Coffee Mornings

July started with the third of our coffee mornings.  Attendance hovering around 9 or 10 people was seen as a success at this early stage and there was hope that we would be able to further spread the word at The Hook Village Show on 5 Jul.  Everyone that had attended previous coffee mornings had been full of positive feedback.  There were veterans talking of the good that it had done them just by attending the first couple of get togethers.  The dream of being able to create a "safe place" had come to fruition very early on.

In the beginning our intention for the club had been for it to be run by veterans for the veterans.  To this end there was to be no membership fee and the coffee mornings were to be run on a self funding basis.  In order for this to work we needed an initial supply of tea, coffee, sugar etc.  Still working on minimal budget we had bought a small amount of each, so we were really extremely grateful when Wayne from Sainsbury's (London Road) and Linda from Tesco (Station Road) very kindly gave us donations to help get us up and running

The Hook Village Show - 5 Jul

On 5 July we were lucky enough to have a pitch at the Hook Village Show.  A big thank you to Bryan who turned up early and got involved in the setting up, Ian, Debbie, Mark and Sandra who were able to turn out to help spread the word. Then a big thank you to all of them who made themselves available for packing up at the end of the afternoon.

It was an absolutely amazing experience where we got to speak with a whole load of wonderful people, all interested in what we are trying to achieve and very complimentary about the progress that we've already made.  Thank you to anyone and everyone that took time out to come and speak with us.

Due to the timing of the local shows and our initial club roll-out, we missed a lot of the registration dates for any of the other local village shows.  Next year we will be prepared and hope to take our travelling show to many more of the local events.

Branded Clothing

Harlequin CPS continued working on a design for the polo shirts and sweatshirts logo until around week 3 of July.  They presented us with a number of options as they worked proactively to satisfy our requirements.  The final decision was to take the upper version of the tri-service logo on the left chest and the flags on the right sleeve.  Sample garments have been ordered and received and an order for polo shirts and sweatshirts has been placed.  A great service provided by Harlequin CPS who we would highly recommend for this type of work.

Visits By External Organisations and Agencies

This month saw us plan 2 visits with external visitors.  The first of these visits will be from Simon and Steve who work with Op Courage.  They will be visiting on 7 Aug from 10.00 and will provide an insight into what Op Courage is all about and the part that they play in the organisation. Come along, listen and ask questions as you never know what you might learn.