Beechy and Jules: charity events at the Elms, Retford: 2013 Beechy's Beach Party

16 February 2013

In aid of St Giles School

Amount raised: £1356

Running total to date: £27483

This was another of our smaller 'in between' fund raisers - and a chance to dress up in some skimpy beachwear on a cold February evening (makes a change from 70s gear though...)

All monies raised are for St Giles School and will be used to buy more seating for their sensory room.

Pupils from St Giles school painted some beach and sea themed pictures for us which we put up on the walls. The most severely disabled students were helped to put their finger and thumb prints on a tree on a large beach scene picture which raised £25 at auction.

Beechy and Jules did their usual brilliant room transformation with the aid of two young helpers Molly and Lola.

Aunt Margaret (our mum's sister) usually comes to lend a hand while we are setting up but she wasn't available so Beechy ended up as the balloon holder this time - I think that he would rather have been watching football!

The entrance was transformed into a beach scene complete with old fashioned deckchairs, part eaten picnic, beach toys, towels and a drying bikini (size 12 and Julie's if anyone is interested!)

There was even a grumpy old man sitting in his deck chair with bottle top glasses and a knotted hanky on his head complaining about people standing in his sun!

A wooden 'to the beach' sign with a seagull sitting on it pointed the way into the room to tables topped with buckets, spades, sand, flags and windmills.

More seagulls flew overhead surrounded by bunting and there was an end of pier picture stand with bathing belles to stick your head through for a photo opportunity.

Some of the seagulls had deflated and needed a quick blow up before the evening!

How many of you tried to sneak a peek at the open book on the deckchair - '50 Shades of Grey' - which was actually a copy of the Thomson's local directory (Bury edition!) with a cover - I'm sure that there were several disappointed people out there!...

Food was fish and chips in a carton (newspaper not allowed any more - elf n safety..) with mushy peas and an ice cream to follow - well it had to be didn't it, proper seaside food...

The winner of the 'best dressed' award donated his prize of a basket of fruit for auction and this raised a further £15. Thanks Russ - and nice drinks tray by the way!

There were some fabulous costumes and we had great seaside beach themed music from Beechy so a good time was once again had by all. I see that our Disco Queens have changed their sashes for lei garlands for this event! (..and we've actually caught them sitting down..)

Here are more of our beach babes...

Pauline and her posse were there to keep an eye on proceedings!...

And here are some more of the pictures painted by the pupils at St Giles School...

We had to give in to inflation and rising costs and put our ticket prices up this year as we weren't raising as much for charity as we had been previously. I am sure that this will not deter people from attending our events and I hope that you will agree that the evenings still offer great value for money.

So our smaller 'in-between' events which are usually in February will now cost £15 (as this one has!), our main event in the summer will be £20 unless it is a ball - as it is this year 2013, which will cost £40. Our major outgoings are for the bands and the food and these costs have been rising steadily over the last few years.

Where possible we buy or make things ourselves (Julie and I are known as 'Bodgit and Co'!) to keep costs to a minimum - and it helps to have a host of family and friends with varied and useful talents!... If we can get into catering and form a band we've cracked it!!..

Robin helped us out this year by making the 'to the beach' sign. He even weathered it outside to make it look more authentic (another one with attention to detail!) before nailing it to mum's old wooden washing line prop! The things we do... He also made the pier end bathing belles photo booth to give us a bit more seaside feel. Thanks bruv - you're a star!

Reference was made to Martin both on the ticket and on a photo near the seaside picture booth. He was a friend of our family (part of Roy and Anne's family who were great friends with our mum and dad) who had sadly died in 2012 - and he had been a pupil at St Giles some years previously. A lovely, happy character!

You may have noticed the four ladies sitting on the beach in their cossies which were part of the design printed at the top of your ticket. This is a large print which was a christmas present to me from Beechy and Jules and had been pointed out in a shop by Ian saying to Julie "Oh look - it's the Roberts' girls!" (don't know what he was implying!!) I am the one on the far right with my name tattooed on my bum! I'll leave you to work the other three out. The small dog on the left looking longingly at the ice cream is our bruv Robin who has his name on the small bandana round his neck.
All together now - quaver

oh, I do like to be beside the seaside...

How many people does it take to put up a deckchair?.....

...More than you think - and it was just a normal chair! I think Christine's expression says it all!

We put together some of the brightest pictures in a photobook to give to the school so that the pupils can see how we raised the money and we had the book printed in the largest size available so that the visually impaired students would be able to see it more easily.