His Master’s Voice: Summer fundraising goes online

Summer is usually a fantastic time at the Furniture Makers, what with the plethora of outdoor events we organise that bring the industry together.

By this point in our calendar, we’d normally have already had our very popular clay pigeon shoot Big Shots and the super competitive Five-a-side football tournament.

Unfortunately, as a result of lockdown, we have been unable to hold these successful fundraising events, which raise vital funds for the charity.

This is a great shame, but we’re working hard to ensure that the National Golf Day goes ahead in some form, and we have come up with a socially distant golf event for those who want to get their practice in!

On the subject of working hard, our welfare team have been working relentlessly, responding to increased requests for our Personal Support Grants from people in the industry who have been impacted.

The number of applications we’ve been received have been 20 times higher than what we’d normally receive and we expect those numbers to rise significantly in the coming months.

With this increased demand comes a need to raise more money to help us support even more of our industry colleagues in their hour of need.

Answering this call, our Fundraising Committee has organised a fantastic Online Charity Auction, which is running until Friday 7 August, featuring 37 fabulous lots donated by members and supporting organisations. There is something for everyone so please get involved select your favourite and keep bidding.

If you don’t see anything you like you can still help by making a donation online. Please remember that we are here for those in the furniture and furnishing industry who need support but to do so we need your support for which I thank you in anticipation. Let’s all get stuck in and make this auction a great success, so we can support people like Jennifer.

She worked for a bedding manufacturer for five years before being made redundant at the start of lockdown. She was able to apply for Universal Credit but the payments barely covered her rent and bills.

To make matters worse, Jennifer’s two children had grown out of their school uniforms and she was unable to put any money aside each month to foot the bill.

Jennifer had heard about The Furniture Makers’ Company through her previous employer and decided to reach out for support.

We were able to award her a two-month Personal Support Grant and help relieve some of the stress she is experiencing.

She said: “Thank you so much for your generosity and understanding. It’s not easy to have to ask for help when I’m used to being so independent. You’ve made me feel so comfortable in doing so and it really means a lot to me.”

The Online Charity Auction can be visited here – http://easydonate.org/furniture and for more information, download the catalogue.