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Urgent Licensee required

Pepper Events Limited, who are responsible for running all the Pepper fundraising events, are in urgent need of a Licensee to run their bars.

Applicants can either already hold a license to save registering one for Pepper Events, or someone who is prepared to take on the responsibility for holding a license on behalf of the charity.

Either way, the request is now a very urgent one if we are to continue offering licensed bar facilities for all the popular Pepper Events fundraising events throughout the year.

If you are interested, please contact Karen Buchanan, Pepper Administrator, The Pepper Foundation, PO Box 334, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, HP4 1UC, or telephone 01442 874120, email karenbuchanan@btinternet.com. 

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Sporting celebrities descend on Berkhamsted

Celeb Sport? – A new joint fundraising initiative between The Pepper Foundation and The Hospice of St Francis – proved to be a huge success recently attracting a capacity audience. Styled in the format of the BBC’s popular TV programme A Question of Sport, Phil Tufnell, ex-Middlesex and England cricketer and winner of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here and Luther Blissett, ex-Watford and England footballer, were the team captains.

Pre show comedian Johnny Laff provided entertainment before both quiz teams were introduced to the audience. The ‘Pepper Shakers’ team featured Middlesex and ex-England cricketer David Nash, retired Premier League football referee Graham Poll, England International and Wasps rugby player James Haskell and Captain Luther Blissett.

The ‘St Francis Puffers’ team featured Watford player/coach Malky Mackay, BBC Radio London rugby reporter & commentator Sara Orchard and ex-Arsenal and England footballer Nigel Winterburn and Captain Phil Tuffnell.

Nigel Barden, the popular BBC Radio 2 food and wine critic and Radio 5 Live rugby commentator was quizmaster, MC and auctioneer extraordinaire with his usual style, panache and enthusiasm.

Sue Rodwell and her team from Rodwells Drinks Specialists in Tring kindly ran the bar both before the event and during the interval. Sue provided medal-winning wines for the event as well as soft drinks and bottled water.

Thanks to Sting the Wasp (from Wasps RFC) and Harry the Hornet (from Watford FC) for coming along to confuse our celebrities, meet the audience and act as our wonderful mystery guests in ‘Feel the Sportsperson’.

An exciting auction of sporting memorabilia, which included some fantastic items raised a magnificent £2885 with additional items in a separate silent auction adding to the total.
We were particularly delighted that the Mayor of Dacorum, Councilor Brian Ayling and his wife, Pat, were able to attend the event as our guests. The evening grossed nearly £6000, so we are looking at a donation to each charity in excess of £3000 – enough to fund nursing care for a sick child at home for 6 months.

We still have a number of fabulous autographed photos of our celebrity panel, which were taken especially for us on the night, which we would like to sell to help boost the funds raised at the event.

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Pepper @ The Gatsby II

The second ‘Pepper at The Gatsby’ evening was held on Tuesday 28 August.  66 diners enjoyed the sophisticated surroundings and enjoyed and evening of good food and music at this popular venue in the heart of Berkhamsted.

Once again Nick Pembroke his team at the Gatsby looked after everyone well and the music from Adrian, Archie and Mike – aka ‘Toad’ - was much appreciated by all.

Over £1200 was raised for Pepper thanks to the contribution from The Gatsby and a successful raffle. There will be another ‘Pepper at The Gatsby’ event in January so visit the ‘Events’ section our website www.pepper.org.uk for details.

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Karen Buchanan conquers The ITEX Walk for Pepper

On Saturday 9 June 2007, Pepper Administrator Karen Buchanan with friends and family entered a most demanding charity walk around the complete coastline of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, almost 40 miles in a day, and all in aid of Pepper.

Having arrived in Guernsey on the Friday morning spending a leisurely day on the beach in glorious sunshine, it was early to bed that night, as they had to be up at 3.30am in order to be at St. Peter Port to register to start by 4.30am.  Their 5.10am departure took place in extremely foggy conditions, which wasn’t a very encouraging start.

According to Karen, the southeast and south of the island were extremely uncivilised in terms of walking!  To say there were steep cliff climbs is putting it mildly.  The fog got denser and heavier and the inclines got steeper.  There was just a never ending route of stone steps cut into the cliff paths - it was endless and it was very, very difficult to keep motivated because of the sheer hard work involved in putting one foot in front of the other as some of the steps were a good foot or more high.
  
