 Photograph by kind permission of The Coastrider |  |
Bar Stop Pulls It Off For Afghan Heroes
With the sun shining down over 100 people poured into The Bar Stop in Urbanisation La Marina for the Good Friday Fun Day for Afghan Heroes. Even though it is on of the smallest bars in the area they wanted to raise money to help support British Troops in Afghanistan. Many of the customers and staff have relatives in the forces, or have served themselves.
Afghan Heroes Charity, based in the UK was formed in September 2009 by 8 mothers whose sons all died on 2 days in July of that year. They have recently had a bike ride held for them through Wootton Bassett, which raised much needed funds. Some of the projects that Afghan Heroes are pursuing is sending 10,000 gift boxes – one to each soldier serving in Afghanistan, and setting up of support groups for the families of the True Heroes that have lost their lives. Another of the projects will be to re-train soldiers who have been injured and can no longer fight for their country.
Ray Churchill, contacted Jackie Lawson, who runs www.expats4afghanheroes.com, which is the Spanish branch of Afghan Heroes. Ray was so moved by reports of Jackie’s fundraising that he was prepared to have his chest waxed on the day to raise money.
There was plenty of fun to be had. People came dressed for the occasion in army uniforms, baby costumes and even a wounded soldier. Everyone was out to have a great day, and dig deep into their pockets.
The afternoon kicked off with a raffle, with all the prizes having been donated by other business in the area. You could also try your hand at “shove halfpenny” and “Hit the card with a dart”
Soon it was time to tuck into the Bar-b-que, of which part of the money was being donated to Afghan Heroes, along with a percentage of all the drinks bought from the bar.
By 5.30pm Ray had built up the courage to have his sponsored chest wax. The crowd of locals who attended were more than willing to up his sponsorship money by paying 5 Euros to pull a strip off.
When the first strip was ripped off Ray told the crowd that, “That wasn’t too bad”. He soon changed his mind as the waxing progressed and the redness started to show!
“The small amount of pain that I went through is nothing compared to what some of our brave lads go through who have limbs missing.” Said Ray afterwards.
With an auction, and play your cards right, plus the sale of Afghan Heroes wristbands and car stickers for sale there was plenty of money changing hands
Ray, Margaret and Annette who run Bar Stop originally had a target of 1000 Euros that they wanted to raise.
The very generous people at the Fun Day smashed that target by raised 1542 Euros.
Jackie, who attended the fun day said” I am over the moon and can’t thank people enough. They are a group of very special people who dug deep for our very special troops. It means everything for a soldier to know that someone cares about them, and expats in Spain are doing just that.”
