Successful Barndancing event held
November 30th, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
Last Saturday, 28th November, a Barn Dance was held in Evington village hall, Leicestershire.
More than 25 families and friends, totalling 100 people turned up to dance the do-si-do, strip the willow, the g-lord gordon and other traditional dance moves. Children as young as 4, and big children as young as 70 all joined in!
The event was organised by Philippa and Vendela (over a few cups of tea!), and their families did a great job of getting everything prepared and set up.
The evening started round 17:00, the caller and the live band performed many songs, and by 20:45 everybody was tired! tidying up did not take too long afterwards, so plenty of time for a relaxing beverage afterwards.
A ploughmans’ supper was provided to all, and there was a choice of ham, cheese, humus and vegan bread. For desert were (not enough…) scrummy brownies.
Dennis gave a brief speech to introduce the cause, thank all participants and volunteers, and with the help of Vendela drew the raffle tickets. All the prizes were kindly donated by well-wishers.
The bar did good business selling fruit shoots, hula hoops and J2O, and a stall with Nepalese jewellery and information about the Nagajuna Trust had a proud place in the main hall.
All in all a great event, which was enjoyed by young and old. Thank you to all whom attended, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!
And the best thing of all: we made £172 for the Nagajuna Trust!
If you attended the dance, and are interesting in supporting our cause, or want a link to all the photos of the evening, get in touch!
Newsletter September 2009
October 26th, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
We have the September newsletter from the school! In this edition:
- Good news: we are back in the old building….but at a cost.
- Students and a teacher from Australia visit the school.
- Fund raising update.
- Jokes, pictures and personal messages from the children.
- And much, much more!
Story published in the Leicester Mercury
July 22nd, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
7 July 2009 – Today a story of the 3 Peaks Challenge was published in the Leicester Mercury.
Thanks to Kelly for writing the story, and managing, after considerable negotiations with the Editor, to get it published!
(Note from me: This was an interesting insight in how a story is told in the first place, how it is then written up, and finally what is published, and what you need to do to get something published. You may notice that there are only a few misspellings in some of the surnames, the focus was only on the Midlands team, as this was a midlands newspaper, they missed out one of the drivers and all the additional words we had written about all the sponsors that helped us to make this challenge a success. Besides this, not a bad article really!)
We did the 3-Peaks Challenge within 24 hours!
July 22nd, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
Snowdon – Wales: On Saturday 27th July, around 5:30pm 12 extatic and tired walkers, together with their drivers, celebrated the completion of their challenge.
Both the London and the Midlands team managed to complete the 3 Peaks Challenge within the 24 hours’ target they had set themselves.
Jane and her brother were acting as the welcoming committee at Penn-y-Pass complete with a lovely cake, adorned with 3 upside down icecones, symbolising the 3 Peaks.
There were some bad blisters, leg and muscle injuries; but all 12 went up, and all 12 came down!
Sofar for this challenge, over £5,000 has been raised by the team members for the trust, which is a fantastic achievement in its own right.
A special thanks to the drivers, who did an incredible amount of miles (the Midlands team drove 1200miles), making lots of cups of tea, and had the dinner ready for the hungry walkers at Ben Nevis.
Twitter was updated on an hourly basis (signal permitting) to keep all the mums, dads, friends and family updated on the progress.
Plenty of photos were taken which tell their own story of the event.
For a personal account from each team, watch this space!
The Final countdown: T-3 days
June 23rd, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
The final preparation
three more days until we will do the three peaks challenge with 12 walkers and 4 drivers .
Tonight is the last preparation run. The next few days will be spent finalising all the details:
- printing the routes
- packing spare clothes
- preparing food for the trip
- updating this blog, the twitter and facebook account
I just need to add my mobile number to the twitter account so it can be updated “live” as we go along. Thijs will fly in from holland Thursday evening, and needs picking up. Nearly there!……..
Donations
Also sent today another reminder to people that have not yet made a donation. Fingers crossed we wil get some more money from people. it is not too late to donate, so please do so if you havent done it yet.
Cool T-shirts
Great news is that Laura managed to get T-shirts printed for al the participants! complete with logos and names. so we all will look the bees-knees! I will post a picture shortly! just need to find a willing volunteer to pose in one.
Meeting Rebecca’s uncle
Finally, today I met Rebecca’s uncle, who was in Pokhara last christmas visiting the school. The experience was still beaming off his face and it was hartwarming to see and feel how much of a positive lasting impact the trip had made on him.
Trustees are preparing for Three Peaks Challenge in June
May 26th, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
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As you know we have a huge challenge on our hands building a school. We have decided to set ourselves our own challenge: doing the Three Peaks of Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours. This will take place during the last weekend in June.
We have found 12(!) volunteers who will attempt the challenge, supported by a small crew of drivers who will hopefully also cook a good breakfast/lunch/dinner!
The London team is headed up by Rebecca, and the Midlands team by Dennis.
Of course we are asking you to support us in this challenge by donating to The Nagajuna Trust.
Two websites have been set up for this purpose and you can donate from anywhere in the world!:
London team: http://www.justgiving.com/rebecca3peaks
Midlands team: http://www.justgiving.com/DennisCM_3Peaks
If you are a UK taxpayer, by donating online, we get straightaway 23p extra for every pound you donate!
If you want a paper-based donation form, this is available as well, just send us an email.
You can keep updated by reading or signing up to the Nagajuna Trust Twitter account or reading this blog!
Updates:
Tuesday 26 May 2009: At the moment we are all in training: walking, running, swimming and cycling. Hardening our feet with surgical spirit and compiling our kit. Sponsor forms have been made and ready to emailed out. The first donations have been pledged. Watch your inbox!
Sunday 31 May 2009: today 4 members of the Midlands team did a trial walk on Snowdon. Thijs drove over all the way from Holland for the occasion. We all made it up and down in 4 hours. We took a few photos, which you can see here:
Postscript: it has now been a few days since we climbed Snowdon, and we all suffer from a few aches. I am glad I had my walking sticks with me, they seem to work. Time for a few more strengthening exercises!
Great North Run Update
May 26th, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
Margaret running the Great North Run
Last weekend, Margarate Jones successfully completed the Great North Run in support of the Nagajuna Trust, raising more than £600 in the process. Despite the wind and rain, Margaret completed the course dressed in traditional Tibetan costume. Normally, the costume is worn with a bearskin hat but, to Margaret’s relief, one wasn’t available on the day!
Margaret would like to express her thanks to everyone who generously supported her. If you wish to donate, her sponsorship site is still open – every penny is desperately needed for the new school.
April 2009 Newsletter
May 4th, 2009 by Dennis Crommentuijn-Marsh
Our April 2009 Newsletter is out now! Highlights include:
- Project update
- Headmaster’s update
- The children’s drawing, handwriting and jokes
Download the April Newsletter (PDF, 496K)