Sorry to keep you all waiting, I know many of you want to see this so I have made it my first job since I got back to the UK.
The 7th May 2012 was an amazing day - happy, humbling, at times quite upsetting but in the main, exciting - not just for the kids, for us lot too
Please, if I could ask one thing (other than give us a donation of course) it would be if you could like this page on facebook if you are a user (like button is just above and below this topic) or even better please copy the link into your facebook to share it rather than like it. These photos might mean a wider audience exposure and if that gets us a fiver, it was worth asking.
Ok sermon over
Three (very large) vehicles brought bags and bags and bags of goodies that morning - and that doesn't even begin to cover the furniture and outside equipment which is already there or on the way. So first, let me share my photos showing the school:
And if you are caught short, it's just a short hop through the snow in winter to the luxury detached toilet suite...
[xx(]
Oh and I didn't realise before. When I said there was no playground equipment at all that turned out to be inaccurate - there are swings, just missing one component - you guessed it, the swings...
...don't worry, we'll be putting that right
A welcoming committee was ready to greet our arrival...
And many bags and items we have bought with your donations needed to be taken from Tardis like boots into the school:
A SMALL part of the collection of delivered bags...
There is never any lack of help with the heavier items as you can see from my two co-workers:
Me and my mate making sure Highlander's bins got in safely...
Some of the bigger items that the funds have already been raised for and made and delivered...
Every child was also given a 3Cs goodie bag containing numerous exciting items - here are the kids receiving them and opening them - I said afterwards that it seemed that just for a short time we borrowed the whole World's excitement and used the whole lot in just one room. The photos don't do this justice and I have also taken a short video which I will edit and put up on Youtube or Facebook sometime soon. The noise was amazing, and it was around that time that several of our group shed a tear or 500...
This little girl chose not to open it up and join the screaming and shouting, she just took a look inside and held it tight to her...
It would be perfect if members looking through my photos can keep in mind that it was YOU that did this. The smiles, the screams, the excitement, the colourful furniture, the goodie bags - not me, not CBF - you! If I had my way everyone should experience a day like this at least once - and those who saw the original shocking pictures and just moved on to another forum topic I must say if these photos don't get you, you must have a heart made of rock!!!
A last word - to the people who make sure your money gets used to buy the right things for the right places, order them and in most cases deliver them too - the 3Cs committee - just awesome. You'll never meet a more giving bunch of people in so many ways.
As for me, why do I want to do it - for all the normal reasons, to make the school dry and healthy, to give kids a better chance, to perhaps champion a "give Turkey something back" attitude to those who tell us stories on CBF of great times in Turkey - but top of the list of "why did I do it" is simply...
...This:
From a pound to a huge donation - WE MADE THIS HAPPEN!!! THANK YOU...
