ALEXANDRA HOUSE OF JOY are very delighted to announce that from April 16th 2021 our Stall will be back on Sheep Street, Bicester at the Friday Market. We look forward very much to seeing many of our friends and supporters and hope soon that many others will come along and support us by purchasing something to help us raise funds towards the much needed 2.5 million pounds we need. We are extremely grateful to the many supporters who have kept us going through these long lock-down months.
In addition, we shall be back doing our Car Boot sales from Saturday April 17th 2021 at Finmere Market. We have to be very early risers that day. ‘The early bird catches the worm’!!!
Pam Rhodes, TV and Radio Presenter and Author, has wonderfully agreed to be AHoJ’s very first Ambassador. We are so delighted and look forward to her involvement for hopefully years to come. Pam is very involved in Premier Christian Radio, and PCR have a live online programme called SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE, which goes out every Sunday @ 6pm on YouTube. As co Founder (with my husband Ian) and Chair, I feel very privileged to have been invited to be a part of the live programme. I am inviting you to click on the link below and join me and my family and friends to watch and see why Alexandra House of Joy is such an important Mission to Ian and me.
I am sorry at the long ‘silence’ on our website blogs, but the whole of this past year, as for many other charities, has been very difficult to keep on track in particular with our major fundraising programme. Our year of events and bookings had been planned in January/February 2020, but then of course the dreadful worldwide pandemic very quickly meant complete shut down for everyone in every country. Nothing could be done about it, it was what it was. We had to wait, like so many others, to see what would happen. Very thankfully, and our gratitude goes to God too, we were amazingly able to bank a sum of money every single week, which was a miracle in itself. We had many wonderful supporters willing us on by donating items to sell, donating gifts of money, and then the incredible Corinne Cunningham came along making Face Masks for us to sell, and the staggering amount raised from those, over the months of lock down, came to £19,000! It astonished us! As it advanced we had to rope in many other wonderful ladies to help with the turn out as more and more were needed. Then we were amazingly given £10,000 from The Fishmongers Company in London which was absolutely mind blowing! God indeed blessed us during a very lean period for AHoJ, And we thank Him so much for His provision in so many ways. We also profusely thank many others for all the fantastic effort they all put in to keep us going. Thank you all, so very very much.
Where are we now? Many prayers have been said that one day God would overrule and that life as we knew it would return to a level of normality. Well, as I write this out, we are all very much hoping and looking forward to that happening hopefully in three months time. The Vaccination programme against this dreadful virus has been rolling out for sometime now, and although life will most certainly be different in many ways, we will, no doubt, establish our ‘new normal’ and be able to take up the reins of our fundraising programme once again. I have lots of ideas…..so watch this space!!
I am sure some of you must be wondering about our much hoped for and yet very elusive Planning Permission?! Come July this year, 2021, we shall have been waiting for it for two years! It is very frustrating indeed! As it stands today, March 2021, everything so far has been passed, except issues with Oxfordshire County Council Highways. We have been brought to a complete standstill by that department. So what we are now finding we have to do (at added expense) is to bring in an Independent Road Safety Officer to complete an audit as to the safety issues OCC Highways are arguing about with our Design Developers. This will of course add to the increase of time not being able to achieve Planning Permission. Not having that piece of paper in our hands means that we still cannot approach any Trusts or Foundations for grants. For those of you who are reading this, please do pray for a quick, smooth and safe solution, so that we can move on! Many thanks indeed.
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