It took them 6 hours to cover the 16 miles section of the cliff paths and at one point they were a good 250 feet above sea level. Karen knew it was high when the seagulls were circling on thermals beneath us!

Karen commented it was a shame the walkers were not able to appreciate the stunning scenery along the cliffs because of the fog, but from a walking point of view it was good that it wasn't so sunny as they were sweating buckets in the fog and drizzle! 

The west and north of the island apparently was a doddle after the cliff walks and the beaches and the scenery which were really beautiful.

They had about 7 checkpoints that they had to reach at designated times, which they managed and made time up on the flat which was very encouraging and some 14.5 hours after they started, they arrived back in St Peter Port at 7.45 pm.  

Its not surprising they ached everywhere, bones, joints, muscles, not to mention sunburned noses, arms and ankles, but more importantly, having survived the journey on bananas, orange juice, water, crisps, energy bars, good humour, a bit of yelling and sheer bloody mindedness, they managed to raise an impressive £1146.54 for Pepper.

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Soroptomist International Club raise funds for Pepper

Soroptomist International Club raise funds for Pepper

Soroptimist International, who work to promote social justice and equity and the empowerment of women through economic independence and greater participation in decision making at all levels, held two events this year where they raised funds for Pepper.

Soroptomists are committed to providing humanitarian services to local, national and International communities. As part of their fundraising commitment, they generously supported Pepper by promoting us at the Cherry Fayre in Flackwell Heath in July 2007 and during their Club summer lunch at Audry Symes’s house. Audrey kindly supplied the lunch and all the Club members reimbursed her the cost, from which she donated the amount of £160 to Pepper.

Diane Steele, President of the Soroptomists, held an ‘un-birthday’ dinner in June where she spent the whole day cooking a meal for her guests, the result of which was a donation to Pepper of a further £500 which is a great effort, thank you.

The Soroptomists now plan to hold a quiz night on October 20th in Flackwell Heath in the Community Centre at 7.30 pm and have invited Friends of Pepper to take a table. Cost per person is £12.50, which includes a fish & chips supper and a dessert.

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Zoe Conradi enters her first charity run for Pepper

A team of 10 runners ran the British 10k Marathon in London recently consisting of nine who ran for IRHH and the tenth, Zoe Conradi who ran for The Pepper Foundation.

According to Zoe, her run went extremely well as she managed to finish the course in 1 hour 16 minutes, which was just over the target she had set herself which in any event was a personal achievement having had no idea how long it would have taken due to it being her first race.
  
She has already approached her work to see if they will contribute towards the money she raised which could increase her £845 by a further £500!   

The British 10k is the first charity run Zoe had entered and her first fundraising event for Pepper. She had a fantastic day and felt the most enormous sense of achievement when she crossed the finishing line, not only for completing the race, but also to think that the money she had raised will go to such a worthwhile charity.

She couldn't have done it without the support of her friends, family and colleagues, and for that she thanks them all as we likewise extend our thanks to her for putting in so much time and effort into raising an impressive amount for Pepper.

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Tring Corinthians Celebrity Football Day Out for Pepper

Ross Parrett of Tring Corinthians recently organised a family day out at Tring Athletic Football stadium featuring a celebrity game between the Corinthians and a Luther Blissett Celebrity team. Apart from Luther, many other league and international football stars played, including Paul Jones who played in goal for Wales for many years.

There were also ‘Beat the goalie’ and ‘Hit the crossbar’ competitions, as well as junior competitions – and even the sun shone!

The Pepper team consisting of Moira and Roy Massingale, Julie Parrish, Mary Kennedy and Jonathan Tweed, ran the Tombola and sold Pepper Piglets, show merchandise, and Roy’s special drink competition. Together more than £200 was raised and the word was spread further about the charity, in spite of Julie being stung by a wasp as we set up the stalls!

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Chelsea FC supporting Pepper this Season

In previous copies of Pepper News, we reported how we are working more closely with families of the children who are supported by the Pepper nurses, so they can be aware of future plans and events and encourage their family and friends to get involved.

It was as a direct consequence of this that the Shed@thePark team appeared in the marquee on the middle Sunday of this year’s Summer Show.

