PHILIPPINE OUTREACH CENTRE ANNUAL DINNER 

On Saturday 11th May we will be holding our 12th annual dinner in aid of the Philippine Outreach Centre (POC). Last year we served over 100 guests in the church centre, which is a far cry from our first venture in 2007.
 
After returning home from a visit to POC in 2006 we decided to try to fundraise to help with the ever-increasing costs of running the centre. One of our ideas was to hold a Sunday lunch where we could raise both money and awareness of their needs. Our first lunch was held on 15th July 2007 in a gazebo in the garden. Tables, chairs, crockery and cutlery were borrowed from friends and neighbours, and the whole family co-opted to help. Our young children/ grandchildren did an excellent job as waiters with not a drop of soup spilt and Mary Lou and Ann McBurney decorated the gazebo beautifully. They have continued to decorate the tables every year. We were very encouraged when 44 people sat down to a 5-course meal.
 
Over the next 5 years we continued to hold the event in the garden but bad weather and deteriorating gazebos were beginning to make things difficult. It’s hard to enjoy your food with rain dripping on your head. The number of diners was also increasing and we were reaching the limit of the garden. The final straw came when high winds blew everything down the night before the meal. Our nerve gave out and we moved to the Church centre the following year.
 
For several years we continued using the church hall but we were still a bit short of space. In 2017 we were overjoyed to be able to hold the dinner in the newly-reordered Church where we are able to seat over 100 guests. That year we were delighted when Jonny and the youth offered to help. They set up the tables and chairs and laid the tables, which is quite a task. Several of them also waited at table in the evening which was a great blessing as our original waiters had grown up and moved away. Some had even married and had children of their own!
 
The needs of POC are many and various. As a result of people’s generosity at the meals we have been able to send money to provide school books and equipment, renovate the children’s homes, pay for heart surgery for one of the children and various other medical needs. There has been money for Christmas stockings and outings and scholarships for the older children to attend college. This year we hope to raise enough to replace the fire escape at the boys’ house, which has failed an inspection, and to send as many youngsters to youth camp (rather like Soul Survivor) as possible.
 
Tickets for this year’s meal are on sale at £17.50 a head for the 5-course meal. Many people return each year so I guess it must be worth it. Menu and further details will be on the church notice board.   Do please come and join us. Come on your own, as a family, or why not make up a table of 8?
 
Val Vincent