Have you seen the “Sitting with Jane” benches that have been dotted all over Basingstoke and local areas in the past month?
Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if we could crowd fund one of them to stay in Basingstoke? So we could show our children that we all did something AMAZING together?
The NorthHantsMum Community and anyone else who would like to be involved, are working hard to raise money for one of the “Sitting with Jane” benches to stay in one of the local parks, maybe War Memorial or Eastrop Park, depending on whether Basingstoke and Deane council agree.
I am hoping the bench will be used by lots of people but also as a safe place where Mum’s can meet other Mum’s and children can meet other children. How cool would that be!!!!
(Crowd funding means that the money is only taken at the end of the 30 days, IF the project goes ahead. However, I’ve made the executive decision that ALL donations that are made will still go to the Ark Cancer Centre Charity, even if we aren’t successful in our bid.)
The NorthHantsMum Bench – June 2016
At the end of June 2016, just after the Brexit announcement, I had several friends who were struggling with certain aspects of their life.
I posted up the following status on my “Louise nhm Smith” profile and was completely blown away by the positive feedback that came back: “Good Afternoon Everyone! I have several “Mum” friends who are struggling at the moment. I don’t know if it’s because of the weather or the Brexit result or even England being out of the football, but if you are struggling at the moment, I want to send you a MASSIVE hug and ask you to reach out to someone and tell them. Don’t suffer in silence. Being a Mum is REALLY hard work at the best of times, but even harder when, for example, your baby has colic or the ground floor of your house has been flooded or you are on your knees with exhaustion. Somehow though, knowing that there are other Mum’s who are highly sympathetic, it makes it easier to get through. If you are struggling to find someone who will listen to you, let me know and I will see if I can help in whatever ways I can. Massive hugs to anyone who is struggling at the mo.”
That night I was chatting to Mr NHM about how I want to do something tangible to support local Mum’s and he came up with the idea of having a “Mum bench” in either Eastrop Park or the War Memorial Park.
It was such a brilliant idea and I started campaigning straight away. But a week or two later Miss NHM became quite seriously ill and that took over everything for nearly a year of our lives.
When my friend Sue mentioned about the “Sitting with Jane” bench trail at the beginning of August 2017, I didn’t really get it until we went to see the Walled Garden bench and the children LOVED it!
Then a few days later I had a spine tingling moment and thought about how awesome it would be if we could raise some money to keep one of the benches in Basingstoke after the trail closed, for everyone to use whilst raising money for an amazing cause…
So it’s all Mr NHM’s fault really! lol.
Donate
You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/louise-northhantsmum
All money raised will go towards the Ark Cancer Centre Charity, regardless of whether we are successful with our bid.
Even if you can only donate £1, this will go towards the bid for a chair at the auction will be taking place on Friday 15th September.
Every time someone makes a donation towards the campaign, I will post up a picture to NorthHantsMum FB Page of a local child sitting on one of the benches with the amount of the donation.
If you would like your child to be featured as part of the campaign, please email me their picture to NorthHantsMum@gmail.com, with some words that say you are their parent and are happy for their picture to be used.
Everyone who donates towards the bench will also have their name listed in this post and hopefully somewhere on the bench, although I don’t quite know how that will work yet! (If you would like your last name to be included, just to let me know).
If you are sponsoring as a business, a link to your business will also be included in this post.
This is going to be an AWESOME way for the community to come together to raise funds to keep a little bit of heritage right here in our town.
Everyone who has donated towards the bench…
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Laura from The Topiary for her INCREDIBLE donation and without whom we never would have stood a chance of getting the bench.
Mike O’Neil at Action Trophies for his very generous donation.
Nicky from Ma Humbugs Old Fashioned Sweet Shop for her generous donation.
John from Tidal Bay Crazy Adventure Golf for his VERY generous donation about 30 minutes before the event started. STREEEESSSFFULLLL!!!!! Hahaha
Wendy D
Cathy W
Lilian K
LauraE,
Zoe
Cathy
Karen
Lisa
Helen
Gisella
LauraW
Juliet
Emma
Sue
My Mum
Sally
Mary
Sarah
Allison
Ceri
Katie
SueS
Victoria
Julie
Rebecca
Jules
Eleanor
Pauline
Michele
Jaz
Rachel
Natasha
Stephany C
Kath R
Sharon
Sarah
Claire
BeckyT
Lisa
Emily
Pam
Cat
Lyndsey
Rebecca H
Stephanie
Gillian
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