Table Top Sale - 3 July 2011

This article was written after our very successful Table Top Sale last year.

Table Top Sale Trail
A new idea for fund raising. Something different; Something to capture the imagination. Think big… Got it! A table top sale trail throughout the village. We approached it with some trepidation and numerous questions. Could we persuade villagers to have tables? Would anyone turn up? Would there be anywhere for them to park? Would they buy anything? Would the sun shine on us? Could we muster enough helpers? Would stall holders respond to the suggestion that they donate a small percentage of their takings? Would the village take the event to its heart? Could we cope?
The answer to all of these questions was a resounding YES. Over 60 tables, lots of visitors, parking courtesy of the Parish Council and Simon Frost, brisk trading, glorious sunshine and the sort of teamwork of which Youlgrave is justifiably proud resulted in proceeds of £1,200. A RECORD. £400 more than our previous best.
The funds raised will go towards training traditional birth attendants in Sierra Leone where more mothers and infants die during, or as a result of, complications arising from childbirth than anywhere else in the world. We are working to help improve this appalling situation in cooperation with Health Poverty Action an organisation which seeks to strengthen poor and marginalized people in their struggle for health, prioritising those missed out by almost everyone else.
Zoe Vowles, a British midwife who has worked with HPA for a year in Sierra Leone having won a Vodafone World of Difference Award will be visiting the village on 9-10 September. She will receive the cheque and talk about the work she’s been doing at an open meeting in the Reading Room at 7pm on Saturday 10th. We will provide drinks and nibbles and hope as many people as possible, particularly stall holders and helpers, will come along to meet Zoe and hear about her work.