Fundraising for L'Aquila, and the parish of San Raniero, Civita di Bagno

In April 2009, central Italy was devastated by a massive earthquake. Two of our parishioners, Felicity and Malcolm Surrige are good friends with the Parish Priest, Fr Gerald Abuachi, of San Raniero, Civita di Bagno, and decided that they wanted to do something to help.

From September 2009 until the end of January 2010, St Joseph's raised money to develop an emergency fund the Parish Priest could use to meet the immediate needs of his people, and collected toys, clothes and musical instruments to send to the parishioners who had lost everything.

In December 2009 we sent our consignment of goods to L'Aquila, to arrive in the village on Christmas Day. We are very grateful to ITAL LOGISTICS, a major Anglo-Italian haulage company, who agreed to handle the transportation of these goods free of charge.

Over the course of the five months, we held the following events to raise money:

• Sunday 11th October: Cake Sale (Pastoral Centre)   raised £253.26
• Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th October: Arts & Crafts Fair (Hall)   raised £547.77
• Sunday 8th November: Youth Club Cake Sale, after the 9.30am Mass   raised £57.10
• Sunday 8th November: a Concert of Remembrance (Church)   raised £467.74
• Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th November: Fr Gerald, PP of San Raniero Parish at L'Aquila, visited St Joseph's, speaking at all the Masses
• Sunday 15th November: Monthly Parish Lunch - with an Italian flavour!   raised £542.06
• Saturday 21st November: Quiz Night (Hall)   raised £708.54
• Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th November: Our annual Advent Charity Fair   raised £973.76
• Sunday 6th December: Beavers Cake Sale, after the 9.30am Mass
• Christmas 2009: all of our Crib Offerings were donated to the L'Aquila appeal   raised £278.05
• Tuesday 29th December: A Christmas Panto by St James's Players   raised £604.02
• Monday 25th January: Around the World in 18 Musicals, with St James's Players - who kindly agreed to donate 46 tickets for their Charity Performance towards our fundraising

More to come...!

When our fundraising concludes, the twinning arrangements will continue, and develop with a host of exciting options:

• Tuesday 15th to Wednesday 23rd June 2010: (during the Italian school holidays), the first exchange visit to St Joseph's by San Raniero Youth Group.
  We are now urgently looking for host families who would be prepared to provide accomodation, breakfast and the occasional evening meal to one or more of our young visitors. If you can help, please speak to Malcolm or Felicity after the 11.30am Mass, or email art@malcolmsurridge.co.uk.
• August 2010: Fr Gerald takes his young people on a mountain camping expedition into the Dolomites, and we're planning for a contingent from St Joseph's (Scouts, Altar Servers, Young Musicians, Youth Clubs etc.) to join them. This will be the first return exchange. Details from Keith Axbey and Mary Baxter will come soon.
• Sunday 5th (eve) to Friday 10th September: our Parish Pilgrimage to Rome, with the first two nights in L'Aquila, visiting their quake-destroyed homes and their present accomodation, developing the twinning arrangements with their parish groups, meeting the local Bishop and Caritas Internationalis (with whom we are cooperating). The last three nights are spent in Rome, visiting the sites and Shrines of the Eternal City. Details will be available later this month, but you can register your interest early by emailing art@malcolmsurridge.co.uk. Places will be limited.