Summer newsletter, July 2021

23rd July 2021

Thank you to everyone who was able to help in any way with the coffee morning, which went very well indeed. I admit to being nervous beforehand because of having to ensure that we kept social distancing but in fact it was not a problem and people who came were so pleased to be ‘doing something normal’, as many of them said. For some it was the first time they had ventured indoors to share refreshments with other people. The proceeds from the stalls were, of course, a bit less than usual, at £456 (plus a few extra sales afterwards) but we also received lots of donations, amounting to another £1,435! So yet again, we were blessed with a really successful and enjoyable event.

Grants
There have been slightly fewer grant requests in recent weeks but several have been for slightly more than our usual maximum of £200. The fuel grant ended at the end of June so we have increased our maximum grant now to £250. The grant we received last August for £2,500 from the Poundbury Community Trust to help grant applicants who live in Poundbury has been spent and next week Margaret is pleased to be collecting a similar grant again. Many people being newly housed into social housing are in Poundbury and it shows what a well-integrated community is developing there.

We have just bought a further £2,000-worth of Coop £10 gift cards and we are distributing those to the helping agencies who need them. We hope to repeat this in September when the school holidays end.

Events coming up
Once again we are able to hold a cream tea in the Old Vicarage garden in Puddletown, or in the village hall if wet (but we hope it will be good weather). This is on Sunday September 5th from 2.30 to 4.30 pm. All are welcome! There will even be the option of buying a glass of Prosecco!

On the morning of Saturday September 18th we have booked a stall at a Small Charities Fair being arranged by a local Councillor and Casterbridge Rotary Club. We had to choose what to have on our stall and opted for a slightly unusual mixture of cakes and jig-saws. 

The annual Open Meeting is going to be on Monday October 11th at 6.30 for 7pm in the coffee lounge at the Dorford Centre, Top o’Town. The topic will be ‘Employment’ and the speaker will be from Citizens’ Advice’s new Employment Unit and will focus on the various problems they have seen during lockdown and re-opening. It should be very interesting.  Please do encourage people to attend and support Dorchester Poverty Action and all the local people that we help.

Good wishes to all and we look forward to meeting up in September. 
Margaret Barker, Wendy Hilton, Kath Joslin, Peter See and Karen Weir, Trustees