Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to you all!

Thank you all for your support through 2009.

PJ

Charity CD available

Just to let you know, we still have copies of our 2009-2010 Cd available.  These CDs are amazing value at £5 each and contain 15 tracks from local musicians including Katie Marie, Josie Newton, Kat Marsh, Chris Woods, Sounds Like A Plan, The Vics, Kosa, Marnie, Jenny Keegan, Karen Money, Auction for the Promise Club.

Every penny from the sales will be going to PL-ease.

The Cd was recently featured on the Gordon Sparks show (BBC Radio Devon).

Send an e-mail to admin@pl-ease.org.uk and we will send you details of how to order.

Many thanks - and have a very Happy Christmas!

PJ

What a load of santas!

Thank you all - all the runners, supporters, Saltram Park and Plymouth Coasters Running Club.

Everybody seemed to enjoy the run - great weather, great course and great fun!

The running club presented us with a cheque for....£1267-25. Staggering. Thank you all!
We also managed to collect another £45-35 on the day, bringing the total to £1312-60.

This takes us a step closer to meeting the requirements to become registered with the Charities Commission. This will enable us to get a Gift Aid number, and set up on-line accounts through organisations such as Justgiving. We also think we are now in a position where we can start to use the funds to help local children with complex needs. Keep an eye out in the local press and by following us on this blog.

The next twelve months look very encouraging.

Good luck to the Plymouth Coasters for the future success of this event, and for their chosen charity for 2010.

We are always looking for ideas on future fundraising events, more fundraisers, volunteers and trustees. If anyone is interested, or would like to know more, please e-mail us at admin@pl-ease.org.uk

Many thanks - and Happy Christmas - to you all!

PJ

Santa at the ready!

All ready for the Santa run at Saltram Park tomorrow. Very many thanks to whoever managed to arrange for a decent weather forecast!

Run starts at 11:00. 300 santas will be running through the park - getting a bit of exercise before helping to load the presents in two weeks time.

The run has been organised by Plymouth Coasters Running Club, and they have chosen PL-ease as their charity for 2009.

See http://www.plymouthcoasters.co.uk for more details of the club.

Many thanks
PJ

First orders

The first orders for our CD have been received. The first E-Bay sale - (thank you Jamie!), and the first e-mail order/request for 3 CDs - (thank you Simon!).

The CD is now being advertised via the iHerald website / discussion list. A batch of E-mails have gone out to my contacts. We also hope to get a mention on BBC Radio Devon. Discussions with the producer tomorrow...

Keep listening!

PJ

Charity CD - now available!

Yes - it's finally here! The phenomenal PL-ease charity CD is now available for purchase.

Priced at £6, the CD features 15 tracks from local artists including:

Katie Marie
Jenny Keegan
Karen Money
Chris Woods
The Vics
Auction for the Promise Club
Sounds Like A Plan
Marnie
Kosa
Kat Marsh
Josie Newton


To order, send an e-mail to us at admin@pl-ease.org.uk and we will provide you with further details.

Thanks
PJ

Santa Run

As mentioned earlier in the year, we have been chosen by Plymouth Coasters running club as their charity for the year.

One of their events is the famous Santa Run. This will be taking place on Sunday, 13th December at Saltram Park in Plymouth. 5km over country park and traffic free roads. £10 covers entry fee and a compulsory Santa suit.

Please help make the event a huge success by running or turning out to support. Entry forms can be obtained from: The Race Secretary (Santa Run), c/o Mainstone, Honcray, Plymstock, Plymouth PL9 7RP.

All runners must be 13 years or older.

Many thanks
PJ

Charity CD

The idea of a charity CD featuring music from a range of talented local musicians has really taken off! Within the space of a week we have had offers from enough artists to complete the CD!!

Artists include Katie Marie, Chris Woods, Karen Money, The Vics, Jenny Keegan.

All proceeds from the sale of the CD will go to PL-ease. Keep your ears peeled for announcements regarding the sale of this wonderful (dare I say Christmas?) gift.

