West Hampstead Life

Tag: #whampforgood

  • Whampgather raffle prizes

    If you’re coming to #whampgather this Thursday, you’re in for a treat. It promises to be the biggest and best yet. [if you have a ticket and realise you can’t make it, do please let me know].

    Regular whampgatherers know that the evening falls into two sections. Before the Raffle, when we exert considerable pressure on you to buy raffle tickets because, y’know, whampgather is still free and you get discounts at the bar, and because it’s for a really good cause… and After the Raffle, when the music gets a bit louder and the crowd is a mixture of people sobbing that they didn’t win a prize and other people rejoicing in their victories.

    There is of course also a transitional phase – The Raffle Itself – when you get a chance to hear my booming voice coming at you through loudspeakers, as if I didn’t have enough of a God complex already.

    What can I win? What can I win?
    As always, the raffle ticket sellers will have the final list of prizes, but if you’re super eager, here’s the list as it stands (in alphabetical order)

    Bake-a-boo – afternoon tea for two
    Feng Sushi – sushi-making masterclass for four people (and the chance to eat some!)
    Guglee – £50 meal voucher
    La Brocca – dinner for two during the Game Weekend (7th/8th December)
    Oddbins – three bottles of wine
    Rococo Chocolates – truffle making workshop for four people
    Tricycle Cinema – 11 (yes, eleven) seats in the box, for any regular cinema screening
    Waitrose – a mixed case of wine
    West End Lane Books – three of the latest signed hardbacks AND a £30 voucher
    The Wet Fish Café – £60 meal voucher
    Yi-Dao Clinic – 1hr massage (Tuina, deep tissue, aromatherapy or holistic)

    Where does the money go?
    We are raising money for local youth charity, The Winch. We have supported The Winch for the past few years in a variety of ways, and our fundraising efforts so far have pulled in something over £2,500.

    At the last whampgather we were able to raise enough to ensure the drama programme continued for another term. I went to see the results of this, and it was so obvious how much this has benefitted the young people involved.

    This time, we’re focusing on a different strand of The Winch’s work – its Youth Forum.

    The Forum supports 20 young people, eight in the 13-16 age group, and twelve 11-13 year-olds. It is aimed at anyone who wants to develop leadership skills and have more of a decision-making role. It focuses on developing character strengths, and the sessions are built around a healthy meal that the young people cook and eat together.

    To date, the focus of the decisions has been on shaping what the kids would like to do at The Winch, and the results have been eclectic – from restarting the music workshop, to enterprise stall ideas for the local Swiss Cottage Fair, to planning a weekend away together. The team leaders also work with sub-groups to develop new areas of activity for the charity, e.g., more sports sessions, music workshops, holiday activities etc.

    The Winch works with kids from all over Camden, though it naturally attaracts more young people from the immediate area and the Swiss Cottage estates in particular. On the surface it looks like any other youth club, but its involvement in the lives of young people goes far deeper, especially with its “cradle to career” philosophy, which ensures continuity of support for those young people who face particularly complex and difficult lives. Having been fortunate enough to be involved with the organisation over the past few years, I can honestly say that supporting it has a tangible positive impact on kids who may not have had the priveliges and benefits that many of us have had.

    When the raffle ticket sellers come round on Thursday, please buy one or two tickets more than you might otherwise, and we should be able to raise a record amount this time. Joanna from The Winch will also be around during the evening, so if you want to learn more about the organisation, do seek her out. You can also of course read more on the website.

  • Ride 100 miles for The Winch

    Local cycling enthusiast Eugene has had a great idea that will get you fit and raise money for The Winch. Let me hand over so he can tell you all about it.

    The weekend before last, I took part in the Ride London sportive – a 100 mile ride on most of the Olympic road race course. Now, if you’re quick, you can enter the ballot for next year’s event. We’re trying to get a Team Whamp together to raise money for local youth charity, The Winch.

    [Ed: after helping put together not one but two league-winning football teams, I think a cycling team is the obvious next step for my career in sports management].

    What with the who now?
    At the beginning of the year, Boris Johnson and Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan announced Ride London – a two-day festival of cycling in the capital. This consisted of

    • A festival in Green Park, a freecycle for 50,000 people followed by a cycling grand prix featuring Britain’s Olympic women’s cyclists on Saturday 3rd August
    • A 100-mile sportive on closed roads open to both individual and charity teams on the Sunday that included some of the tough Surrey hills from the Olympics
    • A 140 mile cycle race for professional cyclists on the same course as the sportive but with three loops of Leith Hill

    I was lucky to get a place on the sportive as late as May by riding for Help the Hospices, a charity that works to help local hospices raise money to fund their operations.

