I hope that you have enjoyed the very hot weather this summer - it has been a little too warm for my wife and I but we would have complained if it had been either cold or wet. As expected, we have had fewer activities this year with our smaller committee. We had a donation of £500 from SGR in April, a collection at Tesco in Sudbury which raised £489.18, and a collection at North Station which raised £366.45. I think that we should rename the station collections as the Kevin Turner collection as he seems to collect almost as much as everyone else put together. We also raised £450 in a collection at Waitrose in Sudbury and £212.18 at 5 Ways in Clacton.
The AGM seems a long time ago but this is the first newsletter since then so thank you to all those who provided raffle prizes at the AGM and the cakes and other food generously provided.
We have a collection at Sainsbury's, Priory Walk in Colchester on 15th and 16th November. Finally we have another concert (West Bergholt Concert Band) on 22nd November at St. Botolphs at 7.30 pm. We would love to see you all there at the concert so please make every effort to be there and to bring your friends along. Last year was a wonderful occasion and we hope that this year will be equally enjoyable. If any of you (or friends or relatives) are able to help at any of these functions please let me know on 01206 520986.
We are grateful to Tony and Bridget Farley for the continuing funds that we receive from their organ and to Maria Fremlin for the funds from both Kefir and her personally designed cards.
The situation is not getting any better. When I joined the committee of Muscular Dystrophy in Colchester I did so as treasurer and in the knowledge that I could just about fit the duty in with my other commitments. I now find myself as acting chairman as well as treasurer and with the possibility that we may not have a secretary next year. I now have a son and daughter-in-law who live in Switzerland and who we visit on a regular basis, a 97 year old mother who lives 160 miles away and has just broken her hip in a fall and I have just become a prospective grand parent. Whilst I have just given up the duty of secretary to Mile End United Football Club and The Rotary Club of Colchester I am speaker secretary for the Rotary Club and Governor and Finance Officer for the Gilberd School and my wife and I still work. The travel problems of 320 miles round trips to see my mother have been particularly tiring for me (we are all getting older).
Janet is our welfare officer and, although she is doing an excellent job, she is herself getting less and less mobile. For those who don't know, Norman (Janet's husband) has also had a difficult time with a number of falls and some bad bruising. Hopefully, a change of medication will prevent him having any more falls.
We are soldiering on at present but you can see from the above that we do need some new blood on our committee and we are hoping that you can come up with the name of someone who would be willing to help keep the Group going in Colchester for the next 10 years or more.I shall be contacting people for help in the collections at Sainsbury's on 15th & 16th November but the event that we really need to be a success is the concert on 22nd November. We need you all to support this event by:
LAST YEAR WAS A RESOUNDING SUCCESS AND WE REALLY DO NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS YEAR A SUCCESS AS WELL
This will be the last newsletter before Christmas so may I wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas and a really good 2004.
Our AGM will be on a Saturday 20th March 2004 and will hopefully be well attended by you all. I am about to write out to all the stores to try and obtain as many collections in 2004 as possible. Hopefully we can rely on the usual people to ensure that we can collect more money to both help local sufferers and to help finance the continuing research into Muscular Dystrophy which will one day lead to a cure.
We are still waiting to hear if we will be allowed to have a stall at Bypass Nurseries for 2 weeks in February. If this does come about we will need as many nearly new items as you can give us and considerable help in staffing the stall every day for 2 weeks. Potentially this could earn the group a lot of money so we will be looking for all the help that we can get.
MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY CAMPAIGN COLCHESTER & DISTRICT BRANCH
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING AND PARTY
SATURDAY 20th MARCH 2004
1.30 TO 5 PM
At Tollgate Hall, Villa Road Stanway
RSVP: Sue Wood, 63 Godmans Lane, Marks Tey, Colchester, CO6 1NQ
01206 212100
After the wonderful summer that we have all enjoyed let us hope that the autumn colours this year are as wonderful as they were last year which were better than I can ever remember. Again I wish you all a peaceful and happy Christmas and I hope to see you at the Annual General Meting.
Chris Jenkinson
Acting Chairman/Treasurer/Editor
60 Marlowe Way
Lexden
Colchester
CO3 4JP
Tel: 01206 520986
e-mail Christopher.jenkinson@ntlworld.com