Out & About: Royston Parish Church Fundraising: Collaboration With Local Artist
It goes without saying that this has been a strange and unsettling few months for everybody. During all of this, work has continued with respect to the rebuilding and restoration of Royston Parish Church.
It is wonderful that “casual”, generous donations have now reached approximately £50,000. The PCC have been preparing various projects and applications, in order to ensure that significant money is available, in addition to that covered by insurance, in order that the building itself can be suitable as a multi-purpose facility in today’s world, and a central part of the Royston community.
Fundraising Merchandise:
We have recently been delighted to be working with local artist, Nicky Paton, who grew up in the town and, as well as his work as an artist, is currently manager of Royston Cave. Nicky has worked hard and given generously of his time, to come up with modern new designs, featuring images of the church, which we have been able to use on new and exclusive promotional items such as reusable canvas tote bags, bone china mugs, tea towels and notelets, in order to raise funds for the church. These are available now – and, following a successful fundraising stall on Royston Market in October, we will have another stall on December 5th. We feel extremely fortunate to have been able to put Nicky’s skill and creativity to such good use in our fundraising.
Further to this, we are excited to announce that “Thoroughly Modern Beeton”, a new book of recipes, is on sale now, priced at £10, in aid of the church refurbishment fund. The book contains more than 100 recipes, for a wide variety of dishes, provided by the people of Royston, and containing special contributions from Paul Hollywood, Carrie Grant, Sir Oliver Heald and The Bishop of St Alban’s.
We are also selling Christmas cards, featuring a wonderful Wintry image of the Parish Church, painted by Church Warden, Clare Davies.
Chairs:
Finally, many people may already be aware that the “Howe” chair has been chosen for us to use when the church reopens. This is a tremendously popular, comfortable, lightweight but strong chair, and is to be found in numerous church buildings throughout the world, including Canterbury, Salisbury and St Paul’s Cathedrals. When these are purchased, it is expected that 10% will have arms. It is of great benefit that these chairs can be stacked efficiently, when necessary, allowing the adaptable and flexible use of the church space. There is the opportunity for people to sponsor one or more of these chairs, at a cost of £250 per chair. Each chair sponsored can have a plaque in memory of a loved one, or to denote an individual or community group who have sponsored the purchase of the chair. We are confident that these chairs will be an exciting, aesthetically attractive and practical feature of our church building.
To express your interest in sponsoring a chair, please email Ruth_Savage@hotmail.co.uk
Visit us at Royston Market on Saturday 5th December
www.roystonparishchurch.org.uk
