Church echoes to sounds of music for fundraiser
There was singing and worship as a Black Country church's praise group put on a marathon fundraising concert.
The group from Kingswinford Methodist Church, who are called Into the Light, put on a 12-hour marathon concert at the church on Saturday, September 23 between 9am and 9pm to help raise much-needed funds to pay off a boiler replacement.
The original boiler at the church stopped working on Christmas Day last year and after it was found it couldn't be replaced, the church replaced it at a cost of £27,500, a cost covered by a £5,000 grant from Dudley Council and a loan from the Methodist Circuit for the remaining funds.
Fundraiser organiser John Mearman, who also played bass in the band accompanying the group, said the church was required to pay back the loan inside four years, so had been looking at fundraising events and said it was band leader Megan Ashmore who had had the idea for the singing event.
He said: "The praise group plays every couple of weeks at the church and we were in practice one Friday and Megan who conducts the band came up with the idea of doing the event in conversation with a few other members as we needed to find a way to pay off this boiler.
"They were talking and said 'what about a sponsored singing marathon', which they then put to the group and got it organised with food and drink for that Saturday."
The playlist for the day was a mixture of modern worship songs, varying from subject to subject and in speed and tempo, with several books of music being used throughout the event.
Mr Mearman said the band and singers took part in shifts throughout the day and said around 50 people had come in throughout to take in the music and make donations.
He said: "We took it in shifts with the music as, otherwise, my fingers would have dropped off and we think as many as 50 people came in to see us in action, not just from our church, but from other Methodist churches from around the area, staying for an hour or so.
"We don't yet know how much we've raised as people are still making donations and getting the sponsorship money off the people who sponsored them, but we didn't really set a target, so just grateful for what we get.
"We're as proud of what we've done as we can be in a modest way and while we found the idea of doing 12-hours very daunting, it really flew by.
"I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in this event and who supported us and we've got an number of other ideas for fundraising, such as quizzes, Beetle drives, jumble sales and other events."