Another outcome was a lead to Chelsea FC, that they may support us for one of their match day charity raffles. We wrote to Chelsea and were delighted to have received confirmation that they will support us this season with one of the raffles.

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Amersham Townswomen’s Guild

Pepper is the chosen charity for Amersham Townswomen’s Guild for their current year.  One of the events organised by the Guild was a “Strawberries and Cream” garden party held on the 21 July 2007. 

The garden looked beautiful and was admired by a number of guests as they sheltered from a heavy downpour in the gazebo.  However, Lady Galahad immediately came to the rescue with a selection of umbrellas enabling everyone to return to the house and sample the wonderful selection of cakes and goodies on offer.  It was a spread to be proud of.

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Pepper Christmas Cards

This year Pepper has a special and exclusive Christmas card in addition to its normal range - an original scene of Berkhamsted, painted for us by local artist George Sear. 

The card is selling at £4.75 for a pack of ten cards, available from the Pepper Foundation

A more comprehensive range of cards plus an order form will be shown on the website next month as well as a special order leaflet that will be sent out to all the Friends and Associates of Pepper.

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Coffee, Cakes and Quilts Shines in the Rain

In spite of the very wet weather on Friday 20th July, a very successful ‘Coffee, Cakes and Quilts’ morning took place at Tring Red Cross’ Hall, which raised £230 for Pepper in only 2 hours!

Maggie Tweed and her students had a lovely range of wall hangings, quilts and throws on display which were greatly admired by all the visitors. The homemade cakes and raffle added to the success of the event.

Thanks to all who supported the show and to all those whose hard work made it such a successful event. Watch this space for next year’s event!  Anyone interested in joining a class should contact Maggie Tweed – maggietweed@yahoo.co.uk.

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Pepper receives a brilliant surprise from Canada

Pepper Administration Manager, Karen Buchanan, recently received a call from Robin Harris in Ontario, Canada on behalf of his mother. Apparently some relatives – and aunt and uncle - who gave respite accommodation to children of airmen based on an American airbase near their home in the fifties and sixties, had left his mother their house on the understanding that a donation of $20000 Canadian would be made to a children’s charity as close as possible to the Iver area. They always enjoyed trying to help children having been childless themselves.

When Robin and his wife were recently on holiday in the UK, they trawled the internet, found Pepper and phoned Karen. Information was subsequently sent to Canada and following several exchanges of information, a £10,000 donation was made.

The Pepper Foundation and the children we support send an enormous thank you to the Harris family in Canada for their enormous donation.

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Eastwoods Golf Day

Wednesday 8 August 2007 saw the 10th Anniversary of the Eastwoods Pepper Golf Day take place at Ashridge Golf Club where 23 teams (92 players) set out for a shot gun start after bacon butties & coffee and complimentary massages from Christina from
Avida Massage.

The players couldn’t have wished more for such fantastic weather conditions, the course was in tremendous condition and a good day of golf was enjoyed by everyone.
Stratsones of Tring sponsored a Hole In One Competition for a BMW car but sadly the cries of ‘We were only a whisper away from the hole’ meant that no one actually won the car.

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Cienté Hair Salon to raffle the world’s most expensive shampoo and Conditioner for Pepper.

Cienté, the award winning hair salon in Berkhamsted, is raffling a limited edition gift set that includes a shampoo and conditioner with a retail price of £245.00 for the Pepper Foundation.

Cienté salon manager Trisha Buller says “Good health is something we take for granted and sadly, some children are not so fortunate and can suffer from traumatic life-limiting and in some cases, terminal illness’s. Pepper relies on the generosity of people like you to make a difference”.

The Prize, a gift set which includes a shampoo and conditioner and a bottle of VOSS Artesian Water, is just one of 75 sets coming into the UK. Cienté have secured one of those sets.

The limited edition shampoo and conditioner called TEN VOSS, has been made by the luxury Beverly Hills-based hair-care brand Alterna, using VOSS Artesian water from Norway and ten of the world’s conditioning ingredients such as extracts of Italian white truffle oil, caviar and Arabian Frankincense.

Alterna, whose A list celebrity fans include Victoria Beckham, Reese Witherspoon and Jessica Alba, are making a donation of $25,000 from the worldwide sales of this limited edition gift set to WaterAid.

