Recent updates

Announcing the New ABC Hub address

An update for Aid Box Community is homeless – urgent appeal!

Aug 22 2019

Announcing the New ABC Hub address

Aid Box Community Hub
174a Cheltenham Road
Montpelier
Bristol
BS6 5RE

We are finally ready to make the ABC Hub even more welcoming and brilliant than the last...

Thanks to the overwhelming support from all of you, we are delighted to announce that we have finally secured our new venue and have the keys.

It's been quite a journey, but we are convinced it will be worth all the hard work. When we first viewed the property we immediately knew that it was the one for us. It's in the perfect location for our service users with excellent public transport links, walking distance from some of our partner charities and organisations and two parking spaces for our donors to drop off donations.

The space is warm and water tight, which for us is a first! We have space for the Free Shop, activites, a kids corner, donations sorting room and an office and of course a welcome area where people can drink tea, chat and be part of our big family.

We have a very busy few weeks ahead getting the premises up together, moving from the last property and volunteer training. We are so excited and can not wait to welcome back the Aid Box Community Family.

If you would like to Volunteer with Aid Box Community please email naomi@aidboxcommunity.co.uk

Schools Rebuilding Project Goes Live

An update for Beira Cyclone Crisis and Sustainability Campaign

Aug 17 2019

MATACUANE Primary School was badly destroyed during the Cyclone in March. Bristol Link with Beira has been working with the school for over 10 years and can now announce it has put £15,000 of its own fundraising to help support the school with £10,000 grant from Rotary Bristol Club and District. A team of 4 volunteers are traveling today to support local builders to start to rebuild the school over the next three weeks. Thank you to Team Rubicon UK for creating a fantastic volunteer team to support the project. Currently at Team Rubicon HQ prepping with the Volunteers. Watch this space for regular updates as the project goes live.

Beira Post Cyclone Project Update - Need the Final £15,000

An update for Beira Cyclone Crisis and Sustainability Campaign

Aug 8 2019

We have been working extremely hard to assess the need in Beira currently and aligning our skills with our partners to make sure we have the best designed project to spend all the money you have donated over the

We have found out that the biggest need and most under supported currently are schools and the education provisions in the city. To date no schools have been started.

We have decided to adopt Matacuane Primary School and this week finally got We have we have raised £30,000 of the £45,000 through this crowd funding campaign and through grants. However, we need another £15,000 to make sure we can finish the school fully. This will help 3,500 children get back to education in the school

We are sending a team of 5 volunteer, 1 specialist engineering project manager, 3 building experts and 1 doctor to help with training and assisting on the project. We also will be employing 10 local builders through local firms and all supplies are being bought within Mozambique from professional building companies. We will be starting on the 19th August.

We have also donated 2000 water purification kits to Beira as well are in the process in designing three long term sustainable programmes for the city of Beira. We are currently working with partners in Beira as well as with funders in the UK on these. More details of these will come through once we can publically talk about them.

We also are lucky to have two expert volunteers now working with us to build our social media and website capacity we have needed.

Thank you for all your continued support.

All the best

Dominik abd BLB Team

Claiming Rewards

An update for Bring Darth Vader to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

Aug 4 2019

Thank you so much for supporting the event and helping to bring the Darth Vader hot air balloon to the Fiesta. We will be in touch tomorrow (Monday 5 August) via e-mail with all those who have selected a reward with details of how to claim your reward.

In the meantime please share your excitement and enthusiasm with friends and family and help us hit our campaign target to support this iconic, international event.

We look forward to seeing you at the event next week.

Darth Vader Update!

An update for Bring Darth Vader to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

Aug 1 2019

How can we thank you enough for your support? Well we have a plan. As you all know this is currently an all-or-nothing campaign. However, with your incredible help we’ve raised enough to bring the Darth Vader balloon to the Fiesta and any additional funds we now raise will support this iconic not-for-profit event.

Therefore tonight, we’ll be changing this to an open-ended project and tomorrow we’ll officially announce that Darth Vader will be coming home for the Fiesta and all of you brilliant pledgers will receive the rewards you so deserve.

As you’re in the select few who are aware of this tonight please help us keep it a surprise until the morning ;0)

FOR TONIGHT ONLY! OPERA FOR TWO AT £50

An update for Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival Needs You

Jul 31 2019

FOR TONIGHT ONLY, TICKETS TO THE OPERA FOR ONLY £50!

Thanks to the wonderful support of Loughborough Festival Opera we've been kindly donated two tickets to see the upcoming La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli on Wednesday 31st July.

Cavalli is one of Venice's leading composers while La Calisto tells a mythical story of Greek legends in a comic poignant way. You will also become a 'Friend of the Festival' and receive a thank you card in the post.

Please note the opera is taking place at Longborough, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, GL56 0QF and starts at 5pm.

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ELECTRIC LADY BIG BAND CDS

The Electric Lady Big Band was produced, arranged and directed by our own Artistic Director Denny Illett. Arrangements of some of Jimi Hendrix's most classic songs into orchestral versions ended up producing one of our most sought after concerts and went on to sell out Ronnie Scott's. Along with this you'll also become a 'Friend of the Festival' and a receive a Thank You card in the post.

