The Yorkshire Follies moto is Training Together Changing Lives. We are training together and we are certainly changing our lives, we now need to help change other peoples lives!
Around October/November for the last 2 years I've held a charity concert in memory of my Dad.
To be honest my heart just wasn't into organising a night this year. Injury, personal circumstances, work and everything else in between seemed to be taking up my energy, time and motivation. Katy was down one weekend keeping me company whilst Ray was away and she sat me down and helped me to organise what was very quickly becoming a reality with a fantastic line up with some great acts with some superb raffle and auction prizes from friends and sponsors who help out every year. WLR, Mona, Tarcani, Stagestruk, Hair by Shareen, Pure Fitness, David Lloyd, Becks driving school to name but a few.
It seemed only natural that I should change the evening to a Follies Fundraiser and once again with the help of Katy and the Follies my heart was beating and thriving again for everyone to have a fantastic evening and raise money and awareness.My brother John owns Popex.co.uk and his help with the Yorkshire Follies with logos and web page building has been invaluable so I contacted him about posters, it wasn't long before he was emailing me posters and tickets back that we could rearrange and print in house.
The event came round before we knew it. The Follies went into Willows Club first thing in the morning to set up the sound system and decorate the room and it looked absolutely fantastic.
All we had to do was go home, get ready and come back to enjoy a night of entertainment and fun. Easier said than done!! I had learnt a new song for the night and changed the words to the song to incorporate the Yorkshire Follies and our WTW challenge, my nerves were wrecked I was shaking like a leaf and most of the Follies had never even heard me sing before!
I opened up the evening with Dance with my Father dedicated of course to my wonderful Dad, I couldn't look at the girls and I certainly couldn't look at my mum. They have seen and helped me through my pain so I knew the words would get to them as much as they have me on many occasions.
It was time for my new song. Bruno Mars' song 'Marry Me' with a twist because it had been re-written and re-named:-
'Walk with you'
It's a beautiful night, we're looking for something dumb to do
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you
Is it that look in your eyes or is it your training shoes
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you.
Well I know I few streets in the capital we can go
Everyone will know, well come on girls
Our legs are all trashed got a belly full of laughs with a long way to go
Bras that will glow, so get on girls.
Don't say no no no no no
Just say yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
And we'll go go go go go
If you're ready like I'm ready
It's a beautiful night, we're looking for something dumb to do
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you
Is it that look in your eyes or is it your training shoes
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you.
What should we bring or should we walk and sing like ooaooaoo
Rock and roll, don't run girls
Walking for miles but we're all full of smiles
with the finish line in sight, it's a really long night, so come on girls
Don't say no no no no no
You said yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
So we'll go go go go go
are you're ready yes we're ready
It's a beautiful night, we're looking for something dumb to do
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you
Is it that look in your eyes or is it your training shoes
Hey Follies, I think I wanna walk with you.
Just say I do, tell me right now follies tell me right now
Just say I do, tell me right now Follies
It's a beautiful night, we've found something dumb to do
Hey Follies, I know I'm gonna walk with you
It's that smile in our eyes we've got on our training shoes
Hey Follies, I know I'm gonna walk with you.
The girls loved it and so did everyone else and we've not stopped singing it since! I can see the streets of London being filled with the Follies singing 'Walk with Me' for 26.2 miles next year.
The rest of the night was a resounding success with Stagestruk, Jess, Kristian, Steve Adams, Jo Jordan and Tracy Allen all having the audience dancing the night away.
It seems the first Follies Fundraising charity concert was raising some eyebrows but even more so people were being generous and helping us raise money. The auction alone made £235 for 3 items and with the night drawing to a close the rest of the takings were yet to be counted.
The total amount raised for our night was £1100!! We were all on a natural high and absolutely delighted with our efforts for the evening. Not only had everyone had a good night but people could finally see the Follies together and get to know our aims/hopes/fears and dreams.
I'm sure there will be many more evenings and events to come and they will be on our website for all to see and follow at http://yorkshirefollies.org.uk
We are all on a journey but we've also come through some hard and sad times too. On previous occasions I've always released the evenings balloons up to Dad. On this occasion however I also passed the scissors over to Annmarie because I thought that her husband Dave who tragically died 4 years ago deserves some of the party too. This is our way of saying we've had a great night, we love you, we wish you were here and we miss you.
with our love xxx
All that remains for me to say is thank you so much to everyone who helped make it a fantastic night. We are looking forward to next years concert which by the way is already booked at The Willows Club on 5th October 2012. We look forward to seeing you there.
Ellie
xxx
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