Raising the Roof
We've had terrific support from the local community since our original appeal in Thames Ditton Today. One very large donation followed by several other large and small donations, which together amounted to just short of £5,000, gave us a great start. Local businesses donated prizes for our Christmas Raffle and made us beneficiaries of the Christmas Fayre, which together raised over £2,500. The Brownies raised another £900 with their disco and panto; and stalls at village events and our toy sale have added another thousand to the pot.
Thanks to help from Cllr Peter Hickman we managed to fix the immediate leaks that brought parts of the flat roofs down, and B & Q gave materials for new toilets that the girls were prepared to sit on, although we couldn't keep the spiders out! But the Hut has suffered serious lack of maintenance for 50 years. When we commissioned a full survey it became clear that to replace the main roof, renew the electrics, heating and plumbing, replace windows and rotten doors, install floors fit to sit on and a kitchen up to modern standards, plus redecoration, we are looking at a sum of nearer £50,000 than the £20,000 we had first thought.
After the flat roof repairs and the new toilets we have raised about £12,000. Additionally Jeremy at Stitchery has arranged for us to get new double-glazed windows supplied for free - we just need to pay to put them in - and the Michael Shanly Charitable Trust has promised £3,000 towards the main roof, provided we can raise the rest of the money in the next 6 months. That leaves us something like £3,000 before we can proceed with the roof, which we'd love to do before the winter sets in again.
We are hoping that the good quality musical at Vera Fletcher Hall, "Tell Me on Sunday, and Rainy Days and Mondays," on Fri-Sun 25-27 July (Tickets £12 from Box Office 8942 6867) will go some way towards that target. Meanwhile an anonymous donor has offered to put up another £2,500 if other individuals in the village would match that.
With all this support we are very hopeful that we'll have a sparkling new hut in plenty of time to start the centenary celebrations in autumn 2009. However, there is some way to go: if you would like to donate a kitchen or perhaps a new central heating system, please do get in touch!
Bronach Hughes
020 8398 1628