How Can You Help?
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- Harvest Aller Hill grapes this autumn and donate some or all of your wages to the church
- Visit our activities and sales
- Suggest or support a fundraising event
- Pray for the church
In
all our efforts to save our
historic building, we strive to remember that St.
Andrew’s is, foremost, a community of people trying to follow Jesus's
great example of love. We continue our service and support of others in
our community and beyond.
From
Tall Task .
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St Andrew's Restoration 2009-2018
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . To Towering SuccessThe PCC’s approach to this challenge will be to do its utmost to engage St Andrews supporters, near and far, in our efforts to restore the building -- we know the people of Aller, past and present, value their church. With this in mind, the PCC encourages you to help us come up with all sorts of entertainments and projects and join us in what we hope will be the most enjoyable ways possible to raise money for our much-loved and beautiful little church. What follows is a log of our fundraising efforts, in reverse chronological order.
November 2011: We've had a number of successful fund-raising events, which collectively have brought us close to covering what we expect to be our share of the restoration costs. Now we need to work to cover other church expenses that have been deferred while we were focussed on the tower restoration. Fundraising activities lately include grape-picking in the autumn, Harvest Supper, and an awesome Bonfire Night. Coming up will be Christmas Bingo, caroling, and our now-familiar Calendar. The Aller & The Levels 2012 Calendar can be ordered now. It includes 30 photos from eight photographers. Have a sneak preview on the DragonFlyer website.To order your copy, contact Elaine Major. Single Calendars £6.75 including postal envelope. Multiple copies -- 3 for £17.50, 5 for £25 (envelopes extra, 25p each on multiple orders). These make great Christmas gifts for everyone who loves the village. We will also have them on sale at our Community Coffee events on Tuesdays 10am - midday, in the Village Hall.
July 2011: The big news in late June was that Viridor will be joining us in our tower fund-raising, contributing generously to the amount we needed to raise to top up the English Heritage grant. Many thanks again to Gill and Peter, who wrote letters in support of the Viridor application, and to David Major, who prepared the application.
This month saw a successful fund-raising event for the church -- a wine tasting with Aller vintners Guy Smith and Laura Evans, which raised £150, plus a matching contribution to the Village Hall, and smaller contributions to Save the Children (to help with the famine crisis in Somalia) and to a mariner's charity. We have begun taking names of people who would be interested in being on the call-list for harvesting grapes this autumn and, we hope, donating some or all of their wages to the church. If you would like to be on the list (we don't know the exact date of the harvest as this depends on the sugar content of the grapes, which in turn depends on the growing season), please e-mail Celia Kozlowski with your phone number, e-mail address, and any details about your availability.
Meanwhile, we are mulling over the possibilities for events for this autumn and winter. The classical music concert with Peter Merry has been postponed to the spring. David Major summarized overall budget picture for the restoration project at the July PCC meeting. See that summary in the PCC documents.
Also at the PCC meeting this month, David outlined the grimmer picture of the general funds for the church. In past years we have, as this year, spent more than we took in through services. The difference was made up via fund-raising events. Now we have fewer services and recent fund-raising has largely gone toward the restoration project. If the current expenditures and income are similar to last year, we will deplete the church's entire general fund in the next few months. To avoid this, and to be sure that we are able to cover emergencies and the costs of keeping the church open, we will be working with the Langport Area Team Ministry treasurer to determine the optimal way to reduce the money we pay to the Diocese and/or Team. Rather than depleting all of the church's general funds, we will be setting aside a reserve to cover emergencies and basic expenses to keep the doors open.
May 2011: We have received a full report on the condition of the church tower after its study by Minerva Stone Conservation and their ropewalkers. A copy of the report, replete with pictures, will be available for viewing in the church (I will see if I can put parts of it up here, too.)
Thanks to hard work by Treasurer David Major and supporting letters from Gill Sims and Peter Maltby, we have completed an application to Viridor that would help us make up a good portion of the remaining cost of our church restoration. We hope to hear in June whether our application was successful. We are looking ahead to a Classical Music night as a fundraiser. Do you have other ideas?
December 2010: Our efforts in support of the restoration of St. Andrew's have bounded ahead through the autumn and into the winter, with fantastic news arriving just before Christmas: English Heritage will be covering the lion's share of our restoration costs, reducing the total amount we need to raise to a sum better matched to the resources of our small village.
First, back to the autumn. The grape harvest at Guy and Laura's Higher Plot vineyard on Aller Hill was a great success. Early in October, grape pickers harvested three tonnes of grapes, which are now in fermenters in Bristol. Wages from those picking in support of the church, plus a generous donation from Guy and Laura, brought in a handsome sum.
