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We've been busy!

Here's a few of the things we've been up to in the last week!

BBC News coverage

The BBC featured us again on their website and local radio. This is great publicity and really helps draw attention to our project. They also shared the story on their social media pages - please share with your friends to let them know too!

Business sponsorship outreach

As we announced last week, our business sponsorship scheme has  launched. On Friday, our volunteers delivered 250 letters to local businesses in Bingley, Eldwick, Gilstead, Crossflatts and Wilsden asking for support and informing them about the sponsorship scheme and other ways they can support us. We'll be delivering letters to businesses in Harden, Cullingworth, Saltaire and further afield just as soon as we print some more! But there's no need to wait for the physical letter - a digital version is here and all the information about sponsorship is on the website - so please feel free to pass this on to any business owners or managers you know.

We have already had a couple of businesses approach us to arrange sponsorship and we're working through the details with them now - and hopefully a lot more to follow in the coming weeks.

Beer donation

Businesses can also help in other ways besides money - such as donating raffle or auction prizes which we'll use to raise money. Our first such donation came from the good people at Timothy Taylor's brewery - we have 24 bottles of their finest beers which we'll be raffling off at events in the next few weeks. Thank you Timothy Taylor's!

If your business can provide a raffle or auction prize, please email contact@goitstock.org.uk.

Publicity and posters

Last week we received 500 posters, 5000 leaflets and 10 weatherproof sign boards from the printers. The signs have been put up at Goit Stock Wood (with the kind permission of the landowner) to catch the attention of passing visitors. We are in the process of distributing the posters and leaflets - we're planning to deliver leaflets to all households in the local villages in the next few weeks. If you can help with that - or if you know of a venue (community centre, church, business, notice board, even your front window) where we could display an A4 or A5 sized poster or distribute some leaflets please let us know (contact@goitstock.org.uk).

Cake sale and market at the Malt Shovel

On Saturday, despite the rain, we set up stall at the Malt Shovel and were joined by members of Harden Green Action Group who had been busy baking for a cake sale in aid of Friends of Goit Stock Wood. We raised £211 and got to speak to people about the project. The pub have said they'll organise a re-run of the event on a sunnier day sometime soon - so look out for that. If you would like to organise a sale or similar event to raise funds and awareness of the project, please let us know.

Breaking news - we can claim Gift Aid on your donations

Just before I hit send on this email, a letter came through the door to say that we have been approved by HMRC to claim Gift Aid on your donations. That means the government will add an extra 25% onto donations made by most UK taxpayers at no extra cost to you. This is huge and will help us massively, so if you donate please make sure you tick the Gift Aid box if you can. And if you were holding off donating until we could claim Gift Aid, you don't need to wait any longer and can now go ahead and make a donation at https://www.goitstock.org.uk/donate.

We can claim Gift Aid on donations made on or after 24 June 2025, so we'll be contacting those people who have donated since then to ask whether you can make a Gift Aid declaration. If you donated money (rather than buying items) at Wilsden Gala, Northcliffe Rae Gala, Cullingworth Gala or the Malt Shovel market we could also claim Gift Aid on those donations - please email us if you did this and we'll explain more.

That's all for now - but in the next week or two we'll have more about our "sponsor a grid square" scheme - we're just finalising the details of that. Look out for an email soon!