The 24th draw of the 100 Club was made by David on Thursday 4th August. Number 97 won Paul £49 and number 43 won Jenny £24.50 whilst her son-in-law David also won an equal sum when his number, 35, was drawn.
Through the generosity and support of Club members, St Mary’s now has a new portable heater and maintenance work that had to be postponed due to a lack of funds has been completed. The roof has been made secure by replacing and fixing broken and loose tiles. The guttering has been repaired where needed and painted and lime mortar repairs have been made to porch and eastern gable end of the church. As you may imagine maintenance of such an old building is always ongoing and we have been informed that in the not too distant future further roof work will be required to attend to failing laths.
This summer Club funds supported the planting of three flowers beds in the churchyard; one to commemorate the recent Platinum Jubilee and the other two to enhance the ecological diversity in the church grounds by providing nectar rich flowers for bees for as much of the year as possible. The Club also hosted a Jubilee picnic which was enjoyed by all those who were able to attend.
The book club that is located in the church is being well used and there are many books covering an eclectic mix of genres. This facility is open to all and we welcome you to come and take something that interests you. There are many recent best sellers to be found there too!
Shropshire Council recently informed us that we are unable to continue to hold the bonus draw at Christmas when all the income generated from ticket sales has been returned to winning members as prizes. Under the regulations that govern small lotteries such as ours the maximum prize money cannot exceed 80% of the total collected. This means that the rules of the Club have had to be amended to reflect this. We are not sure why it has take two years for us to be notified of this issue.
As you are aware the Club was established with 100 potential memberships on offer. Obviously numbers fluctuate slightly as members join and leave which affects the level of prize money paid out each month. We have never sold all the numbers available and the PCC has decided to extend the invitation to join to supporters of St Bartholomew’s Church at Glazeley. In practice this will mean that new members will be asked to indicate which church they wish to support and the fundraising element of their membership subscription will be allocated accordingly. It was felt that given the time and effort put into running the Club it should be put to best use and help our neighbours in Glazeley. The biggest benefit for all members is that prize money may well increase as we welcome Glazeley supporters.