Fundraising drive as the Bo'ness Fair Day's appeals week draws near

The organising committee are busy behind the scenes ensuring everything’s in place to give the town a fantastic Fair, however there’s a real drive this year on fundraising for the event.

Grants which were once available for hosting community events are no longer available and the committee must source more of the £80,000 required to stage the Fair for themselves.

A series of fundraisers have already taken place, including a children’s Christmas party, a quiz night, a ball, a Bongo Bingo afternoon and a cabaret afternoon, collectively raising around £10,000 for the ‘best day of the year’.

Further fundraising is planned in the coming weeks.

A golf competition will take place at West Lothian Golf Club on May 6 and a craft fair is planned in the Town Hall on May 20, both of which are fully subscribed.

Local businesses are continuing to show their support for the event, which is by far the biggest in the community’s calendar. The Fair has been awarded funds by The Alan Steel Foundation, Miller Homes and Tesco. Many smaller businesses have also taken out adverts in the Fair Programme, which goes to print in early May.

A lottery has also been launched this year by the committee and is a valuable source of income with around 200 tickets sold every week.

The focus on fundraising comes as it costs around £80,000 to run The Fair. In the past Falkirk Council gave organisers a grant that helped substantially towards the cost of putting on the day, however with everyone’s budgets being tightened, this funding is no longer available for the Fair and other such community events.

Although the committee was successful in receiving around £14,000 from the latest round of the council’s Community Choices programme, these funds have to be used for capital items and not running costs for the day.

Frank McGarry, chairman of the Fair explained the capital grant from the council will be used to purchase a large marquee and to have banners made for use around the town, but it cannot be used for revenue expenses such as paying for bands, erecting grandstands, providing toilets and ensuring road closures are made safely. Council funding to help with these expenses is no longer available.

As a result, Frank said Bo’ness is going to have to be almost fully self-sufficient going forward.

And that’s where the ongoing fundraising comes in, with the committee’s main funding drive Appeals Week coming later this month through the door-to-door collections.

A team of volunteers will be putting envelopes through every door in Bo’ness during the week beginning April 24 to collect donations from residents to help the committee continue to provide a top class event.

Frank added: “There are over 7000 homes in the town, delivering these envelopes is a logistical masterclass but experience tells us that this is the easiest and the most acceptable way for the people of Bo’ness to donate to us. If every household gave us £3 it would help us enormously to close our funding gap.”

This year’s Bo’ness Fair takes place on Friday, June 30 when Queen Elect Lexi Scotland will be crowned in Glebe Park.

To find out more visit www.thefairday.com