Hertfordshire County Councillors and St Albans City And District Council Help The Crescent

Please see the latest article in the Hertfordshire Advertiser talking about the kind assistance from our local County Councillor, Chris White, and also his colleagues from across the County, who have once again this year helped us by awarding sums of money from their locality to budgets to allow us to continue our work. We also have once again this year been awarded a grant from the community fund from St Albans City and District Council to help us with running our social groups and lunch events.

We are very pleased indeed to receive this support both from the City Council, and also from so many County Councillors who clearly recognise the value of our services to the community across the County. It is a grave pity that the County Council still refuses to acknowledge that we deserve some funding for the work we do and that nearly five years on we are still managing to provide the much needed support for people living with HIV in the County.

http://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/cash_lifelines_for_struggling_st_albans_charity_1_3736556

Thanks as ever for your continued support and hope to see you at our open day on 21st September from 2 to 6pm

The Crescent Team

Fundraising Concert At St Saviours Church St Albans 06 December 2013 at 19.30

Hi all,

Another event for your diaries, following the success of last year we have another concert at St Saviours Church St Albans AL1 4DF on 06 December from 7.30pm.

Tickets £12 (£10 concessions) now available from the Crescent on 01727 842532 or info@thecrescent.org.uk. Alternatively you can purchase on the door if you prefer.

It will be an evening of light classical and popular music from the Hertfordshire Chamber Ensemble again as last year. All the participants have donated their time free of charge, (as has St Saviours with the venue) to help Save the Crescent.

Hope you can come along to support us, every penny raised goes to helping those affected by HIV in Hertfordshire and beyond.

For more details see the poster below, (huge thanks as ever to Clive Batkin for the design work and his constant support, and to C9Creative for printing for free and at short notice too!) look forward to seeing you there !

Thanks for your support as ever,

The Crescent Team

Click here for a poster ! 2013 Concert CSG

Interview on BBCRadio 5 Live This Morning

Hi all,

We were called by Radio 5 Live this morning to appear on their morning programme with Victoria Derbyshire talking about funding cuts and charities having to find alternative funding to survive.

You can listen again here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0377mv3/Victoria_Derbyshire_24_07_2013/ We feature from 36mins 8 seconds onwards.

Hope to see you all at our fundraiser on Saturday night at the Load of Hay Pinner Road Watford from 7.30pm

Thanks for your support,

The Crescent Team

Out in the Army Book Reading Event Barclays St Albans, 19/07/2013 at 6.45pm

Hello all,

As promised, our next event will be next Friday 17th July 2013 at Barclays 18 St Peter’s St
St Albans Herts from 6.45pm.

Our Patron, James Wharton, will be reading from his new book “Out In The Army” There will be books available to purchase at the event from which the publisher, Biteback publishing ( https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/) will make a donation to us from each book sold.

Alternatively you can purchase via the website using promo code THECRESCENT for which we will also receive a donation. You can also purchase the book at any good bookshop, or other similar retailer.

Entry is free to the event, but a donation is always welcome which can be made to any of the Crescent staff or volunteers who will be there.

More on the book is available on the Biteback website https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/out-in-the-army-hardback

Some feedback about the book here;

Stephen Fry
“ A wonderful, stirring and thrilling read. I laughed, wept and winced…”

Matthew Todd, ATTITUDE
“An inspiring read from start to finish…”

Ben Summerskill OBE
“A highly readable and distinctly twenty-first-century boy’s own tale…”

Matthew Cain, Culture Editor, Channel 4 News
“A fascinating and charming insight…”

We hope to see you at the event! we would like to thank Barclays St Albans for their wonderful help in providing the venue for us, and for their support for the evening.

Thank you for your support too, as ever !

The Crescent Team

Outstanding Support For Our Quiz Night Fundraiser Last Week.

Hi All,

A HUGE thank you to all those who participated, donated or otherwise supported our Quiz Night on Friday last week. The event was a resounding success with far more people arriving than expected ! We had to put out more tables and rearrange seating to get people in!

The quiz was compiled, and hosted with great skill by our patron CJ de Mooi who is donating a percentage of the sales of his book, “How to Win TV Quiz Shows”, to us. A link to the book can be found here http://www.demooi.co.uk/book.html

Amazing to have so much local support, we raised thousands on the night itself, with more donations coming in this week too. This will help us keep providing essential services for the people living with HIV in Hertfordshire and beyond.

