Lighthouse Marlow 2022 - Chairman’s report
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This year Lighthouse Marlow ran from 1 – 5 August. The weather was good (dry and not too hot!) and all teams contributed to giving the children a fantastic week of activities and learning about events in the Bible.
The theme this year was ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, with each day focusing on a different event from the Bible– Adam and Eve, Jesus’ birth, Jesus calms the storm, the crucifixion and resurrection and the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples.
Every day all children took part in sport, craft and drama activities in their age groups, with everyone together for ‘Mainstage’ at the start and end of the day for worship, introduction to the story for the day and games. Lighthouse always includes a lot of fun for the children and this year the messy games in the afternoon Mainstage session were even messier than usual, and those helpers who lost in the games and were ‘gunked’ really regretted it!
Following two years of restrictions caused by the Covid pandemic the Trustees hoped that Lighthouse 2022 would attract a lot of new volunteers which, with regular volunteers, would enable us to take up to 350 children aged 5-11. The reality was that it proved difficult to attract sufficient volunteers, leading to a smaller Lighthouse than had been planned.
Many of the changes which had been implemented in 2021 were agreed to be successful and were incorporated into the planning for 2022. These included a tent for each age group, no large sports tent or mainstage tent, staggered arrival and pick up times for children, and on-line training for previous adult volunteers.
Fifty of our volunteers had not helped at Lighthouse before, 27 adults and 23 teenagers; others had volunteered at other Lighthouse holiday weeks, but this was their first time at Marlow. We had a total of 239 volunteers, 151 aged 18 or over and 88 aged between 12 and 17. Many of the adults helped for only part of the time, most of the young helpers helped all week. Three of our volunteers were Ukrainian.
A total of 450 applications were made for children to attend. Priority was given to children living in Marlow or attending Marlow schools; applications from the parents of Ukrainian children were also prioritised. Of these 450 applications 333 were offered places at Lighthouse Marlow and 24 applications were declined as Lighthouse was full. The remaining 93 applications were cancelled by their parents, some at the very last minute, meaning that it was often not possible to re-allocate the place as parents had already made other arrangements for their children. 21 Ukrainian children were offered places; of these 15 attended Lighthouse.
Although parents are not allowed to enter the site for safeguarding reasons, our Mainstage sessions are live streamed on Facebook, this gives parents an opportunity to see what goes on at Lighthouse. This enables parents to feel involved in what their children are doing.
Feedback from volunteers and parents was, as always, overwhelmingly positive. Lighthouse is valued by many parents for its caring, inclusive nature and in this environment children thrive. The following extract is from one parent’s feedback:
“Of all the things I love about Lighthouse Marlow- the ethos, the fun, the positivity of the volunteers, the music, being able to watch main stage on Facebook (love this feature btw) - my over-riding love is how it turns my anxious, clingy daughter into a happy, independent spirit within a matter of days. Lighthouse has reminded both of us that her confidence and happiness is not that far away and just needs the right environment to flourish. It is the week she looks forward to the most out of all the holidays and what you all do is wonderful”
Thanks are due to our many volunteers and to the parents, churches, church members and organisations who have supported us financially, through volunteering and/or in kind this year. We were pleased to obtain substantial grants and donations from the South West Chilterns Community Board, Marlow Town Council, the Shanly Foundation and from the company of a Lighthouse volunteer. We also received donations from the Round Table, Marlow Thames Rotary Club and Marlow Bridge Lodge.
Sarah Jones
Lighthouse Chairman January 2023
| MARLOW LIGHTHOUSE ACCOUNTS Income & Expenditure Account BUDGET 330 Gift Aid donations Gift Aid tax rebate donations from churches corporate donations other donations from individuals T shirt sales other fundraising tea tent plus cafe total income marquee hire insurance Lighthouse Central and DBS Contribution to HT or LHC stationery & printing for teaching/TH T Shirts mainstage expenses site expenses craft misc expenses tea tent teen event Creche/Little LH/4s Expenses from prior years not claimed total expenditure SURPLUS FOR YEAR |
LHM 2022 £ kids 224 help 9,000.00 2,250.00 2,000.00 2,000.00 2,000.00 750.00 1,000.00 19,000.00 10,000.00 475.00 2,489.00 500.00 300.00 750.00 1,500.00 500.00 250.00 200.00 0.00 200.00 0.00 17,164.00 1,836.00 |
LHM 2022 TO DATE 5,869.22 1,579.06 1,350.00 5,804.54 1,179.50 1,263.98 842.50 27.80 |
| 17,916.60 | ||
| 9,396.46 439.03 2,672.50 600.00 124.83 1,027.26 0.00 2,223.00 111.78 9.99 0.00 0.00 12.12 |
||
| 16,616.97 | ||
| 1,299.63 | ||
| Balance Sheet Statement of reserves reserves b/fwd Capital transfer surplus for year reserves c/fwd Represented by |
2022 £ 24,008.10 1,299.63 |
|
| 25,307.73 | ||
| balance per bank statement add uncleared bankings less unpresented cheques less prior year unpresented cheques less accrual cash book balance |
26,807.73 0.00 -1,500.00 |
|---|---|
| 25,307.73 | |
| SHOULD BE 0 | 0.00 |
| Donations from churches | ACTUAL |
|---|---|
| CTM | |
| Christchurch URC | 250 |
| St Marys Marlow Bottom | |
| St Peters | |
| All Saints | |
| Baptist | 100 |
| All Saints Bells | 250 |
| MB Methodist | 150 |
| Methodist | 500 |
| River church | |
| DCC All Saints | |
| Cooinda | 100 |
| 1,350.00 | |
| Donations from corporates | |
| Bucks CC | |
| MTC | 1000 |
| Masons | 300 |
| Brand Events | |
| Got this Entertainment | |
| S&G legal services Rachels charity | |
| Marlow Thames Rotary Clu | 454.54 |
| Waitrose | |
| Co-op | |
| David | |
| Tower Garage | |
| Marlow FM | |
| Round Table | 550 |
| Chiltern Molecular | 1000 |
| Shanly Foundation | 1000 |
| Community Fund | 1500 |
| Chives | |
| 5804.54 | |
| Other fundraising | |
| Phoenix cards | |
| Pancake day | 560 |
| PITP | |
| PITP |
Santa fun run
| Santa fun run | |
|---|---|
| Sale of tote bags to GMS Sale of paintings Barn dance |
282.50 |
| 842.50 |