Fundraising Appeal- Help us to raise £12,000 before December 2015!

Sadly, we were not successful in our recent funding bid for the remaining project costs.  Following discussions with another grant funder we have been advised to raise a further £12,000 (taking our total fundraising to £50,000) to enable us to make a bid for the remaining £50,000 of the funds we need.  By securing 50% of our project costs, this will give our application priority over those applications which have not reached this milestone.

So there we have it- just over 2 months to raise an extra £12,000!  We are confident that with the help of the local community and our local businesses we can achieve this ambitious target!  Please see our DONATIONS page to find out how you can contribute towards this very worthwhile cause that will help to rejuvenate the heart of our community.

Fundraising success at the Old Coulsdon Village Fair!

At the Old Coulsdon Village Fair on Saturday 4 July 2015 the Friends hosted a double pitch stall to exhibit 4 potential designs for the new playground and to continue their fundraising efforts.

All 4 designs were very well received and adults and children alike were impressed to see the range of equipment and play experiences we can potentially include within the footprint of the existing playground.

We hosted a luxury raffle with all 25 or so prizes generously sponsored by local businesses with family days out, restaurant meals, ladies jewellery sets and the STAR prize of a photographic canvas print of Grange Park at dawn by local photographer Gary Watson.

We also offered a brand new toy tombola for the children, with all toys generously sponsored by wholesalers and toy manufacturers in England. 

Overall our fundraising efforts on the day made £1,000 towards the playground renovation.

Of course, we haven't yet raised all the money we need for a new installation, though we are doing very well.  So far we have raised just over £30,000 out of the total project costs of around £100,000.  We are determined to make this project a success, and with the community's continued support, we can make it happen!

Application to Veolia Environmental Trust

We have submitted a grant funding application to Veolia for the balance of project funds we need for the playground renovation (circa £75,000).  We will learn of the outcome later this year, but the Friends are keeping both fingers and toes crossed for a successful outcome!  In the meantime we will continue our fundraising efforts with the Old Coulsdon Village Fair on Saturday 4th July 2015.

Vice-Chair Hannah Price-Harries presents the Friends' ambitions for Grange Park at Fairfield Halls in Croydon

Our Vice-Chair, Hannah Price-Harries, was invited to speak to an audience of volunteers, council officers and other stakeholders interested in the parks and green spaces of Croydon at Fairfield Halls on 24 March 2015.  The event was titled, 'Ambitions for Croydon's parks and green spaces'.  It was an excellent opportunity to engage key personnel in the council with our plans and ambitions.  Senior council officers showed great interest in our plans and pledged to support our campaign.

Fundraising Success at our Easter Eggstravaganza!

Despite the overcast and chilly weather, the Friends were overwhelmed by the huge turnout for our Easter Eggstravaganza at Grange Park on Saturday 4th April.  Our Easter Trail around Grange Park proved to be tremendously popular and the 250 donated chocolate Easter eggs we sourced from local shops and supermarkets were quickly exhausted so we had to hunt around local superstores for more!

We teamed up with the Under 3s Club for the event who provided a fantastic array of craft activities, pop corn and candy floss and even kindly lent us their bouncy castle!

In partnership with Quadron, we invited the community to join us in sowing a wild flower meadow in the park.  We eagerly anticipate the blooms of our success in the summer months!  We are also grateful to Quadron for their donation of £250.

The mini balloons we sold at the event were generously donated by Amscan, to whom we are very grateful.

We can reveal that the lovely Easter Bunny was Pat Ward-Lee, who took to the role perfectly.

Many people in the community kindly baked cakes for us to sell at our event, and we are very grateful for this support.  

Our photographers, Michael Sansom and Gary Watson were absolute stars and captured some lovely moments for us on camera.

We raised over £2,000 at this event.  The Friends wish to thank the community for their continued support and generosity.

£5,000 awarded through Croydon Council's Active Communities Fund!

We are delighted that Croydon Council have chosen to support our playground renovation with a substantial contribution of £5,000!  This takes us to around £23,000 in fundraising to date, and only £2,000 short of our target of £25,000 before we are able to apply to large grant funders for the remaining project costs.