Rug Aid email #17

	Rug Aid Newsletter 17 February 2010 Problems viewing the newsletter? Click here for online version Click here for printer-friendly version
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Before getting down to business, all you kind-hearted people out there should know how much you are loved by the Rug Aid trainees in The Gambia, especially today… Without your support Heather Ritchie, Rug Aid’s founder, would not be able to visit the workshop and train people with visual impairments to make rugs which they sell to tourists. Without your great love for your fellow rug makers, there would be no Rug Aid: thank you, one and all – we love you all!	This lovely little rug by Katie Jackson, textile artist and recycler, comes from her blog www.whatkatiedid.typepad.com
The Rug Rave
The last newsletter went out in late November: since then, we’ve had lots more news about Rug Raves. Here’s a selection of the words and pictures we’ve been sent. Sisters Christine Matthews and Catherine Chew (right) hooked together at Catherine’s home in Harrogate on Sunday 22nd November. Christine wrote that ‘wearing a mask proved much too difficult’ and added that it had been a privilege to be part of the Rug Rave. Thank you, ladies.
	Chris Friedman hooked and raffled a beautiful rug which raised US$420 for Rug Aid: this is the Wine Country Rug Hookers’ Guild’s Rug Rave at Laura Pierce’s ‘House of Two Studios’ which Chris attended. What a friendly-looking group!
In January 2010 Ann Winterling held a Rug Rave at her home in Concord, New Hampshire. One of the people who attended Ann’s event was Peg Irish. Her self-appointed blindfolded task was to hook the word LOVE and this week she sent us this photo: showing Peg hooking, it was taken by Lynda Hadlock and is used with her permission. Peg has very kindly offered to sell her rug, called ‘Love is blind’, to raise money for Rug Aid. Later on in this newsletter, we’ll show you this lovely creation and tell you how we intend to take her up on that offer.
Barbara Bonds hooked the special Rug Rave pattern at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, and Janet Carruth was working on her rug elsewhere in the same city. Seems like Phoenix is a magnetic place for hooking!
	One Rug Rave we didn’t know about before the day was organised by Sybil Mercer and the Chantry Rughookers of Southampton, Ontario, Canada. They raised £185 for Rug Aid.
The Ladies of the Wool and Friends, also known as the Buckeye Rug Hooking Guild, raised US$650 at their Rug Rave in Ohio. This photo shows Rhonda Elavsky working on her rug - if you look carefully, you'll see she is wearing Rug Rave shades which are acting as a blindfold: what a clever idea!
	Someone at the Buckeye group, as well as being a rug maker, is a very talented cake decorator. This amazing work of art was eaten - can you believe that? I'd want to hang it on the wall as a piece of art: it does look delicious, though. Well done, Buckeye!
The Wakefield Mining Museum in England provided an interesting setting for a Rug Rave, and the group which met there raised £250 for Rug Aid. They finished their special rug in January - isn't it beautiful?

