Hi Guys

Feb has been a very slow month, not much happened really, see below.

Storage
We have all our goods ready and waiting to be stored unfortunately the TA cannot help us with storage this year, which is a shame as they have been brilliant. I have rang everyone from council to military services to self storage companies but we cannot get help. So, if you know of anyone who can help with donated storage until Sept , please do get in touch. We really appreciate it very much indeed.

Book sale
We have had confirmation that my place of work will allow us to hold a book sale to raise the funds towards the transport and the various renovations needed at the Orphanage. We have agreed the book sale will be held on 1st April. It is only open to staff so we will see how it goes. We have been donated lots of books and CD from Freegle and friends, which hopefully will sell, but if not ,we will take them to Bulgaria and ask for donations from the expats at our Garden Party. So fingers crossed all goes well.

Easter Chicks
Margaret our very good friend and avid supporter, again comes from Freegle has been knitting little chicks and putting a little cream egg inside. She raise a total of £35.50 when she took them to friends - This is a fantastic amount, well done Margaret!! You are a star! Myself and my friend Maureen have been knitting them too and we will bring them to the book sale on 1st April hopefully people will make donations - Oh they are so cute.

The wool project
We have a large box of wool now, but for the project we really need lots more. We have written to all the wool companies but so far only one company has replied and that is Simplywool.com in Scotland. The have been fantastic and send us a bag of wool and Christine also said she would start collecting and send what she can before the load is transported to Bulgaria. Thank you Christine, you have been wonderful! We will keep trying various other companies and of course we have the Freegle members, who have already given us some wool and needles. So if you can help please do get in touch.

People can also knit square for us and the ladies in the home can sew them together and make blankets - We also need lots and lots of good quality clean single blankets, which I will put an appeal our for in due course. We have such a long way to go yet with the wool. Again if you can help or know of anyone who can please do contact us. Special thanks to Elly who is always there to help out and support us. You are a little treasure! thanks.

Donations
A company called Great Gizmos in Crawley kindly send us a box of items for our shoeboxes, this is just fantastic - various items like moulding/bead kits, small board games, novelty handbag notebooks little cup cakes trinket cups and such. They are just lovely and the children will adore them - So thanks a million to Emma and Great Gizmos for helping us out Your donation will make so many children happy.

Also Hush Puppies donated 3 boxes of shoes to us they are mostly for the younger children and another box for the teenage girls although there was also some for the boys too. They are just fantastic so thanks to Sarah and the MD at Leicester for you wonderful donations. And of course a very special thanks to Bruce Dunn our very good friend from Scotland who offered to pick the shoes up on his way down to P'Boro from Scotland - Bruce you are wonderful and truly our guardian angel. Thanks a million time over.

Take a Break Magazine
Well I am sure you have all seen the story in Take a Break magazine - If not it is on the website under the photo gallery. It appears to be based around us, so you have an insight as to how things started and of course our plans for this year. The fee they will give for the article will go directly to the Orphanage fund for the transport and we will have various other fund raising events throughout the coming months and hopefully we will try to raise the transport costs. Although not sure there will be much, if anything left over for the renovations needed - but we will see how it goes. God is good.

The Garden Party
We have finally been given a date for the Garden Party at the Orphanage which is on Saturday Sept 25th from 1pm we do hope we get a lot more British &
Scottish there this year. We had fantastic support from 18 couples last year. Also a friend William and his wife Jo from Shuman came and brought their local mayor and friends too. They were very impressed at what we were doing. A few weeks later William send me an email to say that, his visit had a spin off effect with the Mayor as he came to William house saying he had some good for the children in the Shuman Orphanage. He asked William &
Jo to visit the Orphanage with him. This again, was fantastic new - The children were delighted with the gifts, even though they were feeling poorly at the time. William and Jo said it was fantastic to be able to help a very worthy cause. Well done guys! You did great. Dougie and I hope to have a few boxes we can donate to them this year too.

So you see, the word is spreading and people are beginning to help various other organizations, which is exactly what we set out to achieve. We will also check if we can organize with the various companies and Rotary club etc in Silsitra, if they can contact the local companies to see if they would fill a box of goods and send to the poor in the villagers and various other organizations. I hope to be visiting the local schools to speak with the directors about the children helping too..

Well that is if for now - We will just keep trying to find storage and hope someone will help us. I will keep you updated. Thanks again to all you lovely people who have helped and continue to help us, You are just fantastic and we could not do this without you.

Berni &
Dougie
Dimcho Debelianov

Hi Guys

It is the end of March already and we have had a fantastic month so far

Our biggest news of all is we have found someone to help with secured storage and they have agreed to help where they can. They are the Transport company
‘PC Howard Ltd’ at Kings Cliff who will donate up to 30 pallets of storage space to us!! How wonderful is that ! Not only that, they will drop off the pallets and come and collect them later that day. This is without doubt a fantastic offer for helping within the community. PC Howard Ltd have gone over and above our expectations. What a wonderful company they are. Thank you so much Jon you are a star!!!

They will start collecting this week, again we could do with some helpers for a hour or so, lifting and loading the boxes onto the pallets, so if you have time please let us know. We would be very grateful indeed.

Once the boxes are out of the way, we can make a start covering and filling the shoeboxes. We will be aiming for around 200 shoeboxes this year. Thanks again to all our Freegle helpers who still continue to support us in all our projects even donating the Christmas wrapping paper to us - You are stars!!

We are having our book sale at work ‘Diligent’ on 1st April and I will be taking along some little chicks myself, Maureen and Margaret have knitted and put a crème egg in - they are so cute.. Thanks ladies they are just wonderful and thanks again to all you lovely people on Freegle for the books you donated. The money raised will got toward the various renovations at the Dimcho Orphanage. Special thanks to my friends Maz and Mary for all your support - you have both been superb.

The wool project is coming along nicely, we have almost one 2ft by4ft tall box full. The project is for the people in the home for the elderly to knit garments, blankets etc for the children in the Orphanages and the poor in the villages - If we provide the material they will gladly do the rest. Our sponsor Christine at Simplywool.com is sending us wool from Scotland when she can, bless her she is wonderful! Thanks a million Christine. Of course if you can help with wool/needles/ knitted squares we would be very grateful indeed. This really is a good project as it shows the Bulgarians are actively helping each other too

Tesco at Hampton P’boro have been very supportive to us too;
They donated various items, see the photo of manager Jenny, Dougie, myself and some of the staff with the donated goods. Again a huge thanks to Jenny and all the staff at Tesco’s you are brilliant. Tesco have also allowed us to bag pack in May and we will be bag packing in Sainsbury 29th May too. Again if you can help for an hour or two at either store, please contact us, we would be very grateful indeed.

Our next project is to get good clean blankets, linen and towels for the home for the elderly. Dee, Cheryl and a few more people have already collected a few for us which again is brilliant, thank you, but we have a long way to go. Just had some linen donated from Astoria Park Nursing home P’Boro thanks you so much.

Donations: We are doing well with fundraising and a company in Bulgaria
THB Building Services donated £120, just brilliant!! as well as a young girl at work Rebecca Cragg who donated £30 How wonderful is that - thank you so much you are just fantastic. If we keep going like this we will have the transport costs and have some funds to put towards the renovations too ;
))

Take a break have sent us the fee for the article on Dougie and myself and we have donated the whole fee of £400 to the Orphanage fund - This is just wonderful.

Had a meeting with Carol and Erica and all the Guides at Stilton tonight and they have offered to do some shoeboxes and donated free space for us to have a bootsale on 3r May Stilton Cheese event - again anyone who would volunteer to help with the stall please get in touch. Really looking forward to that.

That is is for another month - Thank you all once again for your ongoing support. You are just fantastic!!!!!!

Berni &
Dougie
Dimcho Debelianov

April Update 2010

Hi Guys

Here we are in April already and we have had a very good month indeed.

We had our book sale at work ‘Diligent’ on 1st April and I also took along some little chicks myself, Maureen and Margaret had knitted and put a crème egg in - they are so cute.. Thanks ladies they are just wonderful and thanks again to all you lovely people on Freegle for the books you donated. We raised £211 which is just brilliant!! The money raised will got toward the various renovations at the Dimcho Orphanage. Special thanks to my friends Maz and Mary for all your support - you have both been superb. See attached picture on our website end of the week

That same night a Bulgarian Accountant Borislav from Nominal Ltd donated £250 to the Silistra Orphanage which he pledged to give us 10% of all the tax returns he does - So thank you so much Borislav you have been fantastic. Also Villa Lorna Bulgaria owners Bryan &
Sheila donated £100 So as you can see we did very well indeed and I am delighted to say we have reached the transport target costs now yepeeeeeeeeee anything raised now re fundraising, from now on will got toward the renovations at the Dimcho. We are absolutely delighted and want to say a special thanks to everyone who has help us again. You are all just fantastic!!!!!!!!!

Also this month we have has broadcasting on the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] presented by a real nice guy Jonathan Taylor. He show is on from 5 to 7pm Mon to Friday, wonderful show and of course the he broadcasts our appeal all free of charge too. Please visit you will really enjoy the show.

We have also been invited by the Stilton Community Association to attend the Stilton Cheese Rolling Championships and hold a book stall. Again free of charge and the Guides will be able to help out too. Carol have also said that they will donate the proceeds from the May Garland Event presented by the Stilton Guides to the Bulgarian Orphanages This is fantastic news.!! Thank you so much this was indeed a big surprise to us.

Shoeboxes update:
We have been covering shoeboxes for the past month. Elly, Maz and myself have spent a few Saturdays covering the boxes. Have done about 120 so far still lots more to do - so will keep going. Next we will fill the boxes with the goods we have been buying and the goods many of you donated. Like ourselves, Maz and Rebecca have been buying supermarkets own brands every month so have now collected a few boxes of toiletries etc we can use for the shoeboxes. Can’t wait to start filling them.

Our biggest news of all is we have found someone to help with secured storage and they have agreed to help where they can. They are the Transport company ‘PC Howard Ltd’ at Kings Cliff who will donate up to 30 pallets of storage space to us!! How wonderful is that ! Not only that, they will drop off the pallets and come and collect them later that day. This is without doubt a fantastic offer for helping within the community. PC Howard Ltd have gone over and above our expectations. What a wonderful company they are. Thank you so much Jon you are a star!!!

They collecting this month, see picture below, again we had some wonderful helpers especially Rick, who not only help us with loading etc he also collects good for us as an when we call on him. He is a fantastic guy!! Thanks a million. We will always need helpers lifting and loading the boxes onto pallets so if you can spare an hour or two please let me know and I can call on you when we know the lorry is coming. We would be very grateful indeed.

Once the boxes are out of the way, we can make a start covering and filling the shoeboxes. We will be aiming for around 200 shoeboxes this year. Thanks again to all our Freegle helpers who still continue to support us in all our projects even donating the Christmas wrapping paper to us to cover the boxes - You are stars!!

The wool project is coming along nicely, we have one large box full now, but need lots more. The project is for the people in the home for the elderly to knit garments, blankets etc for the children in the Orphanages and the poor in the villages - If we provide the material they will gladly do the rest. Our sponsor Christine at Simplywool.com is sending us wool from Scotland when she can, bless her she is wonderful! Thanks a million Christine. Of course if you can help with wool/needles/ knitted squares we would be very grateful indeed. This really is a good project as it shows the Bulgarians are actively helping each other too

Our next bag packing will be on Sat 29th May in Sainsbury. Again if you can help for an hour or two please contact us, we would be very grateful indeed.

That is it for another month - Thank you all once again for your ongoing support, without your help and support we cannot do this alone. :0))


Berni &
Dougie
Dimcho Debelianov

Well done Bernie &
Dougie you seemed to be doing very well and everything seems to be on the up lets keep it that way and as they say if we aim for the stars we will get over the trees

Well done you 2 and all your helpers and all the best for the future I know that all you do will bring a lot of happiness to those children who I'm sure really appreciate all you do

Great stuff from you 2 again keep it up and you will make those children so happy

Well done Bernie and of course Dougie you are both stars in my eyes and I take my hat of to you if I had one on just be careful you don't take on to much you both have a life to best of luck

Fantastic news I can't find the words to say what I think of you 2 but if there were any I'm sure they wouldn't be good enough well done :

sarah

Your both stars and deserve everything that we can give

Hi Guys

Just a quick updated to say we did bag packing yesterday and it went well half the people turned up but we still raised £189.84 and the May day event went well too the Stilton Guides raised £116.02 We will post and put the local news report article on the website link as soon as it is published. We have decided, as the Guides raised some of these funds we would buy a huge trampoline with these funds. From our next bag packing event, will get the additional extras needed like ladder and cover etc. - This is so exciting, not sure who will be more excited the children or us

We are holding the Garden Party at the Dimcho again this year on Sat 25th Sept from 1pm. So far we have two music performers - book sale and possible some stalls not sure yet,. BBQ to be organised, TV and media and poss live radio show will be putting in an appearance too. If you can help with anything please do let us know and of course if you can come along that would be fantastic too

Today I bought 12 baby dolls at the bootsale all stripped and washed now and hanging on the line to dry than I will be dressing them again later - the things we do eh!! Tomorrow I will have a session covering the shoeboxes almost done now, then start filling them, fab job I can just imagine the child's face when they open the box wonderful.

Better check the babies and see if they are dry yet

Oddy

Rock and roll Bernie thats fantastic news you have done so well I think you should be in Parliament I'm sure you could help our with the uk's funds too

Hi Guys

May 2010 update can't add the photos sorry
May 2010 Update re the Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra

Below are two of our fantastic volunteers Elly and Rick. They did the fund raising book sale event at Stilton Cheese Rolling Championships on 3rd May. They did a wonderful job although it was a very cold windy day they still managed to raise £50.02 which is just fantastic – Well done guys!! We have used this to buy essential goods for the shoeboxes, like toothbrushes, paste soaps flannels etc



Below are the Stilton Girl guides with Charlie Cheese in the basket and the Guides collecting a massive amount of £116.02 for the Bulgaria Orphanage – This was a complete surprise to us and we were overwhelmed at all the effort and hard work the Guides and the Leaders put in - Here are the Guides, Leaders and Dougie &
I when we went to collect the donation – Newspaper article will be on our webpage with the link shortly


Tesco at Hampton also donated good to us for the Orphanages Below are some photos of the items – Thank you Jenny &
Paul for your support we appreciated all your help,


The Shoeboxes for the Dimcho
We have been busy covering the shoeboxes, still have lots to do but we are looking forward to filling them, only wish we could be there to hand them out on Christmas Day. Thanks to Elly &
Maz for help me – you did fantastic!


We had 6 of us bag packing at Sainsbury’s yesterday thanks to John, Cheryl, Joy and Emma you were just wonderful, Thanks also to Nicky and Terry for allowing us to bag pack we are delighted to say we raised £189.64 brilliant!!!!! Thank you again. All the funds raised goes toward the cost of transporting the goods to Bulgaria. The funds we raised at Sainsbury’s and the amount the Stilton Girl Guides raised will go toward a trampoline and enclosure for the children in the Dimcho Debelianov Orphanage. We will make the presentation in September when we send to goods over. We will be holding the Garden Party again this year on 25th Sept and we will have photos of the children playing on the new trampoline. We will have various music performers;
the children will be performing their traditional Bulgaria folklore dance. We will have a book stall and various activities a BBQ and we are working on a Punch and Judy show performed by the local theatre. We will also have the Bulgaria TV channel and the local media I am also trying to get a live radio show to attend but not sure if this will happen. We will also have a disco for the children. Our website coordinator Bill will do this again at a special request from all the children.

We have done very well with the goods donated so far and Next has sent us another few boxes of baby clothes but we have a long way to go yet. PC Howard Ltd has been brilliant, with collecting the pallets regularly and storing. We have 8 pallets of goods now, only another 23 pallets to fill. We still need help with good clean clothing, from age 5 to 18years all toys, although we have a lack of dolls, complete games, puzzles and for the Home for the Elderly, blankets, linen, towels knitting wool, knitting needles etc.

We have not started collecting the toiletries yet but again we would love to give a box or two of everyday items to each establishment. So if you can help with anything please do contact us. Or if you prefer too can start a shoebox collections like the Brownies, Rainbows and Guides here in Peterborough who are help us with shoeboxes again this year. They are fantastic. We simply cannot provide shoeboxes for all the establishments ourselves but we can try to do as many as possible. We will try to collect a box or two of toys for each establishment with enough toys so each child has a gift on Christmas morning.

That is all the updates for now – Keep checking the ET as there should be an article in there any day now. Thank you all for your ongoing support and goods wishes we really do appreciate it very much and of course we cannot do this without your help.

