We need a new bus!
In the fourteen years we have been helping the homeless and needy of Chesterfield and Matlock we have used a number of different buses. Clearly we can never afford to buy a brand new bus so we have to buy a second-hand bus. We then convert the internal space to provide a serving area, storage for clothes etc. and most importantly comfortable seating for our guests.
Our current bus is getting a bit long-in-the-tooth. We are suffering with regular breakdowns and expensive repairs. We have therefore launched a campaign to raise the money to buy us a new bus (or rather a ‘new’ second-hand bus!).
We’ve asked Aviva for Support
As part of our campaign we have applied for funding from Aviva’s Community Fund. We will only be successful if enough people go onto the Aviva website and vote for us. So please, please, get voting!
How to Vote
Go to https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/project/view/4-1127 and click on the link that says “Register and Log In”. (you’ll find it on the right just underneath the banner telling you how many people have voted for us). Then, unless you’ve already got an account with Aviva, you need to click on “Register Now” so that you can create an account. Fill in your email address, choose a password, and add your name. Aviva will then send you an email message. You need to open this email and click on “Confirm your email address”. This takes you back to the Aviva website where you complete your registration by 1) ticking a box to say whether you’re a customer or not, 2) leaving the box in Contact Preferences blank if you don’t want Aviva contacting you, 3) ticking to accept the terms and conditions, and 4) click on “Complete Your Registration”.
You should now be on a page saying “It’s time to vote”. In the Search Project Titles and Organisation box type ‘replacement bus’ and click search. In the search results click on the picture of our bus. You can then give us between 1 and 10 votes. (We hope you will give us all ten of your votes!). Don’t forget to click on “Submit votes”. You will then have an opportunity to give us further support towards buying our new bus by posting on Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you to all those who voted for us on the Aviva Community Fund website.
Here is the latest news from our chief fundraiser Bob Littlewood:
There is good news and bad news. The bad news first – the announcement of the Aviva finalists was made at 2 pm today and we are not amongst them.The reason given was that we did not accumulate enough votes in our section to make the finals. I checked the finalists out and found that 2 of the finalists in our section had substantially less votes than us (2582 and 4044 against our 4238) so I rang Aviva and queried it. I was told that this year they have introduced 2 ‘wild card’ entries in each section, who were seen as deserving charities who hadn’t reached the needed number of votes, so 2 of the applicants in our section received less votes than us but have gone through to the Finals.
As all the applicants were bona fide charities like us, with a similar need for the money as us, I don’t think we can (or should) take this any further, but it’s a bit disappointing when everything pointed to the number of votes being crucial in this first stage.
However, the good news. This morning I had a phone call from the Fine and Country Foundation, which is a fund I applied to for bus funding a few months ago. They are giving us £3,000 towards a new bus, which means we now have £7,750 in hand towards our goal. I have also just submitted another application for £25,000 to The Derbyshire Police Commissioner’s fund towards a new bus, so there is a chance there as well