Walk for BCCS & CAFOD

St Helens to St George's Sponsored Walk for the BCCS and CAFOD 'Share the Journey'

For the past few years we have run a parish walk for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society (BCCS) to raise funds to support their work and this year we are hosting this again but with a twist.

To find out more about the very important work that the BCCS provide to children and young adults within Essex and East London please visit their website at http://www.bccs.org.uk/

The walk itself is the fundraiser and a chance for our two parishes to join together along what is normally a pleasant seafront walk with Father Joseph until we finish with tea and biscuits and a chance to chat at the end.

This takes place on Saturday 2nd June.

The 'twist' this year is that CAFOD have a campaign called 'Share the Journey' where they are asking parishes and people to walk for the campaign, to record the miles walked collectively, and with the miles logged, sign a petition card that CAFOD can then take and present to our Prime Minister calling for agreements to be made at the United Nations for refugees and migration. For full details of the campaign visit cafod.org.uk/Campaign/Share-the-Journey for more information.

The details

Firstly, those that can will gather at the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Helen in Milton Road Westcliff-on-Sea when Mass will be celebrated at 10am. After Mass we will gather in the car park by the church entrance and with Father Joseph we will make our way to the seafront visit the Cliffs leaving at around 10.45am.

We will then walk along the sea wall, past Southend pier, and continue until we reach Ness Road where we will leave the seafront and walk the short remaining distance until we reach the parish hall at the parish of Saint George and the English Martyrs in Shoeburyness There will be refreshements available in the hall (tea, biscuits etc). The walk is just under five and a half miles from start to finish and we normally start arriving in the hall after midday.

If you are thinking of walking with us then please contact us for a registration form and a sponsor form. Registration is free and any sponsorship you raise will go to the BCCS. Julie from the BCCS will be in the hall at the end of the walk to greet people and to give out certificates to walkers and if you wanted to pass money raise over that point then you are welcome to do so. Please dress appropriately for the walk and the weather conditions and please bring water for the journey.

The CAFOD cards will be handed out for walkers to sign in the hall at the end and will then be collected up and passed to CAFOD directly.

Community Fayre 2017

Community Fayre in Southend-on-Sea

Saturday 21st October 2017

Nazareth House, 111 London Road, Westcliff, SS1 1PP

For a second year, the Knights have organised our Community Fayre at Nazareth House in Westcliff for the people of the area and we have several local charities, local groups and local businesses that have something to offer both locally and globally.

This is to happen on Saturday October 21st between 10.30pm to 1pm, half an hour later than last year.

The whole ethos of this event is to gather and offer many local groups, local charities, and local businesses working in the Southend area all under one roof for the benefit of the people of the area, with Fair Trade and supporting others being a part of the thinking too. Originally this was meant to be a one off event but several people asked us to do it again hence this second year running. There is also a second community event in Southend called Active Ageing run by the Southend Older People's Assembly (of whom some of our members are also members there too) and this runs from 9.30am to 2pm and some of the exhibitors at our event last year will be available there so a great opportunity for people to get some good support and advice across both events.

The bullet list below contains those confirmed in attendance and will be updated regularly. There will be around 20 exhibitors in the hall and the exhibitors confirmed as at 10th September are:

• Essex Savers Credit Union will be there to share their services and to help stop people using loan sharks by offering local ethical banking protected by the FCA. The credit union is there to help those on low incomes and help is also needed from people who have income to save which can be used back in the community
  For more information visit http://www.essexsavers.co.uk/
• We have Southend Soup coming who are a community micro finance project group working and helping small groups in Southend to make a difference within our community.
  For more information visit http://southendsoup.co.uk/
• We have Storehouse Direct who provides support, food, clothing and inspiration to those in need in the local Southend community http://www.storehouse.org.uk
• We have CAFOD Brentwood who work with the Catholic community in the diocese to raise both funds and awareness of global poverty and injustice through parishes, schools, and networks https://cafodbrentwood.wordpress.com/
• We have Southend In Transition who through their Community Allotment bring people together to build friendship, learn skills for growing food and maintaining plants, and so much more - https://sitcommunityallotment.wordpress.com
• We have the BCCS or Brentwood Catholic Children's Society who will be in attendance and they provide social workers for counselling and support to children and young adults up to the age of 18 in schools of all denominations - http://www.bccs.org.uk/
• We have the The Hub Southend which is a community space where residents can get support with using computers, putting CVs together, help with finances through Essex Savers and whole range of other areas of support locally - https://thehubsouthend.net/
• We have CAP or Christians against Poverty are passionate about releasing people from a life sentence of poverty, debt, unemployment and addiction. https://capuk.org/
• We also have Serving the Homeless, an interdenominational community project supporting young homeless people locally - http://servingthehomeless.org.uk/
• There will be our own members manning a table for the Southend Older People's Assembly for those aged over 55 and they supply a voice, support and advice for this age group in Southend and membership is free - http://olderpeoplesassemblysouthend.co.uk/
•  We have the Catholic Clothing Guild in attendance who provide clothing for the needy and have been doing so since 1924 - http://www.catholicclothingguild.org.uk/brentwood.html
• There will be a table for the Alzheimer's Society with support information concerning dementia issues - https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
• Ace Lifestyle Southend will be there and they are a service for residents of Southend who wish to make positive changes to their lifestyle to improve their health and wellbeing - http://acelifestyle.org/southend-lifestyle