Have a good week.
PJ

Music to my ears

Money starting to come in from the charity treetop adventure. £300+ so far. Thank you treetoppers!

Looking forward to our next charity fundraising effort. The plan is to get a number of our most talented local musicians to provide one or two songs to go onto a CD. The compilation will then be sold with all profits going to PL-ease. Positive response received so far from Jenny Keegan, Karen Money and Chris Woods. Thank you all.

Watch this space...

PJ

Absolutely Wow!

As the young lad who followed us down the last zip slide said - "Absolutely Wow!"

Many thanks to our team of intrepid treetoppers - and very many thanks to the excellent guidance from the Rock Centre. What an excellent way to spend a Sunday morning!

The treetop adventure involved walking across a series of walkways between platforms up in the trees. The first walk was on wooden decking (2 planks wide). The next went to one plank wide, and the next went to stepping between planks suspended from rope. The final walkway was along a single rope, with rope rails to hold on to. The last couple involved a lot of swaying..and thought of how high we were and how far there was to go!

The zip slides were fantastic. As with other things like this - the first step is the worst. The feeling of whizzing through the trees then takes over. Very exhilarating.

Anyway, many thanks to everyone involved - and time for the sponsors to pay up. Every penny was well earned!

PJ

Treetop Adventure

Our next, long-awaited, event will take place on September 6th. It will be a sponsored treetop adventure at the Rock Centre. We will be taking a team of up to 12 people on a treetop expedition moving from tree to tree on zip slides, swings, rope bridges and much more. This will be a surefire winner if we can get 12 people to raise ~£100 each. Let's see how it goes!

Charity abseil

We are arranging a charity abseil for Sunday, 28th June.

The abseil will take place at the Chudleigh Rock Centre at 2pm. All training and equipment will be provided. All proceeds will go to our charity - this will help towards our object of providing specialist support and equipment. It will also help our aim of becoming registered with the Charity Commission - we need to show that our income will exceed £5k this year.

If you are interested in abseiling for our charity, please let me know by e-mailing admin@pl-ease.org.uk. It is an excellent place to learn - they have practice slopes, and full professional training.

Many thanks
PJ

Plymouth history

Been looking at photos and comments on the Herald website. Found this really interesting site containing photos, stories etc regarding Plymouth's history. http://plymouthlocalhistory.blogspot.com/

Full marks to the organiser for keeping the site running and updated.

PJ

Pity...

Pity we didn't have a bigger audience at the charity concert. All those who attended said how much they enjoyed the music and the great venue. Videos of the performers are on our myspace site www.myspace.com/plymouthplease

The concert just about made a profit, but we are hoping to put together another concert in the future. Many lessons were learned through this experience - we probably started too early and lost a bit of momentum towards the end. We also agreed to "tickets on the door" - perhaps we should have pushed harded for the sale at the time. And...many who said they would attend simply did not show.

I think we also took too much on, with one or two people trying to juggle too many things. We will look to get more support for the next event - perhaps trying to get other charities involved, having a more prolonged marketing campaign, and looking to others with more experience of these kind of things.

Looking forward to the challenge!

Finally, we are now twitter-ing! We have signed up to Twitter. (See below). Not sure how useful this will be - but time will tell.

Hope you are all enjoying Easter. Let us know if there are events we should try, or if you want to help arrange future events.

PJ

Charity concert

Final push for ticket sales ahead of Saturday's charity concert.

The concert is taking place at the Devonport Playhouse in Fore Street, Devonport. Live music will be provided by a number of top local musicians including acoustic/folk/jazz from Steve Osman, Josie Newton, Sam Ho, Katie Marie and Jenny Keegan.

Doors open at 7pm, with music from 7.30pm.

Tickets £5 each - available on the door, or can be reserved by e-mailing admin@pl-ease.org.uk.

All proceeds going to PL-ease.

Please support this event, and spread the word to family, friends, colleagues, contacts.

Very many thanks

PJ

Thank you.

