Fundraising

A few weeks ago our choir leader suggested we do a concert on 2 April. It seemed far enough away so we agreed and started rehearsing a few pieces alongside the main one (Haydn's Seasons) that were are preparing for the summer. At last week's rehearsal the concert was suddenly, shockingly, only a week away and today it was suddenly, shockingly, today. 

All of us were jolted into an acute sense of concentration and our rehearsal this afternoon was excellent. I wasn't quite sure how we'd done that. Then we did it again for the concert! It was at 5pm, which is not a time that draws many people even though it was free. We had advertised a retiring collection for a local refugee charity and I spoke, very briefly, about the charity's work. I was amazed that we collected £550, a good deal more than we could have got by charging for tickets. 

Coincidentally, some very good friends of mine were taking part in Oxford's version of Strictly Come Dancing (a fundraiser for a cancer charity which has provided dancing lessons for all the couples over the last seven weeks) which happened to be a minute's walk from my concert. So I hid the cash in my shoulder-bag and went to watch. Sadly I was too late for their jive but I got to see their very elegant waltz and I got to see them come second overall!

That bit of fundraising got £14,000.

As the free-for-all dancing started I left. Not doing the dance-round-the-handbag thing ever again and I certainly wasn't going to leave it on my seat.