	This wonderful piece of display material was donated to Heather at the Durham Clayport Matters' Rug Rave in Newton Hall Community Centre. The group, which meets in Clayport library and Bowburn, raised enough money to buy this fabulous and very useful banner. Rug Aid is very grateful to each and every member of the group who gave money to buy it, and to Elsie Shaw for organising the proofing and printing. Right: This photo shows the banner in Heather's garden studio in Reeth. You can see the video of the Durham Clayport Matters' Rug Rave in the Gallery section of the Rug Aid website. You can also see more photographs of Rug Raves around the world there.
We’re thrilled that money is still coming in from Rug Raves held last November but, if you haven’t yet sent in the money your blindfolded hook-in raised, please send it soon: we are keen to let you know the total amount produced by the wonderful, talented and dedicated group of people who are Rug Aid’s supporters. At the moment, the total is hovering around the £2,500 mark, which is absolutely amazing! We are hugely grateful to all of you who worked so hard, not just hooking blindfolded but also making cakes and other items to sell, and organising raffles and other fund-raising events. We would like all of the money raised on the day to be ‘ring fenced’ for a dedicated Rug Aid building in Serrekunde: if we need to take a little money from that fund to pay for Heather’s visit, or to pay for tools and materials, we will do so reluctantly. We’d rather pay those recurring costs out of the regular income which you, Rug Aid’s supporters around the world, provide for that purpose (and the money Heather raises by giving talks and demonstrations in the UK) rather than touching the money raised by your blindfolded rug hooking experiences and sales of the special pattern.
Heather’s next visit to The Gambia
Some of the colourful rugs Heather and Les brought back from the workshop in The Gambia after their visit in November 2009.	Heather and Les will revisit the workshop towards the end of March: Les is paying for himself again and, for the first time, two of the couple’s ‘oldest’ friends will accompany them. When Heather persuaded Pam and Kenny to take a holiday in The Gambia at the same time that she and Les were visiting the workshop, her motivation was simple – she wanted to fill their suitcases with the fabrics and tools the workshop so desperately needs! Luckily The Gambia will be quite warm at that time of year, so Pam and Kenny won’t need to pack many clothes in the space remaining available in their cases… As Heather hopes to get her usual increased baggage allowance, being able to top up four suitcases with tools and materials will be marvellous. Thank you, Pam and Kenny!
During Heather’s next visit to The Gambia she and Les will, with our Gambian friend Ebrima Trewally’s help, carry out some research into the building we so desperately need. They will find out whether there is an existing building available which would be suitable for use as a Rug Aid workshop: failing that, they will investigate the possibility of buying a plot to erect a brand-new building. Naturally, we will take the greatest care to ensure that the funds you have entrusted to Rug Aid are used as effectively as possible to benefit the greatest number of people, and we will do everything in our power to safeguard your donations by using the money wisely.
Christmas 2010
Yes, we know that this year’s only just got going but we’re looking ahead: would any of you like to buy Christmas cards from Rug Aid? Heather is planning to draw half a dozen small and simple Christmas designs and take them with her when she visits the workshop in March. She’ll get the Gambian rug makers to hook the designs using locally-sourced printed cottons and will bring the finished rugs back to the UK. Our plan, if any of you are interested in the idea of Rug Aid Christmas cards, is to get the designs printed so we can sell mixed packs of six or twelve cards. We will probably make the original small rugs (not much bigger than coffee-cup coasters) available for sale through the website – they’d look lovely hanging in your home at Christmas time.
Do let us know what you think of this idea before we invest any of your donations in buying cards in an attempt to make that money grow – we don’t want to lose money by creating cards nobody wants to buy. Send an email to christmas@rug-aid.org with your view, one way or the other. Thank you! Right: Heather's Christmas card from 2008 is a lot more elaborate than the cards she will design for the Gambian Rug Aid trainees to work on, but we're sure they will make just as big an impact on your friend's Christmas 2010 mantelpieces!
And last, but definitely not least…
	Love is blind – how true that is in the case of Rug Aid! And, as explained above, Peg Irish has captured those words in a beautiful rug she started whilst wearing a blindfold. The rug is 9.5” high and 12” wide and is made with yarn on burlap (hessian). If you would like to own this charming little rug and make a donation to support the work of Rug Aid at the same time, please put in a bid for it. You can do this by visiting the auction page of the Rug Aid website and clicking on the link to bid by email. Displayed on this page will be the amount of the latest bid received so you will know how much to bid. We have a starting bid of £30 for this lovely rug, even before we send out this newsletter, so get your bid in and keep an eye on the web page to make sure you stay in the lead!











Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to support Rug Aid over the last three years - we wouldn't be in the very strong position we are today without your help, so give yourself a big St Valentine's Day hug from us! * * * * *
You can make a donation to Rug Aid in any currency through our website www.rug-aid.org where you'll find a lot more information about Heather and rug making. You can send a cheque (Sterling only, please) to Rug Aid's registered office, Greencroft, Reeth, North Yorkshire DL11 6QT You can ring Rug Aid on +44 (0)1748 884435 or send an email to heather@rug-aid.org If you no longer want to receive email newsletters from Rug Aid, you can unsubscribe here. If you're not on the Rug Aid mailing list but would like to be, you can subscribe here. Rug Aid cic is an asset-locked community interest company Registered in England Registration number 6204537