Thank you to the staff and customers of Waitrose! Our bucket collection broke the £200 mark. (£200-74). The staff made us very welcome, and the customers showed genuine interest in our work.

Also, thanks to the Plymouth Coasters for listening to my presentation a fortnight ago, and for raising some useful questions about the charity. The Coasters have chosen PL-ease as their charity of the year for 2009. If anyone else would like a presentation on the Objects and fundraising activities of PL-ease, just drop me an e-mail : admin@pl-ease.org.uk.

Spent the last few weeks finishing off a pretty demanding 10,000 word assignment for a management course. The course has provided me with an insight into some useful techniques in terms of supply chain management, marketing, change management etc. Looking forward to putting these to good use for the charity!

Now that is out of the way, more effort will be put towards publicising the charity and future events. Tickets for the concert are going pretty slowly, but there will be a blitz on e-mails, flyers etc this week and next. Don't forget to buy some tickets - the concert features five very talented local musicians. All are giving their time for free. The only expenses are the hire of the Playhouse. It will be a great opportunity to hear some fantastic live music, and to learn a bit more about the charity.

See you there?!

Thanks
PJ

Bucket collection

Our next fundraising expedition takes us across the bridge to Saltash. Waitrose have offered us 21st and 22nd Feb for bucket collections at their store. Not sure of the exact timings yet - as there are only two of us available at the moment we may do a couple of 4 hour stints over the weekend, or one full day.

This is a useful way of fundraising - costs nothing other than time, and allows the opportunity to give more details of the charity to members of the public. Most probably haven't heard of us, or are aware that we exist, so it is always useful to get the opportunity to spread the word. Never know what the next donation, or donor, will bring.

We will have concert tickets with us, so hopefully can sell a few more of those at the same time.

Offers of help for the bucket collection gratefully received!

Take care,
PJ

Tickets on sale

Tickets for our March charity concert are now on sale.

Priced at £5 each, the tickets give you entry to the Devonport Playhouse on the evening of March 28th. The concert features music from talented artists including Sam Ho, Jenny Keegan, Josie Newton, Steve Osman and Katie Marie (pictured).

You can purchase tickets by post or phone. E-mail us for details at admin@pl-ease.org.uk.

ALL proceeds go to PL-ease.

Examples of Katie Marie's songs and style can be found at http://www.myspace.com/funkeegirl

See you all there.

PJ

Back to work blues

Is it me, or have the "back to work blues" not bothered to put in an appearance this month?

Back to work for a week, and everything seems to be going okay. Voluntary redundancy is on the cards for those who applied, but the rest of us seem secure at the moment. Work is busy - no budget cuts in our area, and more work coming in.

Went into Plymouth City Centre on Saturday morning and realised the same cannot be true for everyone. So many shops now being boarded up - the recession / credit crunch seems to be hitting. I hope that this will be short-lived. It seems that people get divided into two widely spaced camps at times like these. Those who are cutting back and making savings just to make ends meet, and those who are fully employed in (fairly) secure employment who are making the most of the sales and special offers being made by those stores who are trying to survive.

Will there be any casualties among charities in times like this?

Here's hoping that 2009 brings an end to the economic downturn.

PJ

Welcome 2009

The start of a new year. This brings great anticipation for us as a charity.

We reached the £1000 mark in fundraising at the end of 2008, and are now looking to put this to good use. We also have a number of fundraising events lined up for 2009, and are looking forward to working again with some of the people who helped us in 2008.

So, our aims for 2009:

• to show the Charities Commission that we believe our income for 2009 will exceed £5000
• to become registered with the Charities Commission
• to spread the word about our charity as far and wide as possible
• to organise a wide range of creative fundraising activities
• to recruit a few more trustees
• to recruit volunteers for fundraising events
• AND TO START MAKING A SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE TO THE LIVES OF CHILDREN WITH COMPLEX NEEDS

Please spread the word, and get as many people supporting us along the way.

Let's make 2009 a truly great year!

PJ