Enthusiastic bidding for a pair of Wimbledon centre court tickets made a valuable contribution to the Charitable Trust fund-raising efforts at the Harvest Lunch.
Generously donated by former chief executive of The Farmers Club, Grieve Carson, the winning bidder can look forward to a tour of Wimbledon and prime seats opposite the centre court Royal Box ready to enjoy some memorable tennis in the 2012 championships.
The successful bid, together with raffle ticket sales both before and during the lunch, contributed to a welcome £1800 addition to the Charitable Trust’s capital fund, from which interest is drawn to help Guild members who find themselves in need of help.
“With interest rates as they are, it’s important that we keep working to increase the capital fund so that we can continue to offer assistance to Guild members in difficulty,” says Trust treasurer Diane Montague. “Trustees also provide practical help and support as appropriate but it’s important that we also have resources to help financially whenever we can.”
A number of Guild members were successful in securing one of the many prizes kindly donated by supporters, including freelance Karen Wright, who won a bottle of Irish gin donated by former Guild president Drew Sloan, whose bottle of ‘very good malt whisky’ was secured by current chairman, Adrian Bell.
Julian Gairdner (left), digital director at Farmers Weekly Group, will doubtless enjoy the theatre ticket vouchers donated by John Deere, while Andy Newbold of Fusion Events and Peter Reynolds of Shepherd Publishing can look forward to spending the John Lewis/Waitrose vouchers given by Monsanto.
Mike Bunney, who specialises in rural sector and wildlife conservation communications will hopefully put the croquet set donated by New Holland to good use next summer, while one of the Guild’s new Friends, Roger Trewhella (right below) of Adela Booth Associates will be able to enjoy his prize a bit sooner – a generous Christmas turkey voucher from Claas UK.
Guests Helen and David Drew will spend a weekend for two at The Farmers Club, courtesy of the chief executive, Stephen Skinner, and Russell Hayes secured Guild president Lord Cameron’s prize of a Palace of Westminster tour.
Oisin Murnion, president of the National Beef Association, Northern Ireland, took home the case of wine that British Dairying publisher Malcolm Bridges donated, while AGCO’s year-long membership of the National Trust was won by another guest, Bill Clarke.
