At the end of 2001 we lost one of our most popular members, Dave "Public Enema" Iles, due to cancer, and since then we have tried to raise some money for charities, at first for the Friends of Bristol Oncology Centre and, more recently, for other charities, some of which are listed at the bottom of the column on the left. Below is mostly letters and other messages from some of the charities we have had links with.
Click HERE to see Soprano's June 2020 summary of Charity Auction donations.
Street Life: The 2019 Bristol Hash Charity.
Since 1997, Street Life has provided hot meals, drinks, soup, cold meal packs and clothing on the street. Volunteers are drawn mainly from local churches and others from the community. Occasionally, they are also joined on the street by groups from business, schools, social groups and youth on community projects.
Shaun, from Streetlife, has acknowledged receipt of £637.00 from the BH3 Summer Auction (auctioneer Soprano) and has sent the following note:
Dear Bristol Hash House Harriers,
I can confirm that the transfer arrived into the charity account yesterday.
Wow, what a wonderful result from the auction and we are so grateful for the donation to StreetLife.
The money will be spent wisely on items for the Homeless over the coming months.
Once again my grateful thanks to all those who organised and bought items during the auction.
Kind Regards
Shaun Boycott-Taylor.
From Cecilia and John "Too Early" Hickey,
A few weeks have now passed since John and I joined you for the hash
followed by annual auction during which you raised a staggering £806 for
the
Dan Hickey Fund. It is amazing to think that such a pile of tat could
seriously raise such an enormous sum of money, but this came from you
digging deep into your pockets and being supremely generous. As the Hickey family we'd like to say an enormous and heartfelt thank you for this huge
donation and a fun, lively event which we so enjoyed.
Although many of you remarked on our strength and ability to cope with such a social event, we would like you to know how much you have helped by "pulling" us forward. We have managed to get through one year (Lord knows how) but we have, and it is the love and support of those we know that has
helped us to dip into normality again in an effort to move forward.
I know some of you are joining us for the next fund raising event which is the Great Bristol Half Marathon on the 25th of September and, again, we thank you for this. We look forward to seeing you at the event and treading a bit of mileage with you or sharing a few aches and pain stories over a beer afterwards.
In true and simple terms, we thank you for helping us through the darkness and enabling us to move "on on..."
You will all wish to know where your money has gone from our Summer of fund raising via our donations and our auction. First of all, very many thanks to Waynetta for auditing and collecting the initial auction funds (Bravo!) Please see the three following letters:
The first concerns our £85 from the Charity Above & Beyond informing us that our money will go towards Bristol's Oncology Centre via their Golden Gift Appeal.
The second letter is from Avon Wildlife Trust. As Wolfie was instrumental in nominating the Trust at our AGM and we were then given options of what we wished them to do with our £180.75 - the Seed Fund was chosen. This is what Avon Wildilife had to say about the fund:
"We shall be calling on our Seed Fund very soon as we have been awarded some funding for a partnership project that we are running with Buglife, called B-lines. This project will map important wildflower rich areas leading to enhancement of natural habitat that will benefit pollinating insects. Often the Trust has to provide at least 10% to gain access to funding from course such as a lottery or landfill communities fund. We set up a Seed Fund specifically to match-fund larger grants. Therefore, a donation of £180 would then potentially lever in £1,800 of funding for a project.
Note: I was interested to read about the history of the Hash House Harriers. I think I mentioned to you that I took part in one. It was with a group based in Miri in Sarawak, Malaysia. We spent a fun and very hot afternoon running around the paddy fields to the bemusement of the local villagers! Happy days."
The third is from Myeloma UK concerning our donation of £190.75. Those of you still with me will note the discrepancy of £10 from our 50/50 donation to Avon Wildlife Trust. This is because Dingbat, a hasher we had not seen before, turned up on the Sunday as I continued collecting the auction funds and, as he was about to leave, Dingbat came over to me and handed me £10 and said that his wife's mother was battling a blood disorder and he wanted his £10 to go towards the Myeloma UK appeal.
Well done HHHashers!
Soprano.
During 2011 and 2012 The Bristol Hash House Harriers' charity, nominated by Soprano for family reasons, was MyelomaUK, an organisation which attemps to cover every aspect of myeloma, a cancer affecting plasma cells in the bone marrow. This includes information and support, improving standards of treatment and care through research, education, campaigning and raising awareness generally.
Primarily through two Hash-related auctions, over £1,000.00 has been raised for the charity. A letter and two certificates from the charity are reproduced below:
