One Hundred Club

The Bridgebuilder fundraising challenge is taking a different direction in 2012. We are challenging our church members, young people and associated organisations to raise £100 for Bridgebuilder in 2012. Everyone who achieves this will become a member of the One Hundred Club and our aim is to recruit 100 members during the year.

Recruitment of One Hundred Club members will revolve around a family and fundraising day at the Caldecotte Project Watersports facility at Caldecotte Lake on 19th May. The Challenge for the day will be to canoe the equivalent of the 215 miles of the River Thames. Canoeists will take to the water in relays supervised by the Caldecotte Project instructors and paddle several laps of the north section of the lake all canoeists will have to raise sponsorship to be able to take part. The only restrictions on participating in the canoeing are a minimum age of 8 and the participant fits the buoyancy aids.

Not everyone is at home on the water and subject to permission from the Park’s Trust we are planning a fun walk/run/cycle around the lake – approx 5k. The more ambitious could go for a duathon or triathlon by combining 2 or 3 of the activities.

In addition to these events we will have a barbeque, bouncy castle(s) and giant games etc to make it a great family day. Put the 19th May in your diary and watch out for more details shortly.

You can still become a member of the One Hundred Club by using you own skills and initiatives to raise money. Here are a few suggestions:

• Do a sponsored walk, run, cycle, swim, climb or abseil.
• Have a bakeathon and have a sale at work, church or local fete
• Clear the attic and sell the unwanted items at a car boor sale
• A youth organisation could do a carwash in the church car park.

Bridgebuilder will be happy to publicise your event. Keith Bedford (one of the founders of the Trust) has done a number of sponsored events and is willing to give advice and encouragement to help you plan your activity – just drop him a line to keith_bedford@talktalk.net

Who will be the first member of the One Hundred Club? Could it be you?

Getting Christmas ‘Cracked’

In the two weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays, 1,637 year 6s (children aged 10/11) from 37 primary schools will have visited a church local to their school and experienced an hour and a half of ‘Christmas Cracked’ – a presentation about the Christmas story and what it means to Christians.

This year, 18 churches have run the newly updated presentation, either individually or with two or more churches coming together to pool ‘manpower’. All have been supported by Bridgebuilder in this – through providing the resources, or with training, or help with the presentation aspect if needed.

Would your church like to run Christmas (and Easter) Cracked for year 6s in your local primary school? If so, contact us…we would love to support you in this!

Barn Dance Success

Bring together a hundred people, a good band, freshly cooked fish and chips, Fair Trade stalls and a good venue and what do you have? Another successful Bridgebuilder Barn Dance!

During the interval, Rosie, Rachel and Lex wowed us with facts and figures relating to their work in schools this term, while Keith launched the challenge of the ‘Hundred Club’ for 2012. Can we find one hundred people to raise £100 each? Could you be one of them? [more on this later]

We thank everyone for their support on the evening and are pleased to report that the event raised £385 for Bridgebuilder.

Christmas Cracked

Having updated Easter Cracked earlier in the year, Rachel has now reviewed and updated Christmas Cracked, with the help of Geoff Morris who revised the PowerPoint. The new presentation includes games, quizzes, activities, a great film clip and a dynamic drama monologue from one of the shepherds.

Last year eight churches delivered Christmas Cracked sessions and reached just over 30 primary schools. This year we will see those numbers increase as the churches from the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership offer Christmas Cracked to their local schools for the first time, and Stony Stratford Community Church may also offer the presentations to local schools. Together, these new churches will offer this project to approximately ten more primary schools.

Final Total for 100 Bridges Challenge

After a great deal of number-crunching, we’re delighted to announce that the final total raised by supporters who undertook the 100 Bridges Challenge is: £4049.44p (including Gift Aid)

A huge thank you to everyone for their heroic effort!

M.O.U.S.E 2011

M.O.U.S.E. is a transition project for year 6s as they look to move up to secondary school, and is led by a team of young people (the MICE) in year 11 and year 13 (post GCSE/A level students) from different local churches. [more here]

This year:

• 3 teams of MICE made up of 14 team members and 4 team leaders
• 48 schools out of a potential 60 booked M.O.U.S.E.
• 2,300+ year 6 pupils saw the M.O.U.S.E. Team in action
• 2,270 Scripture Union It’s Your Move books were handed out to these year 6s

What did we say?
Lex and Tony ran M.O.U.S.E. this year, with Lex being primarily responsible for recruitment and content, and Tony focusing on mentoring. Rachel’s role was to support them both. Tony said, “M.O.U.S.E. felt very God-centred and spirit-led—and my favourite time was the worship session on the last morning where we all took part.”

What did Kate, a ‘MOUSE’, say?
“It meant new friends, good memories and a fantastic God-filled environment. The best part was the effect the presentation had — it was worth the repetition and the embarrassing drama to see the effect on the children. When the new intake of year 7s arrived at my school, many remembered I was in their M.O.U.S.E. Team, and knowing we had helped bridge the gap was what made it worthwhile.”

What did the schools say?

• Very friendly; clear deliveries; calm; lovely with the children… the team were very professional and conducted themselves well
• Brilliant—very enthusiastic and well organised…each year this presentation gets better
• We were impressed with how confident the young leaders were in their presentations

This year 26 churches came on board to sponsor the It’s Your Move books for a total of 38 schools between them.
Could your church support its local school in 2012? If you were unable to support the full cost, perhaps a contribution could be made instead and you could still present the books to the children on behalf of your church?