Saturday 25 January 2014

Live Band and Karaoke Night, Southampton

For those of you who might not know, Elliot's mum Morwenna works as a Speech & Language Therapist at Western Community Hospital in Southampton.  We were delighted to hear that her very supportive team at work have organised a fundraising event for Operation Elliot.

So how many of you enjoy a good old sing?  Then a karaoke night might be just the thing!


We caught up with Morwenna's colleagues Bev and Teresa and they told us a little bit more about the event.

Bev explained:
Our matron Teresa came up with the idea of having a live band with some karaoke and dancing so that people could participate and have a good time whilst raising money for Operation Elliot.  We've never met Elliot but we work with his Mum so wanted to help as she's a lovely lady and mum!

Well we at OperationElliot HQ would have to agree with that opinion of Morwenna and we know that Elliot agrees too.

If you would like tickets please call Beverly on 02380 296223 or you can email her at beverley.winch@nhs.net

Thank you to everyone at the hospital who's organised the event, and especially those who will be attending.  We'd be very happy to see some phone video footage of the karaoke....!

Having trouble keeping up with all the events?  Don't forget to check the Events tab at the top of our blog to have a look at the calendar.




Saturday 18 January 2014

Acoustic Gig and Supper


Fundraising Musical House Party & Supper
in aid of Operation Elliot

Friday 28th February 2014 at 7.30 p.m.

22 Belle Vue Road, Southbourne, BH6 3DP

A variety of acoustic music to include Folk,
Blues, Country AND comedic from Rod Jenkins &
Black Tulip, Malcolm Bishop, Take Thackray,
Frank Boyle, Bob Whitley, Sue Pugh & Dave Lambert.

To whet your appetite, here's a video of Malcolm Bishop, Frank Boyle and Bob Whitley playing together at the Bournemouth Folk Club:



@bmthfolk

Tickets £8 including Supper
drinks available by donation

To book tickets contact:
Angela on 07788 588413/ Angela.m.cole47@gmail.com
Mo on 01202 460271 or Liz on 01202 420234

Monday 13 January 2014

Operation Elliot's Charity Dinner 14th Feb

UPDATE!           NEW FLYER WITH MENU!

All our supporters are cordially invited to THE dinner of the year!

We are very, very excited to announce a Valentine's Charity Dinner and Auction on 14th February at 7pm.

The Captain's Club Hotel in Christchurch have put together a fantastic menu and there will be some great items up for auction. We promise you a wonderful evening, so please do spread the word. The dress code is: IMPRESSIVE!


To reserve your ticket please email operationelliot@gmail.com (subject line: Tickets please). Confirmation of tickets will be provided on payment by cheque or cash.



Wednesday 8 January 2014

Gearing up for her Pier to Pier Pedal: Carol Davies

We've really pleased to have heard from Elliot's family friend Carol Davies who says she is starting 2014 with a challenging resolution: to raise funds for Operation Elliot by cycling between Boscombe and Bournemouth piers 16 times (25 miles) on 23 February.  25 miles!

Carol has known Elliot’s Mum, Sister and Grandma for years, having taught them all to play the piano. She chose the pier to pier challenge because the promenade is one of her favourite winter cycling routes.

Carol cycles with her husband regularly so feels ready to gear up for this extra long challenge for the New Year: “I’m aiming to set off at 10am and finish at 1pm – I could cycle it much more quickly but I want to leave time for pit stops and Operation Elliot publicity opportunities! I’m hoping to raise as much money as possible – the sky’s the limit”.
Carol preparing for a training session
Elliot at his sports day on his very own trike

Elliot’s Mum Morwenna has fond memories of Carol: “To think that Carol taught me to play piano when I was Elliot’s age and now she is cycling for my little boy, it’s wonderful! We are hoping that Elliot will be able cycle on his trike with Carol for a little bit of her ride – he’ll be very excited if he can manage it!”.

Who's up for supporting Carol on the day? She'd love  to see as many Operation Elliot supporters as possible cheering her on! To sponsor her directly you can of course Operation Elliot Just Giving page  or click 'donate' above noting in the comments section that you are sponsoring the Pier to Pier Pedal.  And don't forget that you can follow Elliot’s progress on Twitter @SDRforElliot and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/operationelliot as well as this blog.

Thursday 2 January 2014

Front page news

The New Year has started well for Operation Elliot!

We've passed the £20,000 milestone way earlier than we thought possible (thank you, again, to everyone who's helped us get here) and thanks to a front page story in the Bournemouth Daily Echo we've managed to expose the fraudsters who have been using Elliot's details and photos fraudulently to raise money:
Bournemouth Echo: James and Morwenna Gower who have discovered several websites that are using the details and images from their appeal to raise money for life changing surgery for their son Elliot.http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/10906670.Web_of_lies__fundraising_campaign_for_six_year_old_with_cerebral_palsy_is_hijacked_by_online_fraudsters/

Thankfully this has not affected our Just Giving fundraising site, and from looking at the fake sites we are sure that none of our supporters have been duped.  The fraudsters have been setting up their own independent sites in order to try and get money from unsuspecting victims in the U.S. and here at home. 

So we're safe, and our supporters are, as long as only www.justgiving.com/OperationElliot is used for donations.

In the meantime, the police are aware of what's going on.  We're glad that we have been able to expose what's happened and raise awareness, as well as generate some more press interest for our campaign from TV and Radio as a result (watch this space!).

We're very excited about the year ahead.  We intend to keep the cheats in check and get ever closer to our fundraising target.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2014,

from all at Operation Elliot.