On Thursday 17^th June it was that time of year again, when we ask Team Stork to express their love of both Stripey Stork and stripes to mark Stripes4Stripey Day. This year we concentrated our efforts on building up our fund to buy new clothes needed to complement the pre-loved clothes we are donated. As the last year has proven, sometimes we need to act quickly to replace stock. Additionally, certain items, such as underwear, should be bought new and sometimes bulk purchase discounts present themselves which are just too good to miss. Our Stripes4Stripey fund serves us well here, with the hope that it will keep us going throughout the year.

It’s thanks to the generosity of our supporters that so far we’ve managed to raise a total of…

£3,571.59*

* Including offline donations and gift aid.

And there’s still time if you haven’t yet donated, here’s the link. We appreciate your unwavering support and every penny we receive. There’s no denying that times are hard and fundraising activities aren’t back to what they were. We are just so proud of the fact that you came, you took part and you got the stripey T-shirt!

Starting the day with stripes

Stripes4Stripey day always kick starts with the team and our volunteers showing off their stripes at the warehouse. Not that we need an excuse to wear stripes, but we do plan our outfits well in advance. Even our referral partners picking up that week get into the stripey spirit.

Some stripey magic – with a little bit of fairy dust

Every year we try something a little different for Stripes4Stripey and this year was no exception – we injected a little stripey magic into our local park. With the help of 20 local businesses and organisations, also know as friends of Stripey Stork, we created a fun fairy door trail in Reigate’s Priory Park.

Printed trail sheets were made available from Pistachios in the Park or could be downloaded from our website. Trail goers were invited to make a donation to our fundraising page if they had the means.

News of the hunt exploded on social media (thanks to everyone who helped to spread the word) and it became a welcomed local attraction (you can still enjoy the hunt until 30^th June). We had a little hiccup along the way – even though the doors were well secured to the trees by the lovely people at Redhill Redstone Rotary, that didn’t deter some naughty elves from removing some of the fairy doors. But, we jumped into action with some life sized laminated photos of the missing doors. The magic had been restored, just in time for the Mayor of Reigate & Banstead and Deputy Mayor’s visit to try out the hunt for themselves.

 

We wanted to create something Covid-safe for the whole community to enjoy, whilst raising some Stripes4Stripey funds at the same time – our mission was accomplished! We’d like to thank all of our fairy door sponsors (see full list below) for being so creative and embracing this one-off project.

The Great Stripey Bake Off

Another Stripes4Stripey first was opening the bake-off competition to the general public. Last year one of our corporate partners had this bright idea as a fundraiser, and this year we ran with it. Especially as we’d been moving and shaking with celebrity chef Tony Tobin at his restaurant, Ranmore at Reigate Heath Golf Club lately, and he’d kindly offered to be the judge. We loved seeing photos of all the stripey creations and know it was a difficult decision, but here’s the winners:

Best All-round Baker: Anwen.

Best Corporate Baker: 1st prize Reigate Grange / 2nd prize Osborne.

Best Junior Baker: Infant school – Isobel / Junior school – Georgina.

Best Wildcard entry: young Oscar with his scrumptious stripey breakfast.

They all thoroughly deserved their winning prizes, kindly donated by The Harlequin Theatre & Cinema and The Dinner Table.

The local business community – showing us how it’s done!

The Soapy Zebra wanted to get behind us once again, using her fun and fruity products to support us. She created a limited edition bath salt duo of orange (jelly bean) and turquoise (flower burst) for £2.50; donating £1.50 of each sale to Stripes4Stripey.

It was stripey baths all the way and the scent was out of this world!

We really appreciated seeing some of our fairy door sponsors going the extra mile, like Leafy Learners and Kicks Dance who ran stripey sessions that week with a collection bucket at a ready.

We also loved seeing Woodlands Spirits Forest School running their fairy and elves special – as the children got busy rebuilding a fairy village, after receiving a letter from the Priory Park fairies that the rain had washed their village away.

