CEILIDH!

First of all I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came to the ceilidh! I really hope you all enjoyed yourselves because I thought it was a really good night and I loved it all. 

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who made food for the night, Vanessa, Jude and Karen and especially my mum and grandma.  Also thank you to my mum, Grandma and my Auntie Diane for helping out so much in the kitchen. 

Thank you to my wee sister Morna for helping sell raffle tickets with her friend, Isla, and also count the money for the 50/50. She was a gem, and sorry Morna if that meant you didn't get many dances!  Also thank you to my friends Catherine and Lois who also helped with this and whatever ever else they could, they were all fantastic.

Thank you to the people at the Devonvale Hall for allowing me to use the hall last night.  It is a beautiful hall and makes for a really a good ceilidh. And also a massive thank you to the bar staff as well who were amazing! However, you can’t have a good ceilidh without a good ceilidh band so I would also like to say a huge thank you to the North Shore Ceilidh Band, they were absolutely amazing.

I completely sold out of tickets as well, which was incredible! Although I hated having to turn people away, I preferred that to having to beg people to come!  It was a great turnout on Friday which made for a really good atmosphere with a good mix of people who all seemed to enjoy themselves.  It was absolutely amazing to hear that people loved it and I'm just so glad you all had a good time!

The raffle was a really big success with lots of prizes.  Thank you to my mum, Lois, Catherine and Emma for helping with that.  I would also like to apologise for shouting through the microphone for my dad. He just wasn’t listening!  Thank you to everyone who donated a prize and an especially big thank you to Falkirk golf club and Braehead golf club and also to Thanks-a-Bunch in Tullibody for the prizes, that was amazing!  And I hope everyone really liked the prizes they won.  I would really like to say thank you to Calder and Jack from my school as although they won three prizes between them, two chocolate board games and Pointless, they gave them away to three of the wee kids at the ceilidh and I know they really appreciated them so thank you guys!  Overall, the raffle raised £360!

 We also did a 50/50 with the tables where people had the chance to win half of all the money put in.  After some confusion over how to play it, most tables put something in their envelope and handed it in.  Morna added up all the money and the winner was going to get £144.55.  Even though he was the last to put in his envelope, Tony won! But I have to say a massive, massive thank you to him because he donated the money back again! Which was absolutely unbelievable! Thank you so much to Tony.  I did ask him to dance afterwards but it turned out it was a progressive one so we didn’t really get much dancing done…  So that meant that the 50/50 raised £289.10!

During the buffet we had the coin toss where adults had to slide pound coins towards a bottle of whisky and kids could slide 20ps towards a box of sweets.  Even though Katie tried really hard, she just couldn’t beat Finlay who won the box of sweets! None of us can remember who won the whisky, but whoever it was I really hope you enjoy it! Both coin tosses raised £55.60! So thank you very much to everyone who played.

The effort some people went to to get to the ceilidh was unbelievable, it really felt amazing to have people there who were so nice that they put aside what was easiest for themselves.  Kirsty from my dad's work had to take a conference call at half eight but she still turned up at around quarter past ten! She also brought me a present of a diary for next year so that was even more lovely.  Mary, also from my dad’s work, arrived at the ceilidh not knowing anybody at all there but she left knowing a table full!  The Gibsons came and enjoyed the ceilidh even though the basement of their house was flooded and they could have been at home but instead they came to support me at the ceilidh. And Jane only arrived in from Cairo about 4 hours earlier! It was little things like that that made the whole night even better, it really meant a lot to me.

 Overall, the night raised an amazing £1911.60 (nett!!)  I could not be happier with how much was raised.  Thank you to everyone for the support and the effort some people went to to get to the ceilidh as well.  It really means a lot and I cannot say thank you enough.  It was lovely to hear how everyone enjoyed themselves and it just makes fundraising that wee bit easier when people are happy to help and enjoy it as well!

I would also like to say thank you to Cameron for taking loads of great pictures!

 Now that I’m half way there, it just makes me more determined to go. Just some more fundraising and that’ll be me there and ready to go!

Before the ceilidh

Just before I thank everyone for the ceilidh I just want to say thank you for the donations I received before it.

I got two smartie tubes back from Andrew and the Knox family.

Also, from where I lived when I was wee, my next door neighbours wrote a letter and donated £30! Thank you to Jimmy and Netta.

Also thank you to Ella and Ewan who donated on my Virgin Money Giving page as well.

More thank yous for donations

Even with the ceilidh coming up which most people are coming to, people are still being so generous with donations.

I've had so many smartie tubes back, so thank you to the Knox household, Kirsten, the Lindsay household, my Granny, Lauren, and Erin.

Also thank you so much to everyone who has donated because they cannot make it to the ceilidh, Jeremy, John and Mrs Bryce.

And a big thank you to everyone who has donated on my virgin money giving page; Lois, Stuart, Elizabeth and Ian, Chris and Ken, Chloe and Alan.

A really big thank you to Gordon who has donated £50! Thank you so much.

I also got back another letter from a charitable trust for £100. Thank you very much it was very appreciated.

Thank you to everyone and I hope everyone who can make it is looking forward to the ceilidh!