Why now, and why do we need staging?

How the Elmbridge Choir spends it's money and why the charities we help pay the price

As you probably know by now, the Elmbridge Choir is a mixed voice (men and ladies) choir, and it has proved so successful and popular that we recently started the elmbridge Ladies Choir.  The Choir is a Registered Charity in its own right, but we are also a non-profit making organisation which regularly performs concerts to raise much-needed funds solely and exlusively for the benefit of other charities. 

HOW BUYING A COMPETITION TICKET WILL HELP OUR CHARITIES Over the last 3 and half years we are very pleased and proud to have raised a staggering £63,000 for deserving Charities! We perform at least 5 concerts a year, and at most of these concerts we have to arrange our own staging, which usually means hiring it at a cost of up to £2,000 for each concert.  As the Ladies Choir establishes itself, it too will be performing its own concerts which will increase the number of times each year that we have to hire staging. The money we spend on staging could be much better used by the Charities we aim to help, because the cost of hiring the staging comes out of the ticket sales for each concert, which reduces the amount going to the charity we are supporting. To this end, we are running a competition to raise funds to buy our own staging and this is why we are asking for your support.  Our zany Musical Director, Cliff van Tonder, has given his gorgeous seaside flat in South Africa to raise funds for our desperatley needed staging - buying a ticket could win you this flat currently worth approximately £70,000 for the price of a £10 raffle ticket! To be eligible to enter for the prize, you would need to answer a question, which will need some skill and quite a bit of research to answer: " On which coast of Kwa Zulu Natal in South Africa is the seaside resort of 'Umtentweni' situated?" The flat is in the seaside resort of Umtentweni, 68 miles from Durban and 1 hour from International Airport, is only 150 yards to the beach with excellent sea views, diving and golf courses nearby. There is a tenant in the flat who is currently renewing their tenancy on a month by month basis so the winner could choose to keep the tenant or ask them to vacate in order to sell the flat off or keep it for holidays in the sun! The prize draw will be done at our April 24th, 2010 Concert. If sufficient tickets have not been sold by this time we will postpone the draw the next concert after that, or make a decision as to whether to alloacte the then cash pot as a prize. Most importantly, by purchasing a competition raffle ticket you will be supporting not just one Charity but the numerous and diverse Charities (both local and national) the Elmbridge Choir will be helping in the future.	Just some of the Charities we've helped these last 3 years: