Boughton News

The first Boughton report of the year bringing us up to date with happenings over the Festive Season

Carol Singing in Boughton

Thank you to everyone who came carol singing over the two nights in Christmas week. The weather was kind and we covered most of the village. Thanks go to Pamela Jennings for entertaining the carol singers on the first night with her lovely homemade mince pies. Thanks also to Paul Coulten who on the second night on our way round revived us with much welcome mulled wine and hot chocolate - he also let us sample this years Boughton Sloe gin which was delicious! It certainly enabled some of the adults to sing with renewed vigour until their next glass of mulled wine at Hope House.

Over the two nights £178.59 was collected for the East Anglian Children's Hospice at Quidenham. To this was added £70.33 from the collection at the Crib Service on Christmas Eve to give a total donation of £248.92.

The East Anglian Children's Hospices are based at Quidenham, Milton and Ipswich. They provide care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions and support for their families. Currently only 10% of funding comes from Government sources, so they rely on raising £3 million per annum to run the three hospices. The money we have raised will fund three music therapy sessions, which cost £77 per session.

Christmas Shoeboxes for Romania 2005

We were delighted by the response to the Shoebox Appeal. 67 boxes were collected, filled with presents for Romanian families living in poverty

I have received a letter from the charity involved, Link Romania, asking me to pass on their thanks to everyone who contributed. Angela Geach, one of their volunteers, wrote to share her experiences. "I was fortunate enough to present a family with a shoebox when I was in Iasi. The lady took the lid off the box and burst into tears. She had seen a bottle of shampoo and she said, "We really need this." Apparently toiletries like shampoo, shower gel, deodorant and toothpaste are both more expensive and inferior in comparison with the ones from the UK. It was a very humbling experience."

Link Romania 2005 Christmas Shoebox Appeal collected over 35,000 shoeboxes from the UK - these have been distributed throughout Romania where 44% of the population live in poverty.

Pam Wakeling