Chairman's speech at Government House Reception (April 2008)
29/04/2008
Martine's speech
Your Excellency, Lady Malbon, Ladies and GentlemenI’d like to thank His
Excellency and Lady Malbon for their warm hospitality this evening. It is extremely kind of you both to host this
reception and Festive Décor is truly grateful.
His Excellency became patron
of Festive Décor last year and his support, and that of Lady Malbon, has been
invaluable.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about Festive Décor. Where did it all begin?
In 1964, two young
businessmen, Keith Tostevin of Fountain Electrics and Dave Fletcher of the Spot
for Sports (which later became Fletchersports) wrote to the St. Peter Port
traders asking for donations to fund a set of Christmas lights (following a
call to arms in the Guernsey Press in December 1963).
Most of the initial support
came from retailers in Fountain
Street and the Arcade,
and it was therefore these areas that featured the first festive lights of any
significance.
Over the years more and more
of
How times have changed! The
first set of lights cost £500 and that display was enhanced over many years. Regular
maintenance was undertaken and further investment made in 2000 when it was
realised that the current set of lights were becoming outdated and dangerous.
To say that ‘putting up lights in St Peter Port is a challenge’, would be an understatement. In 2006 we had to return the entire display to the manufacturer for a thorough maintenance overhaul. Needless to say the cost of this was enormous. Whilst town traders have continued to be the principal annual contributors, with the face of town changing the real amount donated has decreased against a backdrop of increasing costs. The overhaul therefore used all the reserves we had accumulated.
So in 2007 Festive Décor launched the Friends of the Lights campaign using their new website guernseychristmaslights.com as a fundraising platform. The campaign aimed to widen fundraising to include not only the Town Traders but private individuals and families, and businesses in and outside Town. The campaign had several aims – first and foremost to secure enough funding to erect the lights for 2007 as the financial position of the charity was so poor that we had to consider the possibility of leaving Town dark that Christmas. Securing sufficient funding each year to enable us to keep going is our biggest challenge. In addition to this we decided to set our sights high and aim to raise additional funds to put new lights in the Market, Fountain Street and Mill Street. Our target was £60,000.
It was a slow start to the campaign, public support was high and our profile as a charity was raised through the media. But the money wasn’t flowing in as quickly as we’d have liked and I’ll be honest, we were worried.
And then we had ‘the call’ from Generali. Generali Worldwide donated £30,000 to the campaign, in order to lead by example and encourage the rest of the community to contribute. Generali’s generosity did exactly that. On 1st December 2007 (Switch On Day) we were able to announce that we’d hit our target of £60,000.
A happy ending! Yes, a happy ending for 2007. Festive Décor now has enough money to buy new lights and perform repairs to the old ones. Only this week we met with Christmas Lights experts from the UK to work on our plans for the new display. It was an interesting meeting and has presented many challenges. The Market area is going to be our biggest lighting challenge not least because the old infrastructure and power supplies were lost during the redevelopment. But it is also a fantastic opportunity and lighting of this area has to be a priority.
2007 was a huge success and we are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to the campaign, some of you are here tonight so we are delighted to be able to thank you personally.
And wouldn’t it be great if it all stopped there. It doesn’t sadly. The lights need ongoing funding. With the new displays for 2008 we estimate that it is going to cost over £30,000 every year to get the lights up. And we’d also like to illuminate other areas of Town which means, of course more money. Whilst we have in the region of £5000 coming in on standing order, that isn’t a guaranteed payment, and it still leaves us with a lot left to raise.
But there is a glimmer of good news…
Festive Décor is delighted to announce that, in order to kick off the 2008 Friends of the Lights campaign, Generali have donated a further TEN THOUSAND POUNDS to the charity.
That deserves a round of applause.
We are extremely grateful for this generous donation and hope that once again, the community will follow Generali’s lead. Thank you.
On the subject of thank you’s I’d also like to give SG Hambros a mention as they have provided the champagne your are drinking this evening and I’d like to thank ALS Productions for technical support.
It is impossible to erect the lights without money, but it would also be impossible to do anything without our volunteers. Festive Décor is a charity staffed by volunteers responsible for fundraising and managing the put up and take down of the lights. We work closely with the Young Business Group who have for many years provided man power for the put up and take down, these are also volunteers.
One such volunteer on the Festive Décor side of things is Terry Ferbrache of Fletchers Sports. Terry gets a special mention tonight. He has been involved in Festive Décor for nearly 3 decades, initially rolling his sleeves up and putting the lights up and latterly with fundraising. Terry has often been our man on the streets undertaking the thankless task of rallying the Town Traders to contribute year on year - a challenge indeed! Whilst Terry has chosen to step down from the Festive committee this year we hope he will continue to contribute by making sure he encourages his fellow traders to support us.
I’d now like to ask His Excellency to make a presentation to Terry to acknowledge his dedication to Festive Décor.
Presentation
So once again thank you to everyone that supports Festive Décor. Whilst it is recognised that Festive Décor do not receive States funding, I believe we should feel proud that the Guernsey community as a whole makes this happen. But what we need now is the certainty of regular contributions to enable us to continue to develop and enhance this very important piece of Guernsey Life. I would therefore like to urge you all, if you have not already done so, to consider making a commitment to support Festive Décor going forward. We do of course have the appropriate forms with us this evening. ….
Thank you.
Back to previous page