Community Awards 2006 Nominees

Spratt Endicott

Fundraiser of the Year
(Sponsored by Spratt Endicott)

Jasmine Gilhooly
A TEENAGER uses her artistic talent to raise money for charity.

Jasmine Gilhooly, aged 15, spends much of her free time creating hand-made cards and jewellery to sell to family and friends for Katharine House Hospice.

She produces one-of-a-kind designs which are never duplicated and donates ten per cent of the sales to the hospice.

Jasmine of Hardwick Park, Banbury, said: “Every single card is different. That is purposely done so that nobody ends up with the same card.”

On average, Jasmine will dedicate about half an hour to creating each card, and uses a variety of techniques including paper craft, rubber stamps and stickers.

She has notched up a wide range of customers through her sales and can count teachers, friends, family and her mother's work colleagues as fans of her artwork. Jasmine has also been given permission to sell her cards at various fetes and at Beauty Within of South Bar and Hair Concepts of Calthorpe Street.

She began making the cards at the beginning of 2003 and decided to support the hospice after her grandmother died there in 2002.

Jasmine was nominated by family friend Anne Caro, who works with her mother at General Foods and buys the cards on a regular basis. She said: “It is really nice to see someone with an artistic talent putting it to good use.

“She puts a lot of thought and time into it. Jasmine is a really nice natured person and this is her way of giving something back to the people who helped her family.”

Jasmine's latest donation to the hospice was £60 and in all, she has raised about £160 through the sales of her cards and jewellery.

Geoff and Joan Todd
A KIND-HEARTED couple have been grinding away for charity over the past 15 years.

Geoff and Joan Todd of Deddington have collected £100,000 for a variety of local causes over the last decade and a half. And the duo's recipe for success? Street organ music.

The retired couple caught the street organ bug while on holiday in France. Mrs Todd explained: “We saw a poster for the First Festival of Mechanical Music. It brought together people from all over Europe with their street organs and we enjoyed it so much.

“We've had an enormous amount of fun with it and it's been a lovely way to raise money. It has changed our lives so much and taken us to some wonderful places.”

Such destinations include the south of France, Paris, Holland, Belgium, Beaujolais country and the only slightly less exotic Ilfracombe and Aberystwyth.

With a wide and eclectic repertoire including Mozart, the Beatles, the Hokey Cokey and Old MacDonald Had a Farm, the music is a hit among young and old alike.

Mr Todd said: “We bring back a lot of memories. People often remember when street organ grinders used to come down their street.”

Mr Todd runs Banbury's annual summer street organ festival, as well as playing at Deddington Farmers' Market. Other beneficiaries over the years have included Macmillan Cancer Relief, the Cheshire Home in Adderbury and Banbury's Fine Lady on a White Horse appeal.

Margaret and Peter Whittle
MARGARET and Peter Whittle's homemade toys and other items have made more than £75,000 for a hospice.

The Upper Tadmarton couple have dedicated themselves to fundraising for Katharine House since starting their annual Cottage Crafts sale in 1993

They have produced a wide range of crafts from wooden toys to homemade jams, tea cosies and jewellery.

The couple welcomed the nomination but said other people were far more deserving of the award.

“The ones that should be celebrated are those individuals who carry out the more mundane, everyday jobs like cleaning the local church or knocking on doors collecting for Red Cross or lifeboats. These people gain no publicity but are the real unsung heroes,” Mr Whittle said.

Hospice fundraising co-ordinator Sue Lane said the amount the couple had raised was a “remarkable achievement”.

She said: “We are full of admiration for the Whittles.

“They work hard all year to make sufficient crafts to sell and their contribution is invaluable in helping us to provide care and comfort to our patients and their families.”

The Barton Farming Club
FUNDRAISING farmers have donated more than £15,000 for lung cancer research.

The Barton Farming Club (BFC) sold off 46 acres of Wizard broad beans in December last year after planting the crop in memory of past chairman and committee member Roger Nobbs who died in May 2004.

Aged 59, Mr Nobbs died of pleural cancer (an asbestos-related lung disease) and the BFC donated its £15,121 to the Ken Lovell Fund.

A charitable trust, it supports a specialist clinic at Oxford's Churchill Hospital, where Mr Nobbs spent his final days, and carries out research into lung cancer and supports sufferers and their carers.

Now Dr Rob Davies, who set up the trust, has nominated the club in the Fundraiser of the Year category of the Banbury Guardian Community Awards.

He said: “Their fundraising effort was probably the most innovative I have come across and was one of the biggest donations we have received. It was a great surprise to us and we're so grateful.

“The amount raised has almost completely paid for an ultra-violet light based system which should allow us to identify and diagnose cancerous tissue sooner, which is very important for treatment.”

BFC member Bob Coles said: “We're a close-knit community and it was our wish to do what we did in honour of Roger, but we're thrilled to be nominated.”

Farmer and BFC member Richard Betteridge donated his land to grow the beans. Around 36 acres were planted on land he owns in Duns Tew and the remaining ten acres were planted on his farm in Great Tew.

The sale of the beans came to £5,436, a competition for people to guess the weight of beans raised £1,315, and the rest came from donations from landowners in the area.

The BFC's annual dinner dance in January raised a further £800 for the charity.

Jane Sanders
A DEDICATED fundraiser has helped to raise £7,000 for cancer charities in the past seven months.

Jane Sanders has accomplished the Peru Hiking Challenge, completed a 50-mile trek and even had her head shaved.

Mrs Sanders began her fundraising activities earlier this year after she signed up for the Peru Hiking Challenge to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Relief. The 26-mile trek took hikers through the countryside and mountains of Machu Picchu provided that they raised a minimum sponsorship amount of £2,900.

To help reach the target, Mrs Sanders, who owns the New Look Hair and Beauty Salon in Middle Tysoe, decided to hold a sponsored vote to save or shave her hair.

In order to vote, people had to donate money to Macmillan Cancer Relief and the option which raised the most money decided her fate. In the end the shave won the vote.

At the time Mrs Sanders said: “This has been a great money raiser as I have made £1,500 but it is also symbolic as many cancer sufferers lose their hair through chemotherapy.”

“It was a great feeling and made me realise you can do anything if you set your mind to it. I’ve still got money coming in,” she said.
Following her return from the hike in May, Mrs Sanders then agreed to take part in a 50-mile walk to raise money for Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in Oxford, which offers support to victims and families of cancer. Mrs Sanders completed the walk in about 20 hours and raised £435 for the centre.

Mrs Sanders is planning to do more fundraising events in the future but is giving her friends and family a break from sponsoring for the moment.

She said: “I couldn’t have done this without the support of my friends, family and customers. Without them none of the money would have been raised.”