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That Pepper Effect Is 'The Best Pepper Show Yet'

That Pepper Effect opened on Saturday 14 July for seven performances at Berkhamsted Collegiate School’s Centenary Theatre and was declared to be ‘The best Pepper Show yet’ by regular show attendees on its opening night.

The second show to be written and directed by Paul Eccentric took up the story of the winner of last year’s Pepper Factor as he struggled to come to terms with the realities of his newfound fame and fortune. Surrounded by people who all wanted a slice of his success and who stopped at nothing to get it, Jack (now restyled JJ Flash), realised there was no way out of the new life he had chosen – or was there?

Great music is, as always at the heart of the two hour show and audiences enjoyed performances which ranged from
Jumping Jack Flash through Sex ‘n’ Drugs ‘n’ Rock & Roll,
Just A Gigolo and The Long & Winding Road to Shine and
I Put A Spell On You.

A cast of musicians and actors backed by a rock ensemble and Big Band Jazz 3000 performed the music and children from Pepper Youth made a strong contribution to the show.

That Pepper Effect is Berkhamsted’s biggest and best live musical extravaganza featuring music performed by local performers, rock musicians, Big Band Jazz 3000 and children from Pepper Youth. State-of-the-art lighting, sparkling sound and an amazing stage set combine to provide a musical night out to remember.

Comments from people who attended the show included –

‘I thought the show was highly creative and superbly produced to appeal to a wide age range because of the selection of songs’

‘Highlights were the blending of rock and big band with the revolving stage to enable quick changes. There was pace, polish and variety which provided a great showcase
for a lot of individual talent’

‘I thought this year’s show reached an amazingly high standard. The singing was superb, music excellent, lighting and stage design spectacular and sound perfect’

‘Pepper Youth excelled themselves again'

The annual Pepper Show is organised entirely by volunteers to raise funds for the Pepper Children’s Nursing Team that cares for local children with terminal and life-limiting illnesses. The amount of money raised has now been announced as in excess of £30,000.

In the meantime, next year’s performance will celebrate our 20th anniversary of the summer show, therefore you can expect an extravaganza of impressive proportions to reflect on the journey made by hundreds of volunteers over those twenty years who made the show the success it is today. The amount of money raised over that period far exceeds £1m, which represents a huge effort by so many.

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St George would have been proud!

Our inaugural St. George's Day Pepper Ball held at Pendley Manor in Tring, Hertfordshire, was a huge success. In fact we were lucky to be joined by St. George himself in the guise of a full size mannequin, complete with sword and armour and he even brought along his dragon - but we won't go into that!

As people gathered in the bar area for pre drinks, The Second Impulse Sax Quartet entertained everyone as they arrived and set the mood for an enjoyable evening.

Dinner was grand affair as everyone dressed up in his or her evening finery sat down to an excellent three-course banquet and when coffee was served a very professional cabaret performed by the pupils of the Arts Education School took to the stage.

Pepper is always in the front line when it comes to recognising young talent as has been proved over the years through the Pepper Youth summer show auditions, so it was good to see girls under 18 with such musical talent.

The auction that followed created quite a lot of interest as guests bid high and generously for a wide range of items brilliantly orchestrated by Amersham Auctioneer, Simon Knowles.

During the evening there was an opportunity to win a prize on the tombola table and to round off the evening everyone took to the floor to dance to Mr. Kites Benefit Band, who as always were absolutely excellent.

All in all a good time was had by all but Pepper could not have done it without the help and generosity of so many volunteers who were too many to mention all by name but we would like to make an exception, namely Ken Lennon our MC for the evening and Maureen Lennon who organised the event with Linda Horsfall.

Until all the receipts come in from the auction and various quarters, we do not have a final figure to present, but suffice to say we hope to have made in excess of £8,500!

Congratulations everyone involved, a great team effort.

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Pepper at the Gatsby

One of the most challenging aspects of fundraising is the constant need to come up with a new idea that people will enjoy whilst raising funds for the charity. We experienced a huge success with the Pepper St George's Day Ball which in itself was a lavish money raising evening, but what is there for a normal weekday evening.

Well, Nick Potts and his colleagues from the Berkhamsted and Bulbourne Rotary Clubs had the answer by organising a special evening recently at the Gatsby Bar and Restaurant, situated beneath the Rex Cinema in Berkhamsted High Street.

