It was like a big Hollywood bash
 They already had a good cause lined up — The Sunday Post’s CHAS campaign.
Then they just had to organise the rest of the formal affair from scratch, and on a budget that didn’t quite stretch to giving away watches at the end of the evening!
Champers
Having spent four months chasing up sponsors and donors for the raffles, selling tickets and holding meticulously minuted meetings, the team — Amanda Mackenzie, Kim Sellar, Rachel Hermiston, Emily Wright and Fiona Herd — allowed themselves a celebratory glass of champers when all their hard work came to fruition.
True, the unpredictable Scottish weather meant the red carpet had to be inside the venue, the Minto Hotel in Newington, rather than outside. Other than that everything else was intact — if a little scaled down from epic Hollywood proportions.
The 150 guests, a lot of them businessmen and their parties, dressed for the occasion, many in suits or cocktail frocks.
The VIPs for the evening were greeted with champagne and then ushered to tables, adorned with red and white roses and balloons, for the finger buffet.
The ladies were even given a gift bag containing silver chocolate hearts.
But the piece de resistance were the raffle prizes which included cut and blow dries at a local hairdressing salon, a weekend’s car hire, two tickets for Cats at Edinburgh Playhouse and a woollen scarf from Lochcarron.
Lucky
Revellers feeling particularly lucky entered the £10-a-head deluxe prize draw where two return flights to Brussels, Amsterdam or London with easyJet, two nights for two at Crieff Hydro and a bathroom suite with free installation were up for grabs.
“It was fantastic,” said Amanda. “A lot of local businesses made donations or gave us substantial discounts. We’re probably looking at raising in excess of
£1000.
“Edinburgh Royal Infirmary was especially supportive.
“The funny thing is it was a course project, so our tutor, David Brown, assessed how well we did and how it ran. It’s worth about two credits on the course.”
Our assessment is that the girls did magnificently! |
You can e-mail us at:
hospice@sundaypost.com
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Who’s that with Amanda (left) and CHAS’s 