Berni &
Dougie


Oddy

June 2010 Update re the Bulgarian Orphanage Silistra


Hi Guys

Here we are in June and only another 10 weeks to go before we send the 3rd lorry load out to the Dimcho Orphanage. Yet another good start to the month for us. Below is the cheque for £116.02 presentation from the 3rd Stilton Guides who raised these funds on the May Day event. The funds they raised will go towards one or maybe two large trampolines for the Dimcho. Thank you girls, you all did great!!!

We had bag packing on two occasions at Tesco Hampton and those funds raised along with the 3rd Stilton Guides donation, also donations from Pat, Jan.M, Barbara, Nettie and Steve.W will all go to purchasing a trampoline and another outdoor toy. It will be fantastic for the children to have outdoor toys. They will be overwhelmed. If there is any additional fund left after the transport costs, they will go towards purchasing toiletries that will be split up amongst all organisations. We will offer what ever is left toward any renovations they need at the Dimcho Orphanage.

We also have and offer from Meg who’s husband is a Dentist here in P’Boro, he has kindly offered to donate up to 300 toothbrushes and 300 toothpastes to us for the Orphanages/Refuge. As you can imagine this is just a fantastic offer and we are truly delighted and very greatful indeed. We have not met Meg or her husband yet but they will deliver the goods to us later this month. Thank you so much for your fantastic offer. Your product donations will make a huge difference to the children and no doubt, we will have bigger and brighter smiles.

For the second year running Maureen Goodyear and her girl groups the Rainbows, Brownies and the Guides at Orton 1st donated a massive 30 filled and beautifully decorated shoeboxes – They invited Dougie and myself along to a meeting so they could present the boxes to us in person. When the article is published in the P’Boro ET I will link to our website. The girls really enjoyed filling the boxes. Thank you so much, you are little stars!!. You all did fantastic – the shoeboxes are brilliant!! Well done girls!!

My colleagues at work also filled around 25 boxes and my friend Maz has been shopping all year and came to us after work and she filled 24 boxes with the goods she bought. Maz you are an angel thank you so much for all your support.

Thanks again to Gap and Tesco who have donated more goods to us this month – we really appreciate all your support. The goods are all packed in the 100’s of boxes Tee Kay Packaging Fengate donated to us. Thanks Andy you have been just fabulous. Without your continual help and support, we would be lost.

Thanks also to PC Howard Ltd Kings Cliff. They undertook all our storage for us. They drop off and pick up pallets the same day. They are just amazing! We are so lucky to have PC Howard and Tee Kay Packaging helping us. Thanks a million guys you are doing a fantastic job!!.

Special thanks to Rick Joanne and Elly David are a few of our wonderful volunteers – who are always willing to help at a drop of a hat. You are just such wonderful people!! as is all our helpers, everybody does what they can and we really appreciate it very much indeed. We could not do this without you all.



The Garden Party held in Bulgaria

We are organising our 2nd Garden Party on Sat 25th of Sept at the Silistra Orphanage The older children will be performing their traditional Bulgaria folklore dance as well as two well know Bulgarian musicians and possible one of our friends Mike Black with his guitar will be performing . We will have a book stall and various stalls ie tombola, a raffle, BBQ and the Bulgaria TV, local media the city Mayor will the there too. One of our donors/supporters Bryan, has offered to do the photographs for us. We will also have a disco for the children. Our website coordinator Bill will do this again at a special request from all the children. We will present the goods to the children really looking forward to that. We hope to see many of you there this year to support us and of course, if you can help in any way, please do get in touch email [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].uk

Donations:

We are doing very well so far although we have 12 pallets of goods we have long way to go and only about 8 weeks left. The more goods we take the more organisations will benefit. We still need help with good clean clothing, from age 5 to 18 years all toys, including dolls, complete games and puzzles. We still needs all toiletries, washing powder, colouring books, crayons, soft toys all must be in good conditions so we can present a huge box or two to all the organisations so every child has a Christmas present on Christmas morning.

We should be looking to take walking aids again and over the next 6 weeks I will be asking on Freegle for any unused wheelchairs, zimmer frames, walking stick etc for the home for the Elderly as well as blankets, linen, towels, knitting wool, knitting needles etc.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and goods wishes we really do appreciate it very much and of course we cannot do this without your help.

Berni &
Dougie
Dimcho Debelianov Bulgarian Orphanage

That's great you2 and those little Rainbows are a credit to young people we so often here of so much negative but here you can see the positive well do to all of them and also to all that help with this enormous task

ATB