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Sing Live Foundation
We are delighted to advise that following a long and sometimes difficult journey we have recently been awarded registered charitable status – Registration Number 1135401. The path has not been an easy one and lots of work has been going on behind the scenes by all the members of the current board – we are hoping that many of you will want to become involved on a local level by acting as 'volunteers’ and help in the fund raising activities we are planning in the near and not too distant future. We have established a team of volunteers to run the Foundation, details of who they are is shown below:
I am to be seen at the front of house at most concerts and events, including some of the many varied trips that are organised. We have a very good, hard working team – please give them your full support – looking forward to seeing you in the very near future.
Having been involved with Sing Live over the past 11 years or so, Laraine, believes that she has a good knowledge of how the business runs and hopes that this in turn will help her in the organisation of the Foundation. Originally appointed as Secretary to the Foundation, she has recently taken over from Linda Metcalfe as Chair of Meetings and is looking to her co-board members as well as singers from all the regions for support in taking the aims of the Foundation forward. She says it has been a long and arduous task getting to this stage and has taken much longer than anyone anticipated but hopes everyone will get behind the ethos of helping local charities in our Sing Live areas.
Jean joined Sing Live for the first concert held in the North West in 2001. She had spent many years in amateur dramatics but always loved singing and was completely blown away by the experience and has done every home concert since as well as numerous other concerts away from her home venue and abroad. Jean has recently retired from working as a manager in the Dept. for Work & Pensions and been appointed to do voluntary work in her Local Justice area and believes that her logical thinking and sense of fair play will be of enormous benefit in her role with the Foundation. In her spare time, Jean loves spending time with her family, theatre, eating and also enjoys reading and tracing her family tree.
Linda is Co Founder of Sing Live and the driving force behind the Foundation at its inception; she is delighted to hand over her role of Chair of Meetings to Laraine Cowgill for the next phase of development of the Foundation, to concentrate on other Sing Live business. She will still be a Board Member and very actively involved in supporting and moving forward the aims and ambitions which she first established. Linda says “I am grateful to all the volunteers who are currently involved, and look forward to welcoming new volunteers and working together to make a difference”
Sue joined Sing Live Central in 2000 and has sung in many concerts since then. Her husband David and grown up children James & Jen all sing too and Sue says they have enjoyed numerous Sing Live events together, made a whole load of new friendships in the Sing Live family. Sue works part time at Warwick Hospital as a staff nurse on the Cardiology unit. She enjoys many hobbies which include cooking, baking and cake decorating and she says she has been asked for some weird and wonderful cakes over the years. She also loves to read and make all her own greetings cards. She takes her turn at church doing the flowers, oh! and is a bell ringer too – she learnt to ring the bells at St. Mary’s Church, Warwick and David & Sue met in the Belfry 35 years ago. Sue says she would like to help the Foundation grow and be able to support the smaller charities in her area, she helped raise funds locally by participating in a sponsored walk and diet (not at the same time) and wants to encourage other singers and their families to become involved. In the period between the Foundation being formed and our charitable status being granted, we have continued to raise funds for a number of charities which you may not be aware of: Marie Curie Cancer Care - Sing Live in conjunction with the Foundation raised and donated an amount of£1,000.00 Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research – Participated in The Night of 1000 Voices© concert produced by Hugh Wooldridge, the star-studded event celebrating musical theatre at the Royal Albert Hall, raised the roof and £100,000 for blood cancer charity Leukemia & Lymphoma Research. We are proud to announce that included in this sum were:-
Break Through Breast Cancer – supported this charity by Sing Live performing at their charity fund raising event at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, the private home of the Duke and Duchess of Westminster
Slimming Challenge – undertaken by a number of our singers raised a total £1057.80 we would like to take a second opportunity to thank those who took part in this event. £35.00 was donated by Lyn Prescott of Sing Live Merseyside by selling prints of John Lennon for a local cancer charity – The Sunflowers Centre. A big Thank you to Lyn. We also received donations in lieu of sending Christmas Cards from singers, thank you those who donated, every little helps. THE FUTURE We start off our new objectives by combining fund raising efforts for ‘Help For Heroes’ at the concerts of “The Armed Man” in York, Coventry and The Royal Armouries, Leeds. It is the Foundation’s intention to hold raffles at as many rehearsals as possible to help us to add to the monies raised for this significant and worthwhile charity and we hope you will support us in this. So, if anyone has anything they would like to donate as a raffle prize, i.e. bottles of wine, chocolates, a cake, a basket of fruit, anything which you feel would make a good prize, please contact me direct on laraine.cowgill@hotmail.co.uk and we will very grateful and put it to a good use. Three members of our Grants Panel will act as Development Officers and bring you all the news as and when it happens:
As well as our Development Officers, Michael, Linda and Laraine will also be doing all they can to raise the profile of The Foundation in as many ways as possible Win, Jean and Sue will be visiting a rehearsal near you soon to explain what the Foundation’s aims are, what we are trying to do and how we intend to raise funds, so please give them your time, listen to what they have to say and if you can help in any way, please let them know. Following on, raffles will be held at as many pods as possible, in an effort to raise additional funds for newly nominated charities in your area. To this end, please check out the application form on the Forum Foundation Page and make your own nomination. The Foundation’s funds unfortunately are limited and it may be that our support can only be minimal, but we believe that anything is better than nothing when it comes to supporting what you believe in. It may be that you have previously applied for funding on a project which is close to your heart but we have not been able to support it; this does not mean that you cannot apply again, so long as the charity you are supporting meets the criteria laid down in the Foundation’s constitution – Charity Guidelines & Application Form We have already provisionally arranged meeting dates for the next year, so if you have anything you would like to bring to our attention, please contact your local representative (as shown above) and we will do our best to support your ideas and suggestions.
We look forward to hearing from you. Laraine Cowgill |
Michael Beard – Chairman of the Board
Laraine Cowgill – Chair of Meetings & Secretary 
Jean Gilbert – Treasurer & Fund Raising/ Grants Panel
Linda Metcalfe – Co Founder of Sing Live & Board Member
Sue Randall – Fund Raising Panel Member
