Day 59 - When Foxie was on a timescale (or our first event!)

We're so excited to say that this blog is being written from The Main Hall in The Lodge at Foxlease Park as our first event is taking place - the Raise the Rafters 24-Hour Sing being organised for us by a group of our wonderful supporters to fundraise for us and it's been SO amazing for us to welcome back the special group of people who fundraised so hard for us and those who have come along for the first two hours (we're 1.5 hours in so far) of this fundraising event. 

We'll do the usual update on daily activity on site shortly (and oh my goodness the team on site today did SO much that it's difficult to express in words just how much without the capital letters!) but before that we've got to try to explain the way that seeing everyone come back and love the progress we've made makes us feel - again, one of those things that's difficult to put into words, but we'll try briefly - WE MADE IT!!  We hoped we'd get here when we started fundraising all that time ago (that feels forever but really wasn't so long ago) but we didn't really imagine how much relief, and happiness, and personal satisfaction we'd feel knowing that we've really, really done it and Foxlease Park is safe and being loved - it probably won't still feel properly real for a long time, and we've still got so much more to do but, on a personal note, putting the finishing touches up in The Lodge today and seeing the new sign up on the wall and people's joy at being back is something really pretty special and a big milestone for us!  The ups and downs on site are different from those we had when we didn't know if we'd manage the enormous thing which we were trying to do and without being too emotional about it (although it's quite an emotional day for the Team in some ways) some of the songs being sung at the fundraiser today are amongst those that helped remind us why we were doing what we were doing even when it was hard and its lovely to hear them again in different circumstances ("Somewhere there's a forest" being one for Emma personally).

So, on to progress today....our volunteers started early and worked solidly for the first 3-5 hours of the day without pause to make sure that the ground floor of The Lodge was ready to welcome the 24-Hour Sing and to host the team staying overnight and as you all now know, we managed it!  It started with Hazel cleaning the kitchen again at 8am whilst Emma ran around doing the weekly fire call point tests (running up and down the stairs is no joke!) which was a bit loud for a while but we couldn't spare a second person to stand in the lobby to push the buttons as there was too much to do!  They were soon joined by volunteers who worked SO hard for hours preparing all the crockery for this evening's event, hoovering (so much hoovering), painting some last minute walls that didn't look quite right, scrubbing and so much spot cleaning throughout.  We moved things that shouldn't be in The Lodge out, we moved things that should be in.  We updated fire exit signage, applied new stickers and we dread to think how may steps the team did before 12pm today! Huge thanks to Volunteers Clare, Claire, Tracy, Steph, April and Carole and to Zoe and Alison who ran around fitting mattress covers, checking things and updating signage, all alongside the office tasks which they were trying to complete with Viv and Teresa in the office.

As usual, as if that weren't enough, the same volunteer team went even further for us and cut back the pathways for our evening guiests to use and lifted and shifted and shovelled and moved enough stone to fill the holes up the drive all the way to the barrier, which made for a lovely mooth exit and arrival for those who have used the driveway since.  We know the volunteers will feel it tomorrow and we're so grateful to them for their hard work.

Alongside all of that we had Volunteers Alison and Sandra finishing off an exhausting week of cleaning the dining room and the serving room in Foxlease House and they then went even further for us before they had to end their week's stay of hard work and cleaned the corridors outside that area too.  We are truly grateful for the magical transformation they achieved this week and we can't wait to welcome them back soon (Foxie did let them leave on the condition that they return).

The final excitement, which you can see photographed, was that Volunteer Pete dropped by to show us his progress on the Golden Clock - it's still ongoing but it looks great so far!  AND Mr D. Hugh Midifier AKA Derek, arrived and was installed in The Coach House!

We'll update on the singing and progress on site again tomorrow afternoon as usual, Love Foxie x