Our friend Hazel is a trustee of St Lukes – the Sheffield
Hospice. St Lukes is greatly loved and supported in Sheffield. It has provided
palliative care to thousands and thousands of people and fantastic support to
families. It is currently running an appeal to build a new in-patient
section to the hospice and to refurbish the existing structure. The appeal
target is £5.5 million and £4 million has already been raised. As part of the
push to raise the last £1.5 million, Hazel organised a ‘pie and pickles’ lunch.
She worked really hard to organise the event and to use her powers of
persuasion to get everything donated – the pies, pickles, salads, pizzas, fizz,
wine, beer, strawberries, the entertainment and, of course, the flowers!
I made arrangements in jam jars for the tables and
decorated them with pretty vintage paper. I also made two large arrangements in
jugs.
I used flowers from Cornwall and I also added in some flowers and foliage
from our garden – our hydrangeas, snapdragons and scabious were particularly
lovely. I made 12 jam jars and here they are ready to go on our kitchen table.
The lunch took place in Baslow village hall on a sunny
Saturday in early August. When I arrived at the hall with the flowers it was a
hive of activity – in the kitchen, setting out glasses and wine and getting the
raffle ready. The tables had been set with blue table cloths, cutlery, place
settings with a quiz and paperwork for making donations. The vintage paper I
used for the jam jars was mainly blue and matched the blue table cloths. The flowers helped to bring the hall to life. Here are a few examples of the
flowers in place. I have tried to capture the ‘feel’ of the room.
The idea of the tags on the jars and jugs was that lunch guests would be encouraged to write their name
on a tag if they would like to take the arrangement home…..then they would make
a donation for it.
When the guests arrived they were welcomed with a glass
of bubbly. Over 80 people attended and they were treated to good food and lots
of wine. No wonder they looked as though they were having a great time! Here
are a couple of pictures with people in them. They include a picture of my Dad
(last picture) who came along with me to the lunch. He has just moved to
Sheffield and he helped me with some of the flower preparation. I am
threatening to train him up to be a flower arranging assistant!
As well as having a fabulous time, people were also very
generous and the event raised £2,600 pounds. Fantastic! All of the
flowers were tagged and taken home. I was very pleased that they made a
contribution to the success of the event - both in terms of adding to the
ambience of the occasion and in raising extra donations. Flowers just make me
want to smile….I hope they have the same effect on you.
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