As published in the letters column of the Herts Advertiser:
Dear Editor
We would like to thank warmly, through your columns, everyone who contributed so generously to three different Christmas and New Year charity collections involving St Albans Symphony Orchestra. Altogether the good people of Hertfordshire have helped us raise nearly £4,000 for charitable causes.
In December, members of the orchestra were delighted to accompany the annual carol concert in aid of Grove House Hospice, held in the Kingsbury Barn, which raised almost £2,000. Our brass players then braved falling snow in Harpenden and St Albans on the Saturday before Christmas to play carols for shoppers who contributed £450 to a collection for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Special thanks go to Costa Coffee and the Maltings Centre management who allowed use of their bandstand at short notice to so the music could continue despite the blizzard.
As is traditional, our New Year concert in St Albans Abbey also included a retiring collection divided between a local and a national charity. This year our large audience made it possible to raise over £1,490 for the Open Door shelter for homeless people in St Albans and for Brain Tumour Research, based in Milton Keynes.
Charitable fund raising is an important part of St Albans Symphony Orchestra’s work, but we are particularly encouraged that people have donated record sums at a time of economic uncertainty. We are very grateful indeed.
Bjorn Bantock (Conductor)
Kieran McGuirk (Chair)
20 Jan 2011
For further information, contact:
David Utting (SASO Press Officer): 01727 762855 / 07930 313790