Corporate support – much more than a pinstripe

Two of our corporate partners deserve a special mention here, as they colourfully filled our Twitter newsfeed with so much stripey fashion. Osborne really went to town, ‘striping the pose’ at every opportunity. We even had Neal, who was away on holiday at the time, send in a photo of him and his friends being stripey in the sun.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions gave us a nice surprise when we saw they were donating £5 for every colleague that posted a photo on social media of them wearing stripes on the day – 40 in total which is a great uptake! And not forgetting they’d also been busy bees (or should we say fairies) behind the scenes, taking care of the fairy trail sheets print job for us.

Shooting for stripes

Our two favourite golf clubs also took to the green in stripes. We had Reigate Hill Golf Club wearing stripey attire and collecting for us at the club – thanks to Jacqui and Kate for organising the troops.

We also had Reigate Heath Golf Club‘s Dawn Raid, where Ladies’ Captain Claire was drumming up support and fining anyone not in stripes.

Stripey goes back to school

Children also love a bit of stripey action, with Stripes4Stripey being the perfect excuse for a mufti. Thanks to Holmesdale Infants, Furzefield Nursery & Primary, Merstham Primary and Reigate Grammar School for making stripes the uniform for a day. We also appreciated Reigate Parish’s idea of asking the children to make their artwork stripey, in a picture competition.

Thank you to all of the parents from the above schools who pledged; we saw your lovely comments and are really grateful for your support.

Referral partners get stripey

Stripes4Stripey wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t see our sheroes at First Community Health & Care donning their stripes. With all the fun this day brings, they understand more than anyone the ‘why’ behind this campaign. We thank them for this support, so we can in turn help them provide essentials for their supported families.

A big stripey thank you!

An overarching thank you to all of our supporters who got involved and helped ensure the Stripes4Stripey fund is looking a lot healthier for the year ahead. Special thanks to the following:

The fairy door trail

• The door sponsors – Reigate School of Ballet / Leafy learners / Dayspace / Boogie Monsters / Redhill Redstone Rotary / Inner Art Tuition / The Soapy Zebra / Star Steppers / Kicks Dance / Woodland Spirits Forest School /  The Harlequin Theatre / Ralph James / Reigate Grammar School / Dinky Doodlers / Unison Choir /
  Jingle Bugs / Kirstin Wood / Old Reigatians
• The Reigate & Banstead Borough Council Greenspaces Team – in particular Helen West
• Pistachios in the Park, Reigate – for being the trail sheet collection point
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions – for printing the trail sheets
• Redhill Redstone Rotary – Sally, Vic and Graham for installing the doors
• The Mayor of Reigate & Banstead and her Deputy Mayor – for officially opening the trail and her personal donation
• To all those who helped to promote it within their online community

Stripey’s Bake-off:

• To all those who entered
• Tony Tobin for judging the competition and providing such lovely feedback
• The Harlequin Theatre & Cinema and The Dinner Table for the bake-off prizes

Corporate partners:

• Osborne – for getting stripey and donating
• LexisNexis Risk Solutions – for donating £5 for every employee who wore stripes and posted on Twitter/LinkedIn – £200 in total was raised

Local businesses/organisations:

• The Soapy Zebra – for their charity duo bath salt promotion
• Woodland Spirits Forest School – for running the fairy and elves session, raising £45
• Leafy Learners – for organising a stripey fundraising session at their outdoors Mums/Baby Club and toddler session
• Kicks Dance – for encouraging the kids to wear stripes to their lesson
• Sal’s Shoes – for turning up in stripes and supporting our campaign
• Kemp Marketing – for getting stripey and donating
• Dayspace – to our friends and neighbours for your support

Our partners/community groups:

• Reigate Hill Golf Club – for collecting on the day
• Reigate Heath Golf Club – for their Dawn Raid fundraiser
• Reigate Grange – for dressing up and entering the bake-off
• Infinity Space to Grow – for wearing and sharing

Local schools:

• Holmesdale Infants – for holding a mufti day
• Furzefield Nursery & Primary – for holding a mufti day, raising £205
• Reigate Parish – for their stripey art competition, raising £52.70
• Reigate Grammar School – for making stripes the uniform for a day
• Merstham Primary – for holding a mufti day

Referral partners:

• First Community Health & Care – for getting stripey
• Welcare – for getting stripey

General supporters:

• Emily and Jo from Mercers – for their extremely generous personal donation
• Laura-Jane – for her 40^th Birthday fundraiser, raising an impressive £225
• SUSY Radio – for promoting the campaign