There will be boxes for people to donate used spectacles/glasses for VisionAid Overseas, as well as old stamps, old mobile phones and old foreign coins for charities also. We will also be having a raffle of fantastic Fair Trade items and we will have a second hand book table too.

It will be open from 10.30am to 1pm and is free to enter.

There will be light refreshments such as Fair Trade Tea and Fair Trade Coffee and home made cakes.

Come and meet some great local people and get some help and ideas whilst having a decent cup of tea.

BCCS Walk 2017

Sponsored Seafront Walk 2017 for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society

This year we walked much later than normal; Saturday 1st July to be exact and we had the most beautiful weather to accompany us.

We also had people walking from ages 8 up to 81 years of age and everyone who took part completed the walk which was fantastic.

The day started by dropping a car to the finishing point for lifts back at the walks completion and on picking both Joan and Margaret up from St George's we travelled the route almost in reverse as we headed to the starting point.

Father Joseph said Mass at 10am and then got ready to walk also and at the time of leaving the sun had burnt away the clouds and a light breeze accompanied the full sunshine.

As in previous years we had different people setting off from different start points with Hilary and John walking from Westcliff train station having arrived from Stratford by train, and Brian walking from his parish in Prittlewell. Our main party included parishioners from Benfleet, Westcliff, Leigh-on-Sea and Prittlewell and we were all eager to do our bit and finish too.

Just over halfway we paused for respite and Father Joseph lead us in prayer before the final stretch towards the parish hall of Saint George where we were warmly met by Frank and Val for a hot drink and biscuits and Julie from the BCCS greeted us too and gave out the certificates to the walkers.

Thank you to all who gave support for this event.

The wonderful Val and Frank serving refreshments

Our Walkers - 

BCCS Walk 2017

On Saturday 1st July, we are holding the annual sponsored seafront walk for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society or BCCS for short.

We will be walking from St Helens in Westcliff to St George's in Shoeburyness following 10am Mass at St Helens, and Father Joseph will be walking with us once again.

To read about last years walk, please visit our previous blog write up at:

http://ksc192.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/walking-walk.html

Some of the walkers at the finish in 2016

If you would like to take part in the walk, cheer us on, or even sponsor us, then please contact Damian by email (damian.dillon@btinternet.com) and both the registration form for the walk and the sponsorship form can be emailed accordingly.

Damian's son helped to record the following short promotional video which is 1 minute 37 seconds long and can be viewed below:

If you wanted to donate some money towards the event no matter the size, and in particular if you wanted to sponsor Father Joseph then you are welcome to use this online sponsor page which is safe and secure, and all monies will go direct to the BCCS with no deductions. Every penny helps. You can also gift aid also through this online sponsor page hosted by BT.

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ksc192-2017 

Thank you and a write up of this years walk will be added here in July after the event.

Review of 2016 - Our Faith in Action

Putting our Words into Action

2016 has been a busy year for us; much more than in previous years. With new members joining and willing to involve themselves in our work we have been able to answer the call for help much more than before and therefore become more relevant as a result. That is not to say that to be relevant means to be actively working for our Council because we have a significant portion of membership who due to ill health and age can no longer physically support our work but have the means to support us through prayer which is a stable part of what we do.

Below is a summary of our activities from month to month as a collective but this does not take in account the continued week in and week out parochial support across our parishes that many of our members as individuals provide. Those who are Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist, ushers, choir members, Master of Ceremonies for Mass, altar servers, school governors, CAFOD representatives, SVP members, friends of Nazareth House, parish council members, and the work carried out as individuals for many other charities and support groups during the year such as volunteering each week for the Southchurch Foodbank.

