£1,245.11 raised for Parkinson’s UK over Christmas

Thanks to generous donators around Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch over the Christmas period, we raised £1,245.11 for Parkinson’s UK. 

Saxophonist, Jo, tells the tale of our busking sessions…

Tilly the dog showing appreciation for our playing!

‘T’was the lead up to Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. However if you went to your local shopping venues you may have been lucky enough to listen to the festive jingles from the BDCB players.

Every Christmas, it is a tradition of the band to send out small groups of musicians to various venues to perform our favourite Christmassy carols in order to raise money for charity. In December we chose to busk for Parkinson’s UK, a charity which is close to the band’s heart and no doubtedly to many of our listeners too.

Joey the puppy came to support our busking outside Tesco Extra in Bournemouth

We visited many shopping venues such as Tesco (Castle Lane and Poole), Waitrose (Christchurch),
Castlepoint and the BH2 complex. Some of the sessions proved challenging in the cold or wet
however we continued to play and supporters continued to give. Not only to the charity but also by
providing delicious treats to the members playing. Clearly, we must have either been playing extremely well
or they took pity on us in the rain! None the less, we thoroughly enjoyed the goodies received!

We also had help from a number of volunteers, both from our two-legged and our four-legged friends. Each and every one of those helpers played a massive part in collecting and without them, it would be extremely difficult for the band alone to achieve the target we set out to make.

A team of buskers outside Tesco Extra, Castle Lane

We always like to beat our previous year’s target and last year we fetched a total of £1,005.91 which we
raised for Cancer Research UK.

This is an amazing achievement and it’s all thanks to our merry donators! No matter how big or
small, every penny counts and will go a long way to helping those in need.

Don’t worry if you’ve missed us, we will be busking again this year. But if you simply cannot wait until then, you can find out about our latest events on our upcoming concerts page or on our Facebook page or Instagram account.

On behalf of the Bournemouth and District Concert Band, we hope you had a great Christmas
and we would like to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

By Jo on saxophone