Keep watching this space for more information on our next event, which will feature a book launch by another of our patrons, James Wharton, whose excellent book “out in the Army” is released next month (June). Here is an extract from Amazon describing the book..

“Out in the Army follows the extraordinary career journey of James Wharton, one of the first ‘out’ soldiers in the armed forces as he becomes a man, joins the Army and learns to deal with his sexuality in a sometimes hostile environment prior to coming to terms with it and, in turn, helping the army itself come to terms with homosexuality. Wharton’s experiences in the army form the bedrock to this astonishing tale, from serving in Southern Iraq and with Prince Harry in Canada, to being hospitalized in a homophobic beating, to helping at the 7/7 bombings and serving at the Royal Wedding. His story is told right up until the point where he leaves the army in 2013 after a ten year commitment. The Army is certainly a different place now to when James signed up and there s no question that he s helped change opinions and make life easier for gay service people in the future. James was the first openly gay person to appear on the front cover of Soldier magazine, the British Army’s official publication. By being one of the first highly visible out soldier James has helped the armed services to begin to address its institutionalized homophobia.”

Link here to the publisher https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/search/james%20wharton

Thanks again for your wonderful support, look forward to seeing you at the next event,

With best wishes

The Crescent team

West Herts Drivetime Today at 5.30 pm

Hi All,

Tune into 92.6fm today to hear our wonderful patron Cj de Mooi talking about our fundraiser tomorrow at Homewood Road Church St Albans at 7.30 and why he is supporting the savethecrescent campaign.

Look forward to seeing you there tomorrow if you can make it,

Thanks for your support as ever,

The Crescent Team

St Albans Cathedral and Abbey Church Mission Allocation Presentation

We were so pleased to attend the Abbey yesterday for the presentations, Good to see so many worthy causes, including The Crescent, receiving support from the Mission Allocation.

Especially pleased to have the support of the Congregational giving team, looking forward to working closely with the Cathedral team in preparation for World Aids Day which will also be our 25th Anniversary this year.

The Crescent Team

Quiz Night 24th May – Article In the Herts Advertiser Today

Hi all,

Article talking about Eggheads and our forthcoming quiz which is being hosted and organised by our wonderful Patron CJ de Mooi the former Egghead star and all round good guy!

Please see here for the article;

Newspaper Article HA 250413

looking forward to seeing many of you on the night, more details of the quiz here;

The Crescent Quiz Night Poster 240513

Thank you for your continued support,

The Crescent Team

The Crescent Quiz Night 24th May 2013 From 7.30

Dear all,

More details on our forthcoming fundraiser in the attached poster. This will be hosted and written by our Patron CJ de Mooi and promises to be a very good night. Teams of up to six, or individuals are equally welcome. All proceeds are to go to the Crescent, refreshments will be available throughout. We very much look forward to seeing you there.

Thanks for your continued support,

With best wishes

The Crescent Team

See here for more details!

The Crescent Quiz Night Poster 240513

CJ has also mentioned this in his blog posting about his forthcoming book, some of the proceeds from which will be donated to the Crescent too; http://cjdemooi.tumblr.com/post/46584676735

Ladies Lunch at the Crescent 11 May 2013 from 12.00 to 2pm

Dear all,

Another event coming up shortly will be the Ladies lunch at the Crescent on Saturday 11 May at 12.00. This is a chance for ladies to get together in a safe environment share experiences, and support oneanother, whilst enjoying a nice lunch. So if you are a lady living with HIV, or supporting someone who is, and would like to come along please do let us know. You can email on info@thecrescent.org.uk, or call us on 01727 842532 for more details.

There will also be a chance for Crescent members to attend the annual Spring Basket event at Homewood road church hall at 2.30 that afternoon too. This is an event where Crescent members can get a selection of donated clothing, toys and household goods for free. This event is organised by the Diocese HIV Support Group in conjunction with the Crescent, and other HIV support agencies in Herts and Beds.

Please do contact us if you have any questions about this or any of the other events coming up soon. Don’t forget also we have a fundraising quiz night on 22 May too. More details on our website http://www.thecrescent.org.uk.

Thanks for your support

The Crescent Team