Nick Pembroke of the Gatsby, staged a delightful evening, which attracted a capacity number of covers, who clearly appreciated the quality of their food, which despite numbers, was exceptionally good.

As the conversations and laughter filled the room, so did the background music from musicians Toad, who delighted the appreciative audience with their variety of numbers befitting a piano bar ambience.

Each guest was encouraged to write their name on a £10 note, which was then placed in a draw resulting in three lucky winners each receiving prizes, but the moral of the exercise was to raise even more funds for the evening over and above the £10 per head per cover donated by The Gatsby.

We do not have final figures yet for the amount raised, but suffice to say it could be in the region of £2000 for Pepper.

Congratulations to The Gatsby and to Nick Potts for organising such a fun and successful evening which clearly demonstrates that we can put the 'fun' into fundraising on most occasions.

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Eastwoods Celebrity Cookery Demonstration

Cookery celebrities and aficionados descended on Berkhamsted en mass for a feast of the senses on Saturday 21 April at the Collegiate School as guests of Eastwoods Joe Collier who needs no encouragement to support Pepper as it comes naturally.

Jimmy Doherty, from the popular BBC2 TV series Jimmy's Farm, joined Joe and his colleagues David and Lee from Eastwoods Butchers in Gravel Path, Berkhamsted, for an evening of carving, cooking and conversation.

Paul Kelly, of Kelly Bronze Turkey fame, accompanied Jimmy, together with professional chefs Lisa Patton and Douglas Brunen, Berkhamsted cake maker extraordinaire Caroline Youngs and award winning sausage maker Keith Mulford, who was assisted by Chris Legg.

Nigel Barden, the BBC Radio 2 food and wine critic, hosted the evening along with David Lidgate of the highly acclaimed Lidgate Butchers of London. Nigel and David did a fantastic job in keeping the evening buoyed up with lively conversation and humour as they talked to the chefs and experts throughout the evening.

Rodwell's of Tring held an informative wine tasting to accompany the pork dishes cooked in front of the audience to tantalize their taste buds and an auction - with Nigel showing considerable skill as auctioneer - raised over £1500.

Thank you Joe for your tireless support.

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Bonkers Brash strikes again!

Stalwart Pepper supporter and mad keen cyclist, Richard (Bonkers) Brash and his team mates Richard Meeson, Dave Roberts and Mike Farrie, took up the challenge to cycle from the north coast of Wales to the south coast of Wales, across the mountains, in 4 days.

Incredibly Richard and his mates completed this marathon cycle journey in April 2007 and so far have received pledges for over £1000 worth of sponsorship and all for Pepper!

We don't think you are mad Richard - just Bonkers! Well done.

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Epson (UK), Hemel Hempstead support Pepper

Franki Knowles from Epson in Hemel Hempstead approached Pepper in April 2007 to ask for information about the charity as we were being considered as a contender for their charity of the year 2007.

Information was sent immediately explaining the work of the charity and we are delighted to let you know that Lesley Fyson contacted Pepper again in May to announce that Epson had chosen Pepper as their 2007 Charity of the Year.

Members of staff have already held a staff sale to fundraise on our behalf and Epson have kindly agreed to match all funds raised by staff. To date, after only a few weeks fundraising, £2588 has been donated to Pepper.

The Trustees and the nurses and more importantly the children, thank Epson for their generosity and decision to choose us as their Charity of the year.

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Ian Wing wings it!

Pepper supporter Ian Wing decided to leap out of a plane and participate in a parachute jump to celebrate his 40th birthday recently. Ian, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, had been to the Pepper summer show in the past and wanted to do something to support the work of the charity.

Ian also has a lively 5 year old daughter who has already said she'd like to be part of Pepper Youth in future shows!

Ian, who wasn't a bit nervous about his tandem leap in the sky, found the experience thoroughly exhilarating - so much so that he is now considering doing a solo freefall jump in future.

Ian raised an impressive £1555 in sponsorship, all of which he donated to Pepper.

An extremely impressive performance Ian - Thank you from the Pepper Team.