    Eugene leans into the corner

    I was far from a professional cyclist. I had cycled to school and university but then came a time I drove far more than I cycled. Once I moved to West Hampstead I realised London is a smaller city than I thought and I started commuting on a 13-mile round trip to work thinking that would be quicker than the tube during the Olympics. That was my Olympic legacy; a short experiment becoming a first choice commute. I did not renew my annual travel card.

    I signed up. Then I got a place in the ballot. “What have I done?” I thought. After all, 100 miles is a big psychological barrier and my longest round trip had been 25 miles. I also had to do it in 9 hours, including stops and using a heavy mountain bike. I trained and put slick tyres on.

    I changed my commute to take in more Hampstead hills (Swains Lane, Highgate West Hill) and did long rides on Saturdays. Sometimes I’d use parts of the route. You do need to put in some training if you want to make the recovery easier. Unfortunately, that also meant cutting back on certain foods and alcohol, before giving them up entirely in the month before. No-one said this kind of glory comes easy.

    The peloton
    If you win a place in the ballot, you are told in February, which gives you enough time to train. A month before you get confirmation of your time. There were 15,000 cyclists in this year’s event, so we started in waves from 6am to 8am.

    I confess I panicked when I read that slower cyclists would be diverted onto shorter courses or taken off the course if we did not reach certain points at certain times. This was so they wouldn’t interfere with the professionals. There were Tour de France stage winners in this race – including Peter Sagan, the winner for the past two years of the green jersey for most consistent finisher.

    My start time was 7.40am, and I had to get to the Olympic Park an hour earlier. I’m sure Chris Froome doesn’t have to endure this. The course goes down the A12 before turning onto the Limehouse Link. Cue cyclists of all shapes, sizes and ability, shouting “WOOHOO!” echoing off the tunnel.

    We passed Tower Bridge, Embankment, Northumberland Avenue, Trafalgar Square and St. James. Once past Piccadilly, it was smooth riding to Chiswick Bridge. Although we were able to use both sides of the road, we tended to keep to the left out of habit. After Richmond Park, we went through to Hampton Court. This was the first hub where you could get your bike looked at and refuel. There were three such hubs and multiple drinks stations with food.

    The first major hill was Newlands Corner – I was keeing up a reasonable pace and worrying less about being pulled off the race by the “broom wagon”, which sweeps up the stragglers. The Surrey locals were out in force cheering us on; Union Jacks were everywhere and people had tables offering cyclists drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

    I reached Leith Hill – the one we feared. Yes, the hill is steep, you have to grind out a low gear and climb patiently. There was no shame in getting off and pushing (though I didn’t). The descent was scary through the trees but there were so many bikes that people took care.

    Finally, we got to Box Hill, which still had some of the inspirational graffiti from last year’s Olympic road race. It’s a smooth road with lots of bends and not as tough as Leith Hill. From the summit, there was a series of rolling hills before Leatherhead and the final hub. It was downhill all the way to Wimbledon, by which time I admit I was in pain. I guess that’s what happens afer 90 miles. By the time we crossed Putney Bridge, the top of the the Houses of Parliament was the most welcome site all day. I turned through Admiralty Arch and, yes, I sprinted down The Mall and met some friends in the pub for a drink.

    How do you help?
    The grand plan is to make this the annual cycling equivalent of the marathon. The ballot for 2014 has opened and already a few whampers have put our names down. The ballot closes when there are 80,000 entries and there are 20,000 places.

    If you think it sounds like a long way, well, even Boris did it – if he can, you can!

    Enter the ballot for Ride London 2014 here.

    London has improved as a city to ride in but, according to the Times, there were 122 cyclists killed on London Roads in 2012. Ride London could popularise cycling in ther capital and make it seem normal – and we can raise money for charity. Only force of numbers will mean better cycling infrastructure and more consideration given to cyclists by town planners and other road users alike, hopefully reducing fatalities.

    Eugene raised just over £2,000 for Help the Hospices, and his Just Giving page is still taking donations.

  • The Winch got Bare Talent

    You all know that we raise money for The Winch. At the last Whampgather all the money we raised from the raffle – which was just shy of £600 – went to support the youth charity’s drama group this term.

    On Tuesday night I joined the Mayor of Camden, some parents and Winch helpers, and saw the group’s end-of-term production in one of the theatres at Central School of Speech & Drama.

    We were treated to a Winch version of Britain’s Got Talent complete with nasty judges, entertaining advert breaks, and some fantastic performances by the young people. There was singing, dancing, comedy and a grand finale performance of the Harlem Shake.

    You could see the confidence of the performers growing even while on stage as the nerves dissipated. They knew most of the audience members, but the stakes were raised by having the Mayor, replete with the chains of office, in the front row.

