Homelessness around the World

Here is a rather moving photographic survey of homelessness around the world: we thought you'd like to take a look.

On behalf of eveyone at the Gatehouse and the Moving Home appeal, thank you for your tremendous support htis year, and we look forward to continuing in 2012, right up to the move itself. 

With best wishes from all of us for Christmas.

Report on our Christmas Party

An update on the Pindrop Christmas Party (with Stornoway and the Epstein)

 

On Saturday night we had an absolutely wonderful event with a lovely atmosphere and loads of credit given to the Gatehouse - including a round of applause for our work! We were much helped by some warm words from Andy (one of our ex-homeless guests at the Gatehouse) who was kind enough to say "we are the friendliest people in the world". 

 

Thanks to the team - including Jackie & Peter, Malcolm, Andrew, Bruce and Andy. We had two return trips to Tesco to get extra wine for mulling!

 

The bands are hoping that it may be possible to download a recording of the music (for a small donation to the Gatehouse Moving Home appeal of course!). Let us know if you're interested via the comments.

A short article on progress

A short article from the Oxford Mail about progress on the building.

Last reminder: the PinDrop concert

Just to remind you: the PinDrop concert is tomorrow: click here to book tickets (£8.00) each and support the Gatehouse Moving Home appeal. See you there!

The Gatehouse PinDrop Christmas Party

This Friday, the 9th December, please join us for the Gatehouse PinDrop Christmas Party.

7.30pm
Friday 9th December
St Michael at the Northgate Church, Oxford
Tickets £8 from WeGotTickets.
Includes benefit gig including the Pindrop Choir, The Epstein, Mat Gibson and mystery guests.
All proceeds to the Gatehouse Moving Home Appeal.

Please come and pass this on to your friends.

Check out all the details on Facebook, or download the poster below. 

Click here to download

Please keep going with us ...

As you all know, we've now reached 82% of our appeal. Thank you so much for your support, but we still have some way to go.

Don't forget, the best way to donate is via our Sandwich Steve page: in just a few clicks, you'll be able to donate safely and securely via the just-giving system. Plus, let us know what you think of the move at the same time!

If you'd like to find out more about other ways of donating, such as by cheque or by standing order, take a look at this page: you'll find all the details you need.

Thanks again for your support

The Oxfam One World Fair

One for your diaries: the Gatehouse will be at the Oxfam One World Fair with a stall. Come and say hello if you're in Oxford on that day:

Details:

Saturday 19 November – 10am to 4.30pm
50 stalls, vegetarian cafe and live music
50p entrance, children free.
Oxford Town Hall

See you there!

Update from the Moving Home concert

An update from our Fundraising Manager Catherine House concerning the Moving House Appeal Concert that took place on Saturday:

The Gatehouse Appeal Orchestra stunned us all with their amazing music on Saturday. 

The soloist Craig Greene was brilliant on the piano and brought the Mozart Piano Concerto to life in the beautiful setting of St Peter's College Chapel in Oxford. Thank you to Andrew Gray, conductor and organiser, and all the musicians who took part. We're pleased to say that the concert raised over £1049 for the Gatehouse Moving Home Appeal.  

Thank you also to all the people who supported the event by publicising it, coming on the evening and by helping out.  Henmans LLP and Oxford Print Centre both contributed to the event - thank you for your sponsorship.

Here are some photos of the event:

Catherine witih Andrew Gray, the concert organiser and conductor.

Thanks to the studenst at Queen's college

Queen's College, Oxford have raised over £250 for the Gatehouse Moving Home appeal through a dinner and sale of Charity cocktails in the college bar! Thanks guys!

Diarise the 9th December

Keep this date free: Friday December 9th at St Michael's Church in Oxford. The Gatehouse Benefit Gig in the support of the Moving Home appeal is on, on, on! With mystery guests ... more to follow! Thanks.

Up to 75%... and counting

If you have been following Sandwich Steve (which you can find on the link to the right of the page), you may be wondering if we've made a mistake on the figures.  

 

Well, we haven't! This week we celebrated our 75% Moving Home appeal milestone, thanks to a very substantial donation.  

 

So this is just to say thank you to everyone who has given to the appeal and helped us to get to this point.

 

What next? We have just under £40,000 to go. It is tempting to relax but wouldn't it be great if we could raise all the money and reach our target by Christmas? We have a lot happening over the next few weeks with various events which you are involved in: check out the concert tomorrow, for example. 

 

Thanks for all that you do for the Gatehouse: and let's keep going!

Final reminder: the Gatehouse Concert is this weekend!

Just a final reminder about the Gatehouse concert this weekend. 

In summary, the details are as follows:

WHAT?

The Gatehouse Appeal Orchestra

Mozart Piano Concerto No.23
Schubert Symphony No.5
Soloist: Craig Greene

Conductor: Andrew Gray 

WHERE?

St Peter's College Chapel

New Inn Hall Street

Oxford

 
WHEN?

Saturday 12th November (5th Week)
7:30pm

FREE admission, with a retiring collection towards the Gatehouse Charity

And do check out our Facebook page for the event and RSVP there if you're coming! Thanks.

Thanks to Eynsham baptist church

A big thank you to our friends at Eynsham baptist church. 

They took a special collection in order to sponsor our walk from Eynsham to Oxford. 

