Since our charity was kick-started by Rosemary Jewer’s Peddars way walk from Colchester to Norfolk in 2020, we have managed to raised over £18,000! But there is still a lot more cash we need to raise!
Our charity’s purpose is to support the upkeep of the building and grounds of St. Andrew’s Church. We do this by fund-raising activities.
August 2023 – Let’s Give a GIANT Hug Campaign launch
The Friends of St Andrew’s Church Little Massingham (FOSALM) and Quilts 4 Care Leavers (q4cl.org.uk) have joined forces to organise the stitching together of a Giant HUG that will be large enough to wrap around St. Andrew’s Church in Lt. Massingham.
Why? The Friends of St. Andrew’s Charity has been successfully raising vital funds to help restore the church roof after thieves stole the lead from the roof back in 2017. We’ve managed to raise around £18,000 so far, but our overall target is £150,000!
The church is in desperate need of a HUG, but so too are the young adults who have had a hard start in life being brought up in care.
Caring for people, not just buildings
Quilts 4 Care Leavers provide quilted hugs for young adults who have been in care and are making their first steps into independent living when they turn 18 (or in some cases as young as 16).
The facts about life after the UK care system are bleak…
1 in 5 homeless people have been in care
1 in 5 care leavers go on to spend time in prison
Once discharged from the local authority care system, these 16-25 year old young adults are effectively on their own, often with very limited resources.
Quilts for Care Leavers was formed in October 2018 by a small group of quilters who knew how much comfort and delight a quilt can give. The aim was to make a quilted ‘hug’ for those leaving care. In less than three months, they had managed to make and donate 120 quilts.
Give a Giant HUG Campaign
The organisers hope we can raise awareness about the plight of the church and those leaving care with this campaign.
HOW?
- We’re asking those who can sew to get together and make around 50 quilts
- Each quilt is 72″ (6 ft) long and we’d need around 50 of them end to end to go around the circumference of the church.
- We’re holding Sewing days and will be recruiting quilters at various exhibitions and events
- We’re also likely to attend the Maker’s Festival at the Norwich Forum (April ’24)
- When we reached the target – we’ll assemble the quilts into a giant quilt!
- We’re aiming to have a press day sometime in May 2024 to try to make a big splash to raise awareness.
- The quilts will be on show for a limited period of time on one day so they won’t get damaged in the rain.
- Those who want to support the church can sponsor a ‘block’ to raise money for the church
- Each quilt is made up of around 40 ‘blocks’ (each block is 9.5″ square – and the assembled quilts are 72″ x 45″)
- If we make 50 quilts with 40 blocks each – that’s over 2000 blocks.
- Imagine if we could raise £10 per block! That would raise £20,000 for the church!
- Once the giant hug has been exhibited, we’ll donate the individual quilts to care leavers
- These will go to care leavers in the East Anglia region
So if you wanted to help make this a success by raising money for local charities, providing comfort to those leaving the care system and enjoy sewing we’d love to hear from you!
We were due to host a Sew Day on September 16th 2023 in Gt. Massingham village hall, but unfortunately due to several issues we have had to postpone this. But there will be more!
Orlando Jopling Cello concert – A huge success!
The Friend’s Of St. Andrew’s Lt. Massingham (FOSALM) organised a concert. Orlando Jopling a renown cellist and conductor treated a packed church to an evening of Bach on Friday 19th May 2023 at St. Andrew’s in Lt. Massingham. More than one hundred people filled the church to listen to the 1st, 2nd & 3rd Bach Suites for Cello and The Song of the Birds by Pablo Casals.
The event, including donations, raised over £4150 for the Friends of St. Andrews Little Massingham (FOSALM) charity.
Become a Member and support St Andrew’s Church
Do you live in or around Lt. Massingham? Perhaps you or someone in your family were married or Christened in St. Andrew’s Church, or you have relatives buried in the churchyard.
If you’d like to do your bit to help keep the church in place for future generations as generations before us have done for us, then please consider making a one-off donation or better still set up a monthly standing order with GiftAid.
What benefits are there to being a member?
Members get discounted access to organised FOSALM events and we’ll keep you in touch with our fundraising progress. Members are invited to attend the committee meetings and AGM and have voting rights.
Annual Membership Fees
Annual Membership is open to over 18’s and costs £10 per year via Cash, Cheque or BACS transfer (people are of course free to donate more if they wish!). This annual subscription works out at less than £1 per month. It helps to raise funds and covers any small charity running costs.
Donations via Monthly Standing Order
You may wish to donate via a standing order whether you are a member or not. Doing this helps reduce our administration work and is something you can set up via your online banking or at your branch.
However small your donation, it would be very much appreciated. It’s vitally important that we continue to grow the funds year on year to make this charity sustainable. Those making standing order donations (over £1 per month) will automatically be eligible to become members if they choose.
| Monthly amount | Annual Donation | Annual Donation (with GiftAid) |
| £1 | £12 | £15 |
| £5 | £60 | £75 |
| £10 | £120 | £150 |
| £20 | £240 | £300 |
| £50 | £600 | £750 |
Volunteering
We’re also looking for local volunteers to help organise events such as Fetes, Concerts, Raffles and other fund-raising ideas you can think of!
Fund-raising
If you happen to be thinking of doing something like running a Marathon, taking part in a sponsored swim or putting on your hiking boots for a sponsored Walk, but you haven’t yet got a charity in mind to raise money for, then please consider FOSALM!
Becoming a Trustee or help running the Charity
Finally – since we have only just set up the charity, there are only a small number of Trustees and few members. We’d like to get more people involved in the running of this Charity – so please do get in touch if you can help.
You don’t need to live in Massingham to be a member – so if you grew up in Massingham and have moved away, or if you have some other connection with the Church please do get involved.
Donating
If you want to know how to donate with GiftAid or to make regular monthly donations, we have a form we can send you with detailed instructions.
If you want to give an online one-off donation (without HMRC GiftAid) click below: