Yes a local company put a full central heating system in - it was both unheated and quite high up so severely cold in winter. The toilets were awful, everything was pretty grim to be honest. I remember one of the few items for play was the swings - well the metal frame, there were no swings anymore.
I repeat myself on subjects on here, I do realise that
but to retell an old story - we decided back then to work with Pete & Chrissie/3Cs not just to raise money (which we did generally and it was used for a variety of good things) - but to identify a specific project which we could concentrate on individually. I forget the specific route but we all ended up with a clear decision - and that was Bozalan. A word I had never even heard in my life before.
Everything felt right about this "CBF Project" so I asked Chrissie to provide a list of what was needed (I still at this stage knew nothing about the school or the state of repair/neglect) but to me it was important that we didn't raise a big lump of money, we listed everything from pencils to televisions - you get the idea. People could donate items or money for the things they felt most important.
When the list came I nearly removed the topic
It was ridiculous - I tell Chrissie this even now. Pages & pages of things - waste paper bins x 24, 32" TV, 48 sets of felt tips, new roof
(I'm making this up for effect but again you can picture the enormity I hope) it went on and on and on...
My immediate thought was we should have just asked for donations for stuff as we normally would, better to raise a tidy sum than have an itemised, full project and come up embarrassingly short.
Somehow, with the amazing generosity of CBF members and local businesses, we did it. To this day I am unsure how. The greatest achievement of CBF since we posted a photo of Highlander in his Speedos.
Amazing times, amazing members.
