Reg Vardy provides musical cheer to support charity work

The Reg Vardy Band has helped to raise nearly £1300 to assist the wonderful work of the local Pact House charity in providing essential help to families over the Christmas period.

The Reg Vardy Band helped support the outstanding work of the Pact House charity

Sunday, 17 January 2021

Following a well-received 'Musical Advent Calendar' fund-raising initiative over the festive period, the Reg Vardy Band has been delighted to be able to hand over the sum of £1287 to PACT House Stanley to support its future work within the local community.

Essential help

Pact House, is a food bank and community hub in Stanley, County Durham, and under the management of Darren McMahon MBE provides essential help to local people in need.

Over the challenging festive period for families its services were in great demand with volunteers working tirelessly to provide household items, food parcels and hot meals.

On Christmas Day Pact House delivered 161 free Christmas lunches around the Stanley area.

Members of the Reg Vardy Band were keen to offer their support and came up with the idea to put some musical cheer into the lead up to Christmas and to say thanks to the wonderful work of the charity.

Spokesperson Jillian Dixon told 4BR: "The idea of a musical advent calendar came up during one of our weekly band Zoom chats. Graeme Tindall, our principal cornet, volunteered to put together the remote recordings, and we were under way!"

Home recordings

Band members recorded their parts in their own homes before Graeme and his wife Janice, who plays in the band spent many hours making the daily videos to feature on a special Just Giving page. Amazingly, a new carol was presented every day from 1st December until Christmas Day.

A generous donation from the band's sponsor, The Vardy Foundation, pushed the total towards £1000 and the total finally reached nearly £1300.

On Christmas Day Pact House delivered 161 free Christmas lunches around the Stanley area4BR

Thanks

Jillian added: "The band would like to thank everyone for their generosity — especially band members for giving their time.

Thanks also go to Karbon Homes for their generous direct donation in response to our socially distanced carol playing at their sheltered facilities, those who donated to the Just Giving page and finally our tech team for their hours of hard work and their expertise."

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