For Acton Homeless, CEDARS and Shooting Stars Children's Hospice

Acton Homeless Concern, CEDARS and Shooting Stars Children's Hospice each received cheques for £6,333 from Fr Anthony Dwyer, Parish Priest of Our Lady of Grace and St Edward's RC Church, Chiswick on behalf of the Chiswick Summer Fair.

The Chiswick Summer Fair has become one of the most popular family social events in the calendar and is exceptional in that it gives 100% of its profits to local charities. The event has been running in its current form for 5 years and has now distributed a total of £59,000 to local charities.

Over 3000 people attended the Fair on 11 July and with the support of local businesses such as Fullers, Optimal Spine Clinic, the Riverside Club, Porsche, Volvo, Marble City and Edward D'Arc, the Fair bucked the recession to raise a record £19,000.

Presenting the cheques, Fr Tony said, "When we started organising this year's Fair, back in January in the depths of a national recession, I doubted whether the businesses and families of Chiswick would enthusiastically support another charity appeal. I couldn't have been more wrong - it has been a superb effort by the team of organisers. This is my first year as patron and I was delighted to discover how the communities of Chiswick and Gunnersbury come together to raise money and have a fun-filled family day out".

The 2009 fair committee was chaired by Lynne Hill, commenting about the selected charities she said, "We invite applications from local charities each year and have selected three very worthy charities as this year's beneficiaries".

Ian Breen from Acton Homeless Concern was shocked explaining he was "hoping to receive a cheque for a few hundred pounds!" He said, “The recession has created many more homeless people in west London who have turned to the centre in Acton for support - the gift would help fund its drug and alcohol dependency counselling work as well as providing medical and personal hygiene support for homeless people in the area.” He thanked Fr Tony on behalf of the many homeless people in West London that Acton Homeless Concern supports.

Mike Hey from Shooting Stars thanked the Fair committee explaining the work that the Hospice does and specifically how the gift would go along way towards funding its hydrotherapy pool for 2010.

Carol Powers was delighted to receive a cheque for CEDARS and explained how CEDARS provides a much needed support network for young people at its drop in centre in Chiswick. The donation would directly benefit the young people in Chiswick that CEDARS supports.

November 18, 2009