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Keeping it in the family

Jonathan Tweed's daughter in law Eli (right), together with her sister Amelia, recently ran the Reading half Marathon in aid of Pepper. To date, they have managed to raise £250 confirmed with the possibility of more to come once she returns from a trip to New Zealand and which is an excellent achievement.

She told Jonathan she found it quite a tough run and finished in 2:00:03 compared with her sister Amelia, who recorded a staggering 1:45:48 - her best time ever!

Congratulations to both of them for making the effort on behalf of all the Pepper sick children.

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MG Owners Club nominate Pepper

The Wycombe Area MG Owners Club has nominated Pepper as their charity for this year. Pepper Trustee, Val Bevan and her husband Dave, recently attended a Club evening during which time they made a Pepper presentation to the Club members. 

They received a very warm welcome, some good questions and a great deal of interest which resulted in Club making the decision to support the work we do for sick children with life limiting illness, in their area.

We look forward to working with the Club.

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Raffle Drawn for Pepper

The high spot of a very successful 20th Anniversary Exhibition for Berkhamsted Quilters came on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd April when Jonathan Tweed, Chairman of The Pepper Foundation, arrived to draw the winning ticket for the Quilt Raffle, Tantalising Triangles, which had been made by members of the group over a period of about 9 months.

The winner, Sandra Smith from Maple Cross, bought her ticket when the quilt was displayed at the Pepper Shop in Amersham. The raffle raised a wonderful £1759 and a further £406 was raised from other activities over the weekend, totalling £2165!

A big thank you to all who bought tickets and congratulations to the lucky winner.

Additionally, Jonathan awarded the winning prize in the quilting group's African Challenge competition. The picture shows the winner Hannelore Kettle receiving her award.

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Sky Sports journalist supports Pepper

Miles Harrison, who has been with Sky Sports since 1994 and also previews live Guinness Premiership, Heineken Cup and international rugby on skysports.com, was recently named the Guinness/London Irish, Rugby Union Journalist of the Season.

The award was established four years ago to recognise the journalist or broadcaster that has contributed most during the season to the understanding, promotion and enjoyment of rugby union. 

It is the only such award to be presented annually.

Harrison was commended by the judges for his great contribution to the game, not only in his commentaries but also through his writing, receiving special praise for the thoroughness of his research.

Harrison also picked up a signed London Irish shirt, which he donated to his favourite charity, the Pepper Foundation.

"I intend to auction the signed shirt for a local charity that I have supported for a number of years now," he said.

"They do wonderful work and the generosity of London Irish will be much appreciated by all those involved with the charity."

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Waitrose support Pepper during their Charity Week

Waitrose supermarket in Berkhamsted chose Pepper as the recipients of funds raised during their annual charity week, held in February 2007. The partners of the Berkhamsted store voted to support local charities that offer help to children and young people and Pepper, along with another Berkhamsted charitable organisation, were the nominated recipients.

Among the activities that took place were a staff Chinese lunch, a football match between Dry Goods and Fresh Foods - with Fresh Foods winning the day! Bets were placed on who would score the first goal and the winning scorer was Matt Gibson.

Checkouts held a quiz night and there was an auction for departmental managers to be nominated to change jobs for a day!

A total of £285.35 was raised and the donation cheque was presented to Pepper Trustee Linda Horsfall and Administrator Karen Buchanan in April.

Our grateful thanks to all those partners at Waitrose who took part.

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Spread The News

One of the biggest issues Pepper faces in terms of fundraising is to try and raise awareness of the Charity and the work it does in supporting sick children and funding the Pepper Nursing service beyond the local Berkhamsted, Tring, Hemel Hempstead, Chesham and Amersham area.

We get great support from these areas and the majority of our fundraising is focussed here, but many of the children we support are in High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Marlow etc, and very few people in those towns know about us. I am sure if they did, they would be pleased to provide support.

To spread the Pepper word more broadly, we have launched a number of initiatives in the hope of engaging the families and friends of children the nurses have cared for or are caring for, in activities that they feel comfortable with to support the Charity. We have also broadened the area of last year's highly successful Pepperthon initiative encouraging children to help children by mailing every school throughout Herts and Bucks instead of limiting support to the confines of Dacorum.

We are initiating contact with companies in the High Wycombe area as a pilot to raise awareness and look for ways the companies can help, from major sponsorship (of a nurse for example) to supporting literature production. As a minimum we are looking to leave new Pepper collecting boxes to encourage every day support.

