Chair Pig Kevin Burrows was on hand recently to hand out ‘big cheques’ to two terrific local initiatives.

First Kevin was spotted presenting a £500 cheque to Jo Ferguson (Manager) of Cherry Tree Pre-School. After months of fundraising, we were delighted to add the finishing touches to the relocated school building in Cheriton by funding the all important window shutters. We wish Jo and all of the staff and children great success in their ‘new home’.

Kevin was also on hand to present a cheque for £520 to Kim Owen Jones (Head Teacher) at Sun Hill Infant School. The school takes great pride in it’s award winning Creative Arts Studio. Unsurprisingly, their request for funding for a new kiln gained unanimous support from the Pigs. Happy baking and glazing to all of the children!

 

What a memorable, record breaking year 2012 was!

From the wonderful Diamond Jubilee celebrations, to Bradley Wiggins’ unforgettable Tour de France victory, then the spectacular London Olympics followed by the breathtaking Paralympics, the Ryder Cup ‘miracle at Medinah’ followed by Andy Murray’s sensational Grand Slam victory and finally the year end announcement of the pending arrival of a new Royal baby!

Whilst not quite so spectacular, 2012 was another very busy year for The Pigs, with a record number of Christmas trees lighting up the town and over £15,000 raised across a wide variety of events and activities throughout the year- a figure almost matched by the £14,500 donated to a wide range of local worthy causes, assisting young and old throughout our community.

Here’s to making 2013 another record breaking year for fundraising – and even more importantly, for helping local worthy causes!

As tradition has it, in Broad Street under the cover of darkness, expertly compered by our very own Chris Lillywhite with backing vocals by the wonderful school choir, Father Christmas made his annual appearance on December 12th – delighting young and old alike.

Under the watchful eye of a Christmas fairy, upside snowman (must have arrived from the South Pole?) and a bounding Rudolph, the man himself appeared (assisted it would seem by his very own health and safety officer) to bring much joy to the cheering crowds.

Here’s hoping for good behaviour and a similar appearance in 2013!

7.30 am on a soggy Saturday saw hordes of Pigs (and some very welcome Old Boars) armed with ladders and ropes and a mission to once again light up the town. Thanks to terrific work from Dave Liddiard and his team a record 163 trees  (and over 2,500 shiny bulbs!) now adorn the shops and homes of our historic town centre.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us with the purchase of a tree – rest assured that the profits generated will be used to help many local worthy causes in 2013.

Happy Christmas to you all!!

 

In keeping with the memorable celebrations in London, The Pigs made sure that Alresford was treated to a fantastic Jubilee Ball – a Ball fit for a Queen you could say! Over 120 revelers dined on fabulous slow roasted Hampshire Hog whilst dancing the night away to a first-class live band.

Our thanks go out to all of the local businesses who helped to make this a terrific fundraising evening, and to Chris Lillywhite and his team for superbly dressing Perins Hall like never before!

Our Chair Pig, Andrew Wilcox was recently spotted handing over a £200 cheque to Caroline Newman and Sarah Jane Middleton at Busy Bees in Bishops Sutton. We are always keen to support local organisations who work hard to help themselves – consistent with this principle,  our donation will ensure that a high quality children’s entertainer can now be booked for a forthcoming fundraising day at this popular local pre-school.  Needless to say, we wish the Busy Bees every success on the day!!

The Pigs seek to help a wide variety of local needy causes – from organisations to groups to families and individuals. Most recently we received a request from the Winchester District Citizens Advice Bureau, who needed valuable cash to support local people who were unable to find the £90 administration fee to complete the necessary paperwork to apply for Debt Relief support. Needless to say, we were more than happy to help, and pictured below is long standing Pig, Howard Boardman handing over a valuable cheque to Jenny Meadows, Chief Executive of the Winchester District CAB.

For more information regarding the CAB, please call Jenny on 01962 848006.

Kicking off the town’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, we are delighted to announce that The Pigs are organising a Jubilee Dance, held at a ‘dressed as never before’ Perins Hall on Saturday 2nd June. With top class live music from the 50′s to the present day, this promises be a community event to remember – brought to the community by the community!

 

Please contact Kevin Burrows on 01962 732078 or email burrokev@aol.com for tickets – though hurry as they are selling out fast!!

 

Plus, if you are a local business and want to reserve a table and/or support the event with sponsorship, please drop Kevin an email.

Father Christmas has made his annual arrival in Broad Street under many different circumstances, but perhaps never stranger than when he was saved from a Dalek and Cyberman attack by good old Doctor Who last month.

Amidst much smoke and chaos, Doctor Who emerged from his spectacular Tardis to save the day and ensure the safe arrival of the great man in red and white – who went on to entertain the massed galleries and host a generous distribution of presents from his grotto!

 

Our annual thanks go out to FC himself and to everyone who made this possible.