We'd like to thank everyone for their support so far for our crowdfunding campaign, we have some exciting news coming out soon so stay tuned and in the mean time keep supporting your local musicians, going to gigs and spreading the word!

New rewards added!

An update for Bring Darth Vader to the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta

Jul 22 2019

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us get closer to our goal. We're quickly approaching the 30 per cent mark and we're really over the moon with the support we've received.

We've added a host of new rewards to the campaign this week, including unique behind the scenes tours of the Cameron Balloons factory, special message announcements to be broadcast during the event and assistance with setting up the perfect proposal at the Fiesta.

As our balloon-themed products have been so popular we will be adding further product based rewards this week from brilliant designers and artists.

If you have any family or friends that would be interested in making a pledge in return for an amazing reward please do share our campaign.

Thanks again for your support and let's hope we see Darth Vader flying over Bristol super soon.

The Fiesta team!

Summer is Here!

An update for Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival Needs You

Jul 12 2019

Summer is finally here. Thanks to everyone who came to our BS3 Jamboree Stage and was lucky enough to hear some great music again by the wonderfully talented musicians of The Johnny Bruce Band, Los Gusanos, Will Edmunds Band and James Morton and Friends. It was great having so much support for the festival and music scene here in Bristol.

Just to keep you all updated we've sent out out first batch of perks and membership cards and currently arranging our next batch, masterclasses will be held in the fall while One of One music tuition will be arranged for this summer and dates will be arranged in the upcoming week.

Thanks to the wonderful support of Loughborough Festival Opera we've been kindly donated two tickets to see the upcoming La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli on Wednesday 31st July.

Cavalli is one of Venice's leading composers while La Calisto tells a mythical story of Greek legends in a comic poignant way. You will also become a 'Friend of the Festival' and receive a thank you card in the post.

Get yours today on fundsurfer.com/bristoljazzandblues

Thank you once again and we hope you all have a great weekend in the sunshine. --

News update: Sleep Pod website: www.sleeppod.org.uk

An update for Sleep Pod Fundraising Campaign

Jun 24 2019

We are overwhelmed by everyone's support. Over 100 backers have donated to our crowdfunder thank you so much. The crowdfunder is now open ended so we can raise more money to build Sleep Pods at the ‘We Out Here Festival’ held in August 2019. Please continue donating to help us reach £10,000 all the proceeds goes to the Sleep Pod Project - thank you from the Sleep Pod Team.

We Out Here Festival 2019 are running volunteer workshops to help produce Sleep Pods.

A Sleep Pod is a one person shelter that has been designed and manufactured by volunteers for any person that sleeps underneath the stars, for whatever reason, in the UK or throughout Europe.

"The amazing Sleep Pod team will be at We Out Here Festival 2019 and we will be asking you to volunteer your time at one of their workshops and help make a difference for those who urgently need it. Sign up coming soon --" We Out Here Festival 2019

We are very excited to launch our new website: www.sleeppod.org.uk. This website is a great way to keep up to date with the progress of Sleep Pod, future events and volunteer opportunities.

We believe Sleep Pod is one way everybody can make a contribution and know that it will make a difference. We are a small team of friends who are heavily dependent on the support of our backers and volunteers to help fund raise and build new Sleep Pods at volunteer workshops. We strongly believe in the power of partnerships, people working together to help produce more Sleep Pods to save lives on the streets in the UK and refugees in Europe.

A huge thank you to everyone involved in the Birmingham Sleep Pod build on April 27th – 28th weekend. A special thanks to Angela and Lisa for helping raise £2,000 for the Sleep Pod workshop. Thank you also to Brian from Printigo, in Birmingham for providing the free space, making the workshop build possible and free t-shirts. Special thanks also to Patrick Anderson for sharing your photography expertise and documenting the event. We are so grateful to all you volunteers who shared your time and energy to help build 100 new Sleep Pods.

Thank you so much for all your support - love the Sleep Pod Team --

Volunteers & The BS3 Jamboree

An update for Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival Needs You

Jun 18 2019

Hey Wonderful People,

Thank you for donating to our campaign and supporting the festival. We've almost reached 20% of our goal and with 9 months to go we're pretty happy! As always continue to share our campaign and tell your friends and family.

You'll be pleased to know that this Saturday we're curating a stage for a new Street Party in Bedminster called the BS3 Jamboree in aid of our crowdfunder. We'll have live music from 12pm - 5pm including The Johnny Bruce Band, Will Edmunds Band, Los Gusanos and the one and only James Morton.

We're currently looking for volunteers to get involved to help promote our festival, engage with the public and help fundraise. If you're interested please email leon@bristoljazzandbluesfest.com to find out more. Even a couple of hours of your time would go a very long way and by all means even if you can't volunteer come on down to the event, come say hi to the comperes and have a great afternoon!