One third of target ... and counting!

To all our supporters: 

News just in: I've just been told that we've had a great fundraising month during June and have hit our anticipated total of 33% by the end of June.  

This is a fantastic effort over the last three weeks or so. So thank you, all of you. 

But the hard work has to carry on! Our next target is 50% of total, which will mean raising another £29,000 during the month of July. Can we do it?

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!

A thank you to churches in central Oxford

Thanks to everyone at St Michael at the North Gate church, in central Oxford. After a recent joint service with the Faith in Action group of Churches (including Wesley Memorial, St Columba, New Road), and one of their famous Music on Monday events, over £700 has been raised and offered to the Moving Home appeal. Great work! Thanks.

Are you an Oxford University student?

Could you help the Gatehouse by nominating the Moving Home appeal for Oxford Rag Week? If you can, just click here and fill in the name of the charity ("Gatehouse Moving Home appeal"): it won't take a minute.

Thank you if you can!

Want to donate via text?

Now, you can donate to the Moving Home appeal via text! 

To send a donation (up to £10):

• Text MOVE88 and the amount you want to donate to the number "70070". 
• You can select any of the following amounts (including the "£" symbol): £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10.

So here's an example of what you might text: "MOVE88 £5".

• You should then get a message with a receipt and the chance to add Gift Aid.
• If you choose not to Gift Aid, then you'll be sent one reminder 24 hours later.

Your gift will be shown on our Sandwich Steve fundraising page - so check it out there! 

This service is free and anyone on any mobile network can use it to donate. Your donation will be deducted from your mobile phone credit, or added to your monthly phone bill.  You won’t be charged for the text message either.

If you want to find out more about the Moving Home appeal take a look here. Thank you for helping to make this possible.

How are we doing ...?

We've added in the total donation counter to the sidebar on the right. We hope this gives you a 'live' sense of how the fundraising effort is proceeding....

If you're in Eynsham this weekend ...

St Peter's church, Abbey Street, Eynsham are holding its summer fete and open garden this coming Sunday, 26th June, from 11.30 am - 3.00 pm. 

This year, half the proceeds from the event will go towards the Moving Home appeal.

If you're in the area, please join our friends in Eynsham - and thanks to all of them for their efforts. 

Hard Times

This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Big Issue Foundation. 

Here's an interesting serie of images taken by Bournemouth photographer Paul Wenham-Clarke. It's a series of portraits of the magazine's vendors, called Hard Times.

Selling the Big Issue is an important way that some of the Gatehouse guests survive.  Thank you to all the generous Oxford people who buy the Big Issue and support homeless people in this way.

And please remember: to donate to the Gatehouse, please visit Sandwich Steve; or, if you'd like to find out more about other ways to donate, such as by cheque or standing order, take a look at this page.

Buckets

As mentioned in a previous blog post, Bruce is organising a 'bucket shake' on behalf of the Moving Home appeal. 

It'll take place in July in the centre of Oxford. A great chance to tell people about the Gatehouse as well as support the appeal.

If you're able to help, please Email Bruce at moodyseptic@yahoo.com to let him know. Or, there's a sign up sheet on the board in the Gatehouse kitchen.

As well as needing volunteers for the day, he also needs buckets. Can you lend one? Thoughts have been around empty paint tins (although cleaning them may be a challenge!), large containers with handles (i.e. from a catering company or large vats of peanut butter, etc (!) ...).
 

If you have any ideas, contacts or even better, buckets, please do bring them to gatehouse or email Bruce to let him know! Thanks.

The new 'Moving Home' logo

I wanted to give you all a first look at the new 'Moving Home' appeal logo. 

[Drumroll...]

Here it is:

You'll start to see this appearing on the blog and elsewhere. Let us know what you think by the 'comments' button below.

And please remember: to donate, visit Sandwich Steve; or, if you'd like to find out more about other ways to donate, such as by cheque or standing order, take a look at this page.

Thanks again for your support. For now, cheerio!

Challah for the Gatehouse

A big thank you to the Oxford Jewish Chaplaincy and the Oxford University JSOC who baked and sold challah in order to raise money for us (for those of you who don't know, challah is loaf of white leavened bread, traditionally baked to celebrate the sabbath).

Those who bought a challah supported the Gatehouse with their donations: 90 were sold and £203 donated to the Moving Home appeal. 

Thank you to everyone who supported us in this way.

Why I care about the Gatehouse ....

A brief personal thought from me, if it's alright with you ...

I was wondering to myself the other day why it is that I care about the Gatehouse - and why I want it to continue.

There are lots of things I could say.

But one of the reasons, I think, is that the Gatehouse is genuinely a community. Volunteers, guests, it's almost as if we're all in it together. In fact, whenever I'm there, there's a sense that we need each other, and that no one is more important than anyone else.

Here are a couple of illustrations that might explain it more than I can!

The first concerns our soup! Anyone who's ever been there knows, our our home-made soup is as good as you can get in any cafe in Oxford. But we don't want anyone to think of the Gatehouse as a 'soup kitchen', because that suggests that what we do is dole out help from one side of the counter to the other, from the needed to the needy.

Here's the other illustration. Andrew (our centre director) tells the story of one student who used to work with us. One day, when he was cycling down the High Street, he passed a Big Issue seller and was suprised to hear him call out his name after him in greeting.“It made my day”, he said.

Those two illustrations capture it well for me. Playing a part in the life of the Gatehouse is a two-way street: the benefits flow both ways. We’re all needed and we all have our needs.

Do feel free to comment below if your experience has been anything like mine!

And don't forget to donate to the Moving Home appeal via Sandwich Steve.

 

The latest update on the appeal ...

We're really pleased to announce that we have now passed our first milestone for the appeal.  

The latest figure that Sandwich Steve can report is (wait for it....)

£44,516 (at time of writing)

This takes us up to 25% of total that we are trying to raise. 

This fantastic amount has been given by community and church groups, by a generous local Trust and by you guys - individuals donating via Sandwich Steve. So a big thank you from us.

Our next target is to reach one third of our appeal (33%).  To do this we need to raise another £13,817.  

Keep your eyes on the blog: we'll be posting lots of different ideas that will help us move forward ...