazy, but if anyone asks – we can tell them that we did it for St Clare!”
Here at the Hospice, staff led by example and took part in a range of ‘Go Bright’ challenges and activities. Greg Brown, St Clare’s Head of Quality and Audit, took on a hair-raising challenge in the form of a sponsored leg wax on Thursday 25 May, raising over £300.
We ended our ‘Go Bright’ festivities with a tea party event at the Hospice on Sunday 28 May. Visitors were invited to indulge in an array of brightly baked goods and cake as a final celebration of this year’s ‘Go Bright’ campaign.
In total, once all donations have been collected, ‘Go Bright’ is estimated to have raised over £4,000 for St Clare Hospice.
Dani De’ath, St Clare’s Community Fundraising Lead, said:
“It has been so lovely to see so many different schools, groups and members of the local community all come together to support St Clare. We have had such a fun time taking part in ‘Go Bright’ ourselves and we can’t wait to do it all again next year! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who took part and supported our first ever ‘Go Bright’ week – every pound counts towards making the Hospice the wonderful place that it is.”