Thank you to all those who donated and raised £270 for the Moving Home appeal.

The Gatehouse of the Future ...

A big thank-you to the children, teachers and parents of Madley Book School in Witney for raising £95 for the Moving Home appeal - as well as bags of food and toiletries. It was great to have some of the children come into the Gatehouse to find out more - hopefully, they'll be volunteers and helpers of the future!

 

They've put a couple of great photos on their website: just click here to see them.

 

An update from the building site

Well, it's time for an update from the building site.

Work is progressing well, with the project nearly half complete now. Here are some photos for you to enjoy:

More to follow, but in the meantime please keep promoting the Moving Home appeal: we've a long way to go! Thanks.

Reminder about the Gatehouse Concert, 12th November

Don't forget a major event we have coming up: the Gatehouse Moving Home Appeal orchestra:

Mozart Piano Concerto No.23

Soloist: Craig Greene

Schubert Symphony No.5

Conductor: Andrew Gray

Saturday 12^th November (5^th Week)

St Peter’s College Chapel 7:30pm

FREE admission, with a retiring collection towards the Gatehouse moving home appeal

The orchestra will be made up of Oxford University students and other Oxford musicians offering their time to support the appeal. The soloist is Craig Green who is a Christ Church graduate studying for a Masters in Music Performance at the Royal College of Music.  

Admission is free, but we'll be inviting a retiring offering. We are also planning to sell Christmas cards.  

For anyone who cannot attend the event but would like to show their support, please donate directly here 
 

An lottery award

Hi all. Click here to read a great article about the Big Lottery Fund’s Awards For All scheme.

The Gatehouse has secured funds from this source for the Moving Home appeal, alongside others such as  Modern Art Oxford, Chesterton Primary School, the Woodstock Allotments Association and Southmoor Pre-school.

This £7,700 has helped us get up to and over £90,000 so far: check out the target badge to the right of the page or click here to find out more.

Check out the article for an update on the building from Gatehouse Director Andrew Smith as well...

Update from the Sponsored Walk

Thanks again to the merry band of walkers who took part in the sponsored walk. We had over 30 people take part and have raised over £1,500 so far - which is brilliant!

You can continue to give here if you'd like to.

And well done to Syndney the dog, who has nearly raised £200!

The Moving Home appeal Concert - Download the Poster ...

See the post below for news about our fantastic Gatehouse Moving Home Appeal Concert, to be held on Saturday 12th November at St Peter's College Chapel in Oxford.

Remember, it's free to attend! But if you want to donate you can do so here. In the meantime, here's a poster for you to download, print, and share with your friends. Let's fill the hall and make it a night to remember!

Click here to download the poster:

The Moving Home appeal Concert

OK, the fundraising initiatives are coming thick and fast now, as the Gatehouse Moving Home appeal continues to aim upwards to 100% of our target. 

Here's the latest: we're very excited about this and hope you can join us and support us:

The Gatehouse Appeal Orchestra

Mozart Piano Concerto No.23

Soloist: Craig Greene

Schubert Symphony No.5

Conductor: Andrew Gray

Saturday 12^th November (5^th Week)

St Peter’s College Chapel 7:30pm

FREE admission, with a retiring collection towards the Gatehouse moving home appeal

The orchestra will be made up of Oxford University students and other Oxford musicians offering their time to support the appeal. The soloist is Craig Green who is a Christ Church graduate studying for a Masters in Music Performance at the Royal College of Music.  

Admission is free, but we'll be inviting a retiring offering. We are also planning to sell Christmas cards.  

For anyone who cannot attend the event but would like to show their support, please donate directly here.

Thanks - we look forward to seeing you there.

Marshalling the forces

With thanks to all the Gatehouse volunteer marshalls who helped out at the Abingdon Marathon on Saturday.

Here are some of them:

And thanks again to the organisers of the Marathon for selecting the Gatehouse as the marathon's nominated charity for this year.

The Abingdon Marathan

Just 2 days now until the Abingdon Marathon, which is taking place on Saturday 16th October.

Well, we'd like to thank the organisers of the Marathon for selecting the Gatehouse as the marathon's nominated charity for this year. You can see our logo here on their charities page.

Please can we also thank the 10 Gatehouse volunteers who are acting as marshalls.
Here's wishing all the runners a great race!

Will you keep going with us?

As you all know, we've now reached the half-way stage of our appeal. Although this is very encouraging, we still have a long way to go. In fact, we'd like to raise £40,000 in about 4 months - that's £2,500 a week.  

Don't forget, the best way to donate is via our Sandwich Steve page: in just a few clicks, you'll be able to donate safely and securely via the just-giving system. Plus, let us know what you think of the move at the same time!

If you'd like to find out more about other ways of donating, such as by cheque or by standing order, take a look at this page: you'll find all the details you need.

Thanks again for your support. For now, cheerio!

Quotes from the sponsored walk

And a selection of comments from some of our walkers...

A wonderful walk in lovely weather.  If you do it again - I’ll definitely be there.

A great walk, good company, good weather & great tea! 

Really good to walk and talk with you all; felt like I was in the right place at the right time.

The walk was very pleasant thanks to the weather.  I was very happy to walk for the Gatehouse and will gladly do so again!

Disappointed not to see any rabbits (blame Sydney the lurcher)

 Thanks again to all the walkers.