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Annual Barbecue
Our now annual Barbecue was held at Pip'n'Jay on Sept 20. Again, everybody joined in, volunteers and clientele alike. There was a remarkable break of about five hours in the bad weather of the past week for this.
We all let our hair down and danced and sang together. As last year, we had loads of food, chocolate from Cadburys through The Mustard Tree, hot bangers mainly organised by St. Augustine's Church and extra chocolate and soft drinks from Fair Share.
Yet again Philip McWilliams and St. Augustine's were the prime movers. We even had a free bookstall.
As last year we were privileged to have a news broadcast, this time from Radio Bristol. We were the third item on all news bulletins the next day!
We still work closely with the Novas Day Centre and other ones, where we send our clients, to be eventually assessed and helped by the Compass Centre. Others are more suitably forwarded to the umbrella organisation, The Hub.
Our bi-monthly meetings have made progress lately. More of our teams are now represented, and lively discussions have ensued. We must thank Easton Salvation Army for their hospitality.
We sent a letter to the Evening Post in the Autumn of '08 when they highlighted the problem of alcoholism in the city, outlining our experience of it, especially among women and girls. The Crisis Centre and Bristol Alcoholism Recovery Service had combined to present the facts to the press. Regrettably there was no public reaction as such to the exercise, not even a letter deploring the government's extension of drinking hours. You may be sure any 'trouble' on a Soup Run among our service users can be mostly put down to drink.
As usual our splendid website, together with Volunteering Bristol, bring in more volunteers than we can place.
Steve Barr's brother, Glenn, has kindly taken on the work Steve initiated, of revising the website. Glenn's colleague, Andrew, has produced a new leaflet for us.
If a team has to be replaced the main problem is to get a leader / main driver with a car to manage it.
We have managed now to gather together a strong body of nine trustees. Sally McKeown is to assist in fund raising enterprises.
Links
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Bristol City Council
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Julian Trust Nightshelter
Crisis Ministries
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Methodist Centre
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