We are also contacting the newspapers throughout the region to explain our dilemma that the essential and highly valued delivery of care for sick children in their town is going unnoticed and unsupported in many areas. We hope to produce editorial support as a consequence. We are contacting all organisations throughout the region who have an ethos supporting children's charities with money or activities, such as Golf Clubs, Round Tables, Lions, Chambers of Commerce, Townswomen's Guilds etc. We have already had some success, but our resources limit our activity.

This is where you come in!!

Please support these initiatives in any way you can, through your work, sports club, gym, choir, model makers, friends. A few words about the charity may spark some ideas in new areas, and these ideas will become a hotspot for new fundraising. The early feedback from the initiatives is good - now we need action!

Jonathan Tweed
Chairman, The Pepper Foundation

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Celebrities Endorse Pepperthon 2007 for Schools!

Luther Blissett and Antony Worrall Thompson have agreed to support the Pepper Foundation's schools fundraising event - Pepperthon 2007! The former Watford and England footballer that now manages Chesham United, and the Celebrity Chef, are keen to make this fundraising initiative a resounding success.

Following a successful launch in 2006, backed by the incumbent Mayor of Dacorum, Councilor Jane Hogg and targeting schools in the Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted area, over £5000 was raised. More than 400 schools in Herts and Bucks are now being invited to participate in next years exciting challenge.

This expansion means that more schoolchildren will be able to raise money to fund the Pepper Nurses, who care for children within the community suffering from life limiting illness on a 24-hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year basis, The Pepper nursing service is currently caring for more than 30 children within the Hemel Hempstead to High Wycombe, Aylesbury and Marlow catchment areas.

To coincide with National Children's Hospice Week, held in September 2006, Luther and Antony endorsed a letter sent to all schools encouraging them to participate by enabling children to help children who are less fortunate than themselves.

To join the fun, each child raises sponsorship from friends and family to achieve a specific activity target. This can be skipping or swimming, hopping or running and this year it could even be making a specific number of healthy snacks and selling them to their friends!

So not only are the children raising money for a great local cause, but they are also getting exercise and encouraging healthy eating which is why Luther Blissett and Antony Worrall Thompson are keen to support the Pepperthon 07 challenge.

Full details will be sent to participating schools in early 2007 so they can enter and take part in March 2007. Every child will receive a certificate signed by Luther and Antony, and the fundraiser achieving the most challenging target in each school will receive two tickets to the matinee of the famous Pepper annual summer show in Berkhamsted - and who knows who else may be there?

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Pepper's Summer of Rock Success!

The 17th annual Pepper Summer rock concert held at the Berkhamsted Collegiate School, got underway in July this year in ideal summer holiday weather. The sun shone brightly throughout the two weeks - a perfect start for the hundreds of people who attended our ever-popular annual fundraising event.

There were several new faces this year as well as many familiar faces who entertained an enthusiastic captive audience with the story of Pepper and her family whose bus journey to a talent show was frequently interrupted by unscheduled, but highly entertaining stops along the way.

The show had the audiences standing and dancing in the aisles singing to well-loved songs appreciated by all generations.

It is always good to see young singers and dancers from Pepper youth taking part in the show who, as well as concentrating on their schoolwork, spend many committed hours after school to rehearse. We are sure that all those who attended the show will agree there is plenty of talent there for the future.

The technical crew produced lighting and sound effects to rival the professionals in the West End; each year we say the set is the best ever, but this year's was truly amazing - a red double Decker bus right there on stage with real bus tyres and sound effects!

The marquee outside the theatre staged some terrific live music performed by local bands that provided entertainment for both pre and post show performances. The stalls, silent auction, Tombola and last but not least, the excellent bar and catering service, all made a significant contribution to the overall fundraising objectives. The latest figure stands at an amazing 51,000 raised for the charity, which is a fantastic achievement.

We estimated that 10,000 volunteer work hours went into planning, preparation and production of the whole event this year, but all the effort was clearly worthwhile. Let us hope that 2006 will continue the tradition.

Pepper Needs You!
If you would like to be involved with next year's show and have not already submitted a volunteer form, please click here to download a Pepper Response Form(pdf).

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