Once we got past the Harvest Service and Harvest Supper, our next fund-raiser was another Jazz Night with the Roger Bond Quartet on 20 November. The pace continued with Christmas Bingo on December 11, caroling, and sales of the 2011 Scenes of Aller calendar. Sadly, bad weather and poor road conditions held us to just three nights of carol singing -- sorry to those reaches of the village that did not hear from us. At least there were no casualties this year! The total raised in November and December came to £1,894.00
On December 23, David Major received a large envelope from English Heritage with a spectacular Christmas present. They have agreed to fund £13,000 of the £17,091 for the initial development of the restoration. Once that is complete, they plan to provide £79,000, which should cover the cost of repairs to the tower stonework. Repairs to the roof and leaning vestry chimney are not covered. These will require a separate application at a later date. The brilliant news is that the most urgent repairs will be covered, confirming what Aller already knew -- our church is a treasure worth preserving for future generations.
September 2010: Lots
of good news this month. Our application to English Heritage for
support for the restoration of the church has passed the first sifting
of applications. The next stage will be a site visit and preparation of
a report by one of their historic buildings architects.
The
£296 raised at the Aller Fun Day on 11 September put us over the £3,000
mark toward the year’s goal of £8525 and ultimate goal of
£142,000 by 2018.
Using money earned to date, work has begun on roof repairs, with bad roof tiles now replaced.
Guy and Laura at Aller's Higher Plot vineyard are estimating that the harvest day will be the first week in October.
Also -- Don't forget to contribute that gorgeous shot you have of Aller for our calendar
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July-August: With the cancellation of the Extravaganza, we're now looking to the Aller Fun Day as our next fund-raising (and fun-raising!) opportunity. Please join us on the Rec on Sept. 11.
June 2010: Looking ahead, our next fund-raiser will be the Extravaganza on 21st August. Watch for details in The Roundabout and through your letterbox via the Aller Bush Telegraph.
In the autumn -- we don't know exactly when -- a group of villagers will be laboring in the vineyard for the church -- yes, literally! That's Aller's Higher Plot vineyard. On the day when their grapes reach sugar perfection -- late September to mid-October perhaps -- Guy and Laura will be calling us in to harvest their grapes. They will be paying a day's wages for a day's work. Those willing to support the Restoration Fund will be donating their day's wages to the fund. If you would like to join us, please contact Celia at 01458 253 623, and she will put you on Laura's St. Andrew's call list.
April: Work is underway on a proposal seeking support for St. Andrew's Restoration from English Heritage.
DVDs of Aller Jazz Night are now available. Approximately 1 hour long, the DVD includes 12 musical tracks, views of the church, and an interview with Elaine Major about the Restoration efforts. Thanks the the contributions of Starlight Films, the DVDs are available for £5each.
Progress Report: Easter Bingo raises £555.50. Craft show, including Penny's Perfect Pets and PomPoms, donations, and catering raises £117.47. Total raised to date: £2,146.55.
March 2010 Events:
Thanks and Kudos to Len White, Kids and adults alike enjoyed an Aller Craft and Hobby show in the Village Hall on March 21, 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Included were model trains, needlecrafts and origami, refreshments, and lots of other fun. On March 26 Thelma and Linda Stamp championed Easter Bingo at the Village Hall. Lush prizes, refreshments, and more fun.
February Progress Report: Jazz night was a hit. DVDs of the event are being created and will be available for sale soon. We hope to have a return visit from the Roger Bond Quartet in the autumn. The net profit from the event was £642.36, bringit the total funds raids for the church restoration to: £1,989. 08
January 2010 Progress Report: Our first Scenes of Aller 2010 calendar was a sellout. Thanks to this success and an encouraging response to five nights of carol singing and some very generous donations we raised £1,346.72, which will go toward essential work on the church roof. We expect the calendars and carol singing will become annual events. So budding photographers out there should be considering their most stunning shots taken in and around Aller. Please contact David on 252 295 if you might have a photo that could be featured in the 2011 calendar.
November-December 2009 Notes: We have kicked off our Restoration Fund-raising by creating Aller Calendars for 2010. These feature gorgeous photos of our village and its environs. They are perfect gifts for friends, relatives, and people who’ve visited Aller and would enjoy revisiting with this beautiful souvenir. Orders can be placed with David or Elaine Major (01458 252 295 e-mail - emajor@btinternet.com).
The second fund-raiser will be some pre-Christmas Carol-singing. Over the course of 3 nights in mid-December, a handful of choristers will make the rounds of the entire village and regale you with carols. We hope you will enjoy the singing and donate generously to the Restoration Fund. If you don’t enjoy the singing, we hope you’ll give even more generously to be rid of us!
Our third event, and the first date for your diary, is a romantic Jazz Night in Aller Village Hall, Sat. 13th Feb. 2010, 7:30 – 10:30. This evening of jazz is the perfect Valentine’s date, featuring the Roger Bond Jazz quartet. We will have a cash bar. Tickets are available from David or Elaine (252 295) for £7.50. Unsold tickets will be available on the door. All profits go to the Restoration Fund, so grab your Valentine and join us.