Faith in the Community: Race round the island will raise funds

My colleague Dan Greenfield and I will be trading pulpits for paths on Monday 17th March, as we’ll be leading two teams in a three-day race around the Isle of Wight.

Our goal is to raise funds for the crucial ‘Save Our Gutters’ (SOG) project at Holy Rood Church in Stubbington. It might not sound like the most exciting thing, but we’re trying to make the fundraising as exciting as we can!

Both teams will start from Freshwater and walk in opposite directions, with the first team to light a candle at Quarr Abbey three days later declared the winner. It’s going to get fiercely competitive, I suspect!

All of the sponsorship we’ll get will go to the SOG project, to replace the church's deteriorating guttering, a problem that has persisted for over two decades. It’s an unglamorous, but essential, piece of maintenance at Holy Rood, the parish church of Stubbington and Hill Head.

These buildings are more than places of worship, they're community centres. Our building hosts all sorts of things, including groups for parents and toddlers, the Young at Heart club for anyone aged over 55, and so much more. Essential maintenance like this ensures their longevity, especially in the face of increasingly challenging weather.

The overall cost of this project is around £45,000, but we already have some grants in place. It means that we need to raise around £15,000 ourselves. The Rev Dan Greenfield is my clergy colleague at Holy Rood, and we thought a quick bout of intense rivalry would be a good way to raise some of the money needed.

Other fundraising events include a Spring Fayre at Holy Rood Church on Saturday 15 March, where there will be stalls, crafts. a café and more.

We’re even suggesting that people could sponsor a metre or half-a-metre of our guttering directly. It costs £40 to install 0.5m of guttering and £75 to install one metre.

You can find out more about the Race Around the Island and other fundraising opportunities on Holy Rood’s website https://croftonparish.org.uk/about/save-our-gutters-sog/. You can choose to support either Dan or I, or both of us. And you can follow the race’s progress on the church’s social media channels.

HOLY ROOD CHURCH, Gosport Road, Stubbington

www.croftonparish.org.uk