The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers

Charity Newsletter

May 2007

Greetings from your Charity Committee.

I mentioned in my letter to you in February that I would be writing again about now to give you an update so here goes….

Firstly, 200 Club Members are requested to renew their membership now for the year commencing May 2007- April 2008.  Last year we had a small shortfall on renewals and I hope past members who dropped out will reconsider joining us again this time round. If you are not sure about your status please email me.

Currently we have some 90 Livery members subscribing to 154 tickets and would warmly welcome many more. I have recently received several new pledges from Liverymen by phone which is encouraging — please support this effort if you can.

A couple of tickets cost £100, or less than £2 per week. Parking in London costs £2 for less than one hour!!

It would greatly assist us if regular members would arrange to pay by standing order thus avoiding any future renewal uncertainty for both of us.

Please contact Bill McConnol or Robert Lampit for standing order and gift aid forms to subscribe to the 200 club. Their details are in the Livery List.

Last year the 200 Club received £7,700 in contributions of which half was returned to the members as winnings and half went into the 2nd Charitable Trust for general Charity purposes.

(note: see sidebar for winners of the latest 200 club draw!)

This coming year we want to add a special extra quarterly prize of £100 to  give to the winning member to support his/her selected Charity. So if you win and want us to send the money to support a local Registered Charity of your choice, this will be done in your name. I hope this idea will appeal to you.

Lest I forget the Charity evening at Barber Surgeons Hall on the 5th Julyth  looks like being well supported. Space is limited so do please reply to the Clerk’s calling notice promptly when you get it to avoid any disappointment.

At our first Charity committee meeting this year we were able to support the following causes

Elizabeth Finn Care - for the alleviation of extreme poverty
Hackney carriage drivers - a Disneyland trip for terminally ill children
Tower of London - City Science education project
Ralph Bates Pancreatic Cancer Trust - Research programme (proposed by a Liveryman)
RLC Association Trust - for the benefit of a severely disabled son of an RLC Officer

All worthy causes I hope you agree, and with your continued support and generosity we hope to extend GSWD assistance to more of the many Charities who appeal to us for aid. I have put the names of your committee on the GSWD website so do contact us if you need any information

I will be in touch with you again later this year and meantime thank you all for your help and interest

Best regards

Bill MacConnol