Every other year, ThePromise holds a fundraising ball which raises much needed funds for our projects. Speak to anyone who has attended these events and you will know that they are gathering quite a reputation, not just for their great atmosphere, but also for their creativity and imagination. We very much hope you will be able to join us for the heart to heart ball which will be held in the Live Room, a new suite at Twickenham stadium on Saturday 6th March 2010. Tickets are £75.00 per person, or £750 for a table of ten, but you could also book a fabulous ‘Gold Table’ with lots of extras for 10 at £1,000. For more information, please contact Janet at janet.abbott@thepromise.org.uk.

ThePromise was delighted to be the beneficiary of a Family Fun Day, masterminded by Barbara Richardson and Jo Chapple, and held in Barbara's splendid garden in the leafy suburb of Northwood in Middlesex. Guests enjoyed the sunny weather and the fantastic food, generously donated and prepared by a host of volunteers, including loads of teenagers. The centrepiece was a Hog Roast served with all kinds of salads and accompaniments washed down with Pimms, the ultimate summer barbecue experience! A kind donation of chicken fillets was used to great effect in many dishes.

Barbara and Jo had assembled an interesting selection of silent auction items, including tickets to Arsenal, dinner at a local restaurant, services donated by local tradespeople, a weekend in a campervan and a week in a Swiss chalet, not to mention a number of alternative therapy sessions, notably Amatsu as both Barbara and Jo are practitioners of this amazing therapy developed in Japan. Guests were entertained by local musicians throughout the afternoon. It was so relaxing to enjoy the autumnal hues of Barbara's lovely garden to the sound of a great acoustic band.

Guests over the age of 16 made a suggested minimum donation of £15 and those who were UK tax-payers kindly signed gift aid forms so that ThePromise can collect the extra 28% from the government. Always welcome! Children under 16 came free.

Tanya van Dalen, a volunteer Occupational Therapist from ThePromise spoke movingly of her experiences with the children in Room 4 at Yelatma Orphanage. ThePromise has been working with older children at Yelatma who up to now have been confined to one activity room during the day without any stimulating activities or equipment. Tanya has been instrumental in helping to set up our work in Room 4 and told guests that £100 would pay for a day's training for 2 Russian care workers, £25 would pay their weekly wage and £500 would help to buy additional play equipment, like trampolines, scooter boards etc to help these disadvantaged children develop their physical strength.

Barbara and Jo's Family Fun Day provides a great example of what can be achieved by motivating your friends and relations to raise money for ThePromise. If you feel you might be able to organise a fun event like this, we are always on hand to give helpful advice and publicity material to help motivate your guests. We can always provide volunteer help and a speaker to tell guests how the money raised will be spent.

Charity Challenge

Calling all intrepid supporters, why not have a look at the Charity Challenge Website the UK's leading adventure travel company. In September 2008, June Thompson and George Watson cycled from St Petersburg to Moscow and raised over £5,000 for ThePromise.

The bike ride was organsied by Charity Challenge and there were people on it who were raising money for their favourite charities. With more than 100 inspirational challenges each year for around 2000 participants, they have so far helped to raise around £15 million for over 750 charities. Expeditions include treks, mountain bike rides, mountain climbs, white water rafting, sailing, horse riding and Community Challenges and take place all over the world, with four different levels of ability.

We are now registered as one of their charities, so if you, or anyone you know is interested, please have a look at their website - sounds great for "gap" years and those who just need a challenge.......

easyfundraising is a shopping directory listing some of your favourite online stores including Amazon, Next, Debenhams, John Lewis, Toys R Us, HMV and over 2000 others. Just use the links on the easyfundraising site whenever you shop online and, at no extra cost to you, we'll receive a donation of up to 15% from every purchase you make. It really is that simple.

It's completely free to register and you won't pay a penny more for your shopping when you use the easyfundraising site. In fact you can even save money as many retailers offer discounts, special offers and even 'e-vouchers' exclusive to easyfundraising.

If you shop online anyway then why not raise valuable extra funds for us by using this fantastic scheme. All you need to do is click here http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/tp and when you register, select The Promise (with a space) as the organisation you wish to support.

All you net traders can now sell items on eBay and make a donation to ThePromise at the same time by nominating us as your chosen charity. Or you might have items which you could sell on eBay on our behalf. Either way, ThePromise can benefit from your on-line trading.

This is a charity share donation scheme, which makes it easy for people to give any number of shares to charity. they specialise in accepting small holdings of shares, particularly those which are not worth selling, because that would cost more than they are worth.

We are now registered with telephone service Affinicom, which offers subscribers telephone calls at much lower rates than BT and donates a percentage of the saving to the ThePromise. So you get cheaper bills, and the ThePromise receives a donation…

Donating directly from your monthly salary is a tax efficient way of donating to ThePromise, and it happens automatically once you have set it up so you never need to think about it! Please get in touch with us if you would like to donate in this way.

We have individuals all over the country who are engaging in all sorts of weird and wonderful fundraising activities to raise money for us! If you or a group of friends would like to support us but don't know where to start, please just get in touch with us at post@thepromise.org.uk

We are delighted to have already been nominated by various schools as their chosen charity and are very happy to come and present to assemblies in the UK. Again, please contact us at post@thepromise.org.uk if you would like to introduce this idea to your school.