Because St George’s Day is all about the 3 C’s (courage, chivalry and charity) we have decided to link up with Haven House Children’s Hospice in order to promote the charitable aspect of the day.
During our St George’s Day event in Islington we intend to collect money for the Hospice and hopefully increase awareness of this very worthy cause.
The link also helps our group in that we obviously get some ‘reflected glory’ from the relationship.
We’ve now received 60 photos from celebrities and the majority have been very supportive. Most have written ‘Happy St George’s Day’ on their photo.
But 11 of them have refused, that’s 1 in 5. Why?
Even Lorraine Kelly, a proud Scot, has sent us a photo wishing us a ‘Happy St George’s Day’ and we have received many from black and asian celebrities.
The ones that have refused, naming no names, tend to be white English. What’s their problem?
England lags far behind the rest of Europe in the number of bank holidays we get. A bank holiday on Saint Georges Day would be a great opportunity for all the English (regardless of colour or religion) to recognise what binds us together – instead of concentrating on our differences.
Everything from cricket to curry could be celebrated on our national day.
Northern Ireland already has a bank holiday on St. Patrick’s Day, the Scottish Parliament has introduced a voluntary Bank Holiday on St. Andrew’s Day and the Welsh Assembly agree that St. David’s Day should be a holiday.
Help us persuade the government to give England a bank holiday on St Georges Day. Take the day off work on Wednesday 23 April, 2008. If we all take a holiday on the same day it will send a powerful message to those in charge.
Visit our website www.stgeorgesholiday.com for more details.
Celebrate St. Georges Day with friends and family.
It’s difficult for a small group like ours to get celebrity endorsements. We’ve got no money and not a big enough name to attract them.
Our solution has been to ask celebrities not to endorse us, but to endorse St. George’s Day. We written to most of the TV Soap Stars asking them to send us a photo with the words ‘Happy St. George’s Day’ or a similar St. George greeting.
Guess what, it works!
We’ve had a number of stars who are quite happy to wish all the English a ‘Happy St. George’s Day’. To see the list so far go to http://www.stgeorgesholiday.com/holiday_supporters_stars.asp
Found a great illustrator for our St George ‘face boards’ (more about those later, its a secret, shhh!), his cartoon style of illustration will hopefully make St George appeal to a younger audience.
I was initially put off by the fact that he lives in New Zealand, but I got references from him and checked them out. All seemed fine.
Naturally he is as nervous about doing business anonymously, so we agreed a 15% deposit with the balance payable on completion.
Delivery of the illustrations should be simple as they can be compressed into a Zip folder and sent directly to our printers in the UK.
And his prices are half what I was being charged in the UK.
Isn’t the internet wonderful!?
Just had a quote for one thousand red roses which we can hand out on St George’s Day to the shoppers at the N1 Shooping Centre… just 48p per rose, which I think is great. The best price I had previously was 60p each.
Ok, they are paper roses – but they look like the real thing and come with a bit of green foliage.
It used to be a tradition for men to give their partners a red rose on St George’s Day and it would be nice to bring back the tradition.
Besides, if you forget to buy a present on Valentines Day you can always make it up on St Georges Day!
Started getting quotations in for the play and food market. Some people have been very helpfull on the phone and given some very good advice. But I must not let that sway my decision about who gets the work.
I plan to get 3 quotations on every piece of work, and if one particular supplier has been very helpfull I will invite them to match my lowest quote.
That way I get the best of both worlds, a low price and a helpfull supplier.
Some suppliers believe in our campaign and are prepared to offer a few free extras. It’s always worth trying to get them on board with the campaign.
This is the boring bit. Having to get quotations for our budget and develop a proposal to send to various organisations. Dull.
Apparently we need an accountant to oversee the project or a lot of funding organisations won’t get involved (any offers?). We also need to open a bank account (sounds obvious now, but we completely overlooked it). Bank or building society, which is best?
Initial budget looks like £15,000 to £20,000 for the market and play. I’ve started looking down the back of the sofa for any loose change
We’ve now booked a venue for the St George & Dragon play and English Food Market. It’s the N1 Shopping Centre in Islington.
The food market will be on Saturday 19 April and Sunday 20 April, and the play will be on Wednesday 23 April.
All we need to do now is get some funding!
As the first stage in putting together our St George and the Dragon Play for 2008 we have published a short version of the story (click http://www.stgeorgesholiday.com/images/StGeorgeDragon.pdf to view a .pdf file of the book).
The book has been illustrated (free of charge) by Nicola Robinson. It’s amazing how many people are prepared to offer their time and expertise without charge when they hear about our campaign. There are some really nice people out there.
