High Peak & Glossop Branch
Hello! Our area is the High Peak parliamentary constituency, in Derbyshire. The area is the 'Backbone of England' and consists of several small towns: Glossop, Hayfield, New Mills, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Whaley Bridge, Buxton, with hills between - over winter we can get cut off from each other (Buxton is the highest town in England), so we all have to be 'Jacks' ( or more usually 'Jills') of all trades.
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Another year whizzes by!
How I envy the more established branches, with helpers that have been there forever: they know the ropes and you know you can rely on them! Admittedly we have a 'core' of faithfuls, but for personal reasons out of everyones control, there have been a lot of changes again this year.
We still have the same treasurer (me!) as when we started, and the same Co-Ordinator (Lynn) as a year ago, but everyone else has swopped jobs! We constantly feel as if we're short of volunteers, but looking back at last years list we have more members now willing to do some of the organisational side of things, but we're still lacking in helpers for fundraising and fostering.
We've not homed quite as many cats this year: exactly 100 in 1999, but we have steadily improved our finances and have bought two more pens so that we can take in more cats, more quickly. We're hoping we've cleared the 'backlog' of cats that needed rehoming in our area when we became a seperate branch just over two years ago, but of course we are starting to get the 'difficult to home' cats.
Our main need still seems to be helpers:
- We have a Branch membership group, and we hope this will boost our morale by letting us know that we have support out there! Please e-mail me with your postal address so I can send you a membership form: we can't take payment over the Net, so it's back to the old-fashioned way! Cost is £4 for adults, £7.50 family, and £2 for Juniors and OAPs and for that you get three newsletters a year
You don't have to be either a local or headquarters member to help though, so contact me if you want to get involved in any way.
- But it's no good holding fundraising events if we have nothing to sell, so we also need bric-a-brac to sell at car-boot sales; and goods for tombolas, raffles etc,
If you can help at all please e-mail me (Wendy, the Treasurer) at CSM_Ltd@compuserve.com or send goods or donations to High Peak CPL, 8, Littlebrook Close, Hadfield, Glossop, Derbyshire, SK13 2AW
Events
- April 8th Can shake in Glossop, all day!
- May 13th Coffee Morning Whaley Bridge Mechanics Institute. This is only a small venue, but is always well supported. This is part of National Pet Week, so we hope for support from all animal lovers, not just cat lovers! The fun of this venue is that the local shopkeepers expect us to 'do the rounds' with flasks of tea and coffee for them, and its the one venue where a raffle is expected: so any donations towards this are greatfully accepted.
- June 21st Coffee Morning at Christine Evans, New Mills. Christine is one of those people who put us all to shame: constantly running Coffee Mornings for all sorts of different charities, somehow collecting tombola goods and unusual offers (Reflexology last time I believe!) to raise fantastic amounts. Any offers of bric-a-brac and tombola gifts would help.
- July 22nd Can Shake, New Mills, all day.
If you can help at these or any events, let me know.
You will notice we're trying to avoid stalls at outdoor events this year - we were very weary of standing either in the rain, or wet from the rain in the previous hour, and not getting as much support in a whole day as we got from a couple of hours in the Coffee Mornings!
Cats in our care
We have lost and gained fosterers throughout the year, but are a bit down at present so have only 13 cats and kittens in care. Don't let anyone tell you there is a 'kitten season' - it's continuous!
We hope to be able to home more of the adults over the Winter, like this stray imaginatively called Tom! We give priority to taking in kittens and ill cats, and we have had to do a lot of 'direct homings' this year - we still have 21 cats on our list that are still strays or with owners who can't keep them
If you would like to home one of our cats or kittens, or wish to know more about them, please contact me atCSM_Ltd@compuserve.com
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/CSM _Ltd/cpl.htm March 2000
CSM Ltd