Following tradition, August Bank Holiday Sunday 2017 was Summer Soulstice Big Payback Day for Cherry Lodge Cancer Care. However, this year’s event at the Black Horse in Barnet was even more special than usual. As well as being able to enjoy a great selection of music, food and drink, supporters of the festival and our charity gathered to celebrate the handover of a record sum of money.
The first cheque, for £38,500, represented the sum raised by this year’s very successful Summer Soulstice festival, held on Saturday 24th June. Our main photo (right) shows four generations of the Weekes family posing with the big cheque, including Charles, enjoying his 80th birthday, and Richard, a founding Soulstice committee member and brother of Andy, in whose memory the Soulstice festival is held.
The second cheque, for £8,700, was handed over by Giles Pratt, who raised this amazing sum by taking part in the 2017 London Marathon. Having decided to step down after 10 years as Treasurer of Summer Soulstice, Giles wanted to do something extra for Soulstice and Cherry Lodge. We give him our special thanks and are glad that he still intends to stay involved.
Not including the money that Cherry Lodge raises directly each year by manning the Soulstice car park, the total raised for us this year by the Soulstice crew is a magnificent £47,200. Summer Soulstice has been raising money for Cherry Lodge since 2007 and is our biggest third-party fundraiser by far, with the running total now standing at a phenomenal £262,200!
The cheque ceremony was followed by short speeches of thanks from Dave James (Soulstice chairman), Margaret Clark (Cherry Lodge chairman) and Theresa Villiers (MP for Chipping Barnet, a patron of Cherry Lodge and a faithful supporter of Summer Soulstice). Once the formalities were completed, the DJs went back to work and members of the assembled gathering were free to continue their celebrations until midnight.
Click on the small images below to see larger, complete photographs.