    Aside from keeping us entertained, these drama workshops are enormously important in giving kids self-confidence as well as building their team skills such as listening. Even getting some of them to sit down for a couple of minutes was a challenge at the start of the term apparently, yet here was a controlled performance that the young people clearly enjoyed as much as we did in the audience.

    A huge thank you to all the local businesses who donated raffle prizes and to all of you who bought raffle tickets at whampgather. You made it possible for the hardworking and committed staff and volunteers at The Winch to give these kids a creative outlet and an opportunity to develop a wide range of skills that will benefit them enormously as they go through life.

  • Support the Winch and win great prizes

    Tonight’s whampgather (The Alliance, Mill Lane, 7.15pm, ticketholders only I’m afraid) will once again be raising money for The Winch. Specifically, its drama programme Drama Massive.

    Each term a slightly different group of 8-14 year-olds attend the weekly workshops, and they create and perform a piece at the end of term. Last year’s Robin in the Hood explored topics such as poverty, wealth, law, and politics. The play was set in contemporary London with Robin using BBM to gather people to protest against the cuts.

    Central School of Speech and Drama offer studio space, but the charity needs funding to keep working with its drama facilitator, Rebecca. The broader aim of Drama Massive is to instil confidence, creativity, focus and team work.

    Rebecca explains:

    “The work we do, whilst fun, is also incredibly important. Drama helps develop social and emotional skills such as self-confidence, team work, conflict resolution, speaking and listening whilst also providing a safe creative space in which young people feel empowered to question the world around them and express themselves. Many of the young people that come to The Winch lead complicated and difficult lives – the process of creating theatre as part of a team can help them to express some of those stresses safely, whilst giving them a place where they consistently feel included, valued & listened to.”

    It costs £900 to fund a term of Drama Massive. If everyone coming tonight buys five raffle tickets, we’ll cover that in one night. You’ll get to help provide kids in the area with a chance to do something that’s great for their social development and that’s fun – something that doesn’t always play a big part in their lives.

    AND, if the do-gooder in you isn’t moved, then let me appeal to the greedy… because by entering the raffle you’ll have the chance to win some great prizes:

    • A ticket to see Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) introduce cult classic An American Werewolf in London at the BFI next month. These tickets sold out in 15 minutes, but thanks to @NxNW6 (who’ll be going with you) you can get your hands on one.
    • An easter egg from Cocoa Bijoux
    • Tea for two at Bake-a-boo
    • A £50 voucher from Guglee
    • A £50 voucher from Feng Sushi
    • A £50 voucher from West End Lane Books
    • A £50 voucher from The Gallery
    • A £50 voucher from The Wet Fish Café
    • A three-course meal for four from Spiga
    • A £60 voucher from Mill Lane Bistro

    Also, everyone who buys a raffle ticket automatically gets a FREE easter egg courtesy as a little Easter treat from me. Really, what more incentive do you need?

    If you want to find out more about The Winch, check out www.thewinch.org. Ann Kenney from the charity will also be coming along tonight, so you can also speak to her.

    See you later!

  • Cake and consultation for Women’s Day

    It’s International Women’s Day this Friday – arguments aside about whether 50% of the population should probably get more than 1/365th of the days – it’s a day that highlights inequality at both global and local levels.

    West End Lane solicitors, Karina Leapman & Co. are supporting Oxfam to raise funds on the day:

    “On 8 March, we are selling home made baked goods from outside West End Lane Books on 277 West End Lane and handing out vouchers for 20 minute consultations with a family law solicitor for a minimum donation of £20 towards this cause between 11 and 22 March 2013 (for a limited number of people.)

    Millions of women and children live in poverty, where hard work is not enough. We want to take some time to remember these women and help them empower themselves to come out of poverty, receive healthcare, education and food. Surely these are birth rights!

    Come and join us, buy a snack for your coffee and make a donation.”

    Read more about Oxfam’s “Let’s Get Together” campaign.

  • Get spinning for charity

    Fancy tackling a three hour spin class – all for charity? I thought so. Read on dear friends, read on.

    Long time #whamper (well, ok, technically Willesdener), Esther Foreman is doing an Arctic hike for the MS Society in April. Esther, who has MS herself, is a trustee of the MS Society which is based in Cricklewood.

    The trip involves travelling over 250 km in the frozen wilderness of northern Norway and into Sweden. The group will be camping in temperatures as low as -20°C and experiencing gruelling 14 hour days.

    Aaaanyway, while you can of course donate cash in the usual way, you can also get involved in a more active way. The Virgin Active gym in Cricklewood is sponsoring a 3-hour spinathon on Sunday March 3rd from 10am to 1pm to help Esther raise the funds she needs. It costs a minimum of £10 to secure a bike and you don’t have to be a member of the gym to take part (you can also use other gym facilities such as the pool and steam room while you’re there) and there’ll be fruit and water provided.

    It’s basically a three hour spin class with five instructors to keep you on your toes, or pedals, or something. And all for a good cause. There may even be prizes! To take part, head over to Esther’s donation page and everything is explained there.

  • Winter coats for people who really need them

    Chilly isn’t it? Expect you’re digging out that winter coat from the back of the wardrobe to keep you nice and warm as you trudge from your centrally heated house to the hot tube to your heated office and back. Because for those minutes that you’re outside, it’s cold and you want to be warm. Makes sense.

    Now imagine that it’s just as cold but you don’t have a centrally heated home, in fact you don’t have a home at all. Nor do you have an office. You’re pretty much outside most of the time. But you want to be warm. Makes sense.

    Hands On London is trying to help. For the second year in a row, it’s organising Wrap Up London. The idea is that you donate a winter coat for homeless people and those living in poverty. Maybe you have a coat that’s no longer in fashion, maybe it’s not as smart as when you bought it, maybe you simply have too many coats in your wardrobe, or perhaps your son or daughter has grown out of the coat you bought them a couple of years ago. So give it to someone who really needs it.

    Hands On London’s second annual coat collection campaign will take place from Monday 5th – Friday 9th November. It aims to collect and distribute 10,000 coats to London’s most vulnerable people via more than 80 different shelters and charities.

    There are a few ways you can give your coat: at major tube stations next week between 7 and 11am (see website for full details), or, more conveniently for some, you can drop it in to Paramount estate agents on West End Lane during its office hours (Mon-Thu 9-7, Fri 9-6.30, Sat 10-3) right through to November 14th. Help keep someone warm this winter.

  • The Winch: A time for new dreams

    Some more recent arrivals to West Hampstead Life may not be aware that I actively support local youth charity The Winchester Project. You can read a bit more about the genesis of that support here.

    If you’d like to know more about the excellent work The Winch does, then I would urge you to go along on December 1st to hear about a “Time for New Dreams”. This would be an excellent opportunity to find out how you might be able to support the organization (whether financially, or by giving your time, expertise, or opportunities through your network), and to learn how it’s moving forward.

    Hope that I’ll see lots of you there! Click the pic for a larger version and more details.

  • Contact the Elderly needs you

    A guest blog by Charlotte, who needs your help:

    My friend Kathleen recently turned 100.

    “What’s your secret?” I asked as we tucked into tea and cake at a special party to celebrate her landmark birthday.

    “I always eat wholemeal bread,” came the reply.

    Kathleen is one of nine elderly people I really enjoy chatting to and spending time with on a monthly basis at our local Contact The Elderly tea parties.

    Once a month myself and other volunteers pick up lonely elderly people in the North West London area who are unable to leave the house by themselves and take them to a tea party.

    The parties take place at volunteer host’s houses between 3pm and 5pm – where guests are given tea, sandwiches and cakes and get the chance to chat. Our elderly friends really benefit from this social interaction and it clearly makes a massive difference to their lives.

    It is also a lovely experience for the volunteers too, who not only get to enjoy tea and cake, but also all the amazing stories from years gone by.

    Kathleen was born an only child in Dollis Hill in 1911 and worked for many years as a teacher in Willesden and Harrow. She has endless stories about travelling the world. In 1936 she made her first visit to Hamburg and then travelled on to Berlin where the Olympics were being held. Since then she has visited most of the European capitals, as well as the USA, Canada and Japan. It is a real privilege to spend time with her.

    We rely on the goodwill of our drivers and also the hosts who throw open their homes to elderly guests for the tea parties but with nine elderly members now and not enough volunteers we are struggling.

    We are now looking for new voluntary drivers to help pick guests up and also hosts willing to arrange a tea party perhaps once or twice a year.

    Many of our guests are frail so any host home would need to have easy ground-floor access, a downstairs toilet available and a space large enough to seat around nine elderly guests comfortably. There will also be about five volunteers in attendance.

    If you can help then please email or call 0208 208 2021

  • Charitable thoughts

    Cancer Research UK is looking to form a fundraising group in this area but needs your help. As a Fundraising Group, you would decide to organise what fundraising events you want, how often you want them and you will be supported by Cancer Research UK every step of the way. It might be a gala ball, a dog walk, an abseil, a quiz night, a bike ride event, a golf day or a lunch party – whatever it is, it can be a great way to have some fun while raising money to fight cancer.

    If you would like to get involved, or find out more details please contact Sophie at or visit the website.