As individuals we also celebrated the Year of Mercy and we also took parishioners from Sacred Heart Southchurch to Brentwood Cathedral in April to go through the Year of Mercy door opened there and many of us readily support our parish priests with whatever urgent support we are required to give. Our main work and support of the Church and clergy starts with the seven Catholic parishes in our area but this does extend beyond our boundaries when we are asked to do so, and we do also support parishes from the Anglican Communion when mutual support is welcomed.

Our year started as it always does with our Anniversary on January 1st and this year we gathered for Mass at Nazareth House with Father William and a fantastic way to begin a New Year on the right foot.

Also in January...

• We supported Christian Unity week
• Delivered the White Flower Appeal for SPUC at the parish of Saint Peter in Eastwood 
• Collected 300 unwanted spectacles for VisionAid Overseas collected from Anglican and Catholic parishes all around Southend,
• and ran a coffee morning at Sacred Heart

Plans were already afoot to launch our application for the CAFOD Live Simply award which was applied for in February, and we also brought a new member into our fold, supported the Real Easter Egg campaign, ran a parish social evening for the BCCS Quizzylympics, and were present for all our local Ecumenical Stations of the Cross in Leigh-on-Sea and Eastwood.

March saw us delivering the Brentwood News to all parishes around the deanery (13 churches), brought in another new member, supported another one-off Ecumenical Stations of the Cross in Southchurch, and prepared for our Bollywood evening to be held in April for the charities and causes we were supporting for the year.

After installing our officers for the year, April was the month we focussed on our Bollywood evening with a whole range of prizes to be won in our huge raffle. It was a very busy evening with 108 people being fed and entertained whilst raising much needed funds for Missio, Nazareth House and our Diocesan fund for the training of new priests.

May saw us helping out at the Mass for the Ordination of Father Michael, along with supporting local events and joining the Essex Savers Credit Union for local ethical banking. We also began to hand out the SPUC Pro Life Times around our parishes, and were involved in the 50th Anniversary events at Holy Family.

June was just as busy! We ran a full coach to the KSC 50th annual Aylesford pilgrimage where four of our number became full members, we held a parish to parish sponsored seafront walk for the BCCS starting with Mass at the parish Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Helen in Westcliff and finishing with refreshments at Saint George and the English Martyrs parish in Shoeburyness and we distributed the new Brentwood News issue around the parishes as requested. 86 additional pairs of unwanted spectacles were also collected from the parish of Saint Luke in Prittlewell for VisionAid Overseas and passed to Williams Opticians for their sorting and passing to the charity.

July began with our presence being requested at a joint community event in Westcliff with a stand to promote what we do locally, and we had members present to help with a foodbank collection from Tesco. We were busy organising our October Community Fayre and along with holding a social for ourselves to catch up, we also gave Father Lee a farewell lunch to say thanks for all his support and held a quiz for CAFOD as part of the Sacred Heart parish CAFOD campaign.

Happily due to school being out we kept August as free as we could... however, we were requested to hold a nine day Novena for peace, reconciliation and harmony which we did in the churches of Sacred Heart and Saint John Fisher, and we also held our own annual BBQ for members to take stock in the sunshine which shone brightly in sunny Southend! Mid August saw us take a coach full on a day trip to London starting with sung Mass at the beautiful parish church at Saint James Spanish Place in London and preparations were made for our CAFOD World Day of Prayer service on September 1st.

Following our CAFOD World Day of Prayer service, we were then busy handing out both the new issues of SPUC Pro Life Times and the Brentwood News around all the parishes again, and on September the 21st we celebrated our 1000th meeting with Mass and a social which was another event that took some organising but was very rewarding to be a part of.

October saw the final distribution of the SPUC Pro Life Times, and we began to sell the BCCS annual draw tickets around the parishes like we did the previous year. The build up to our first Community Fayre took centre stage but the week before we still found time to organise and hold our second parochial pilgrimage for the sick from Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Joseph to the parish of Saint Peter in Eastwood. Our Community Fayre was six months of planning and with 19 exhibitors being showcased to the local community we felt we promoted a lot of good causes and ideas and will be looking to organise another Fayre for 2017. We hadn't finished for October as the following weekend we held an awareness drive for our Polish community for them to talk to us and gain an understanding of what we do following a request by their parish priest to do so.

November saw Father Michael becoming a Member of Honour, we were present at our annual Memorial Mass for deceased members at Brentwood Cathedral, and as well as distributing the latest Brentwood News and Diocesan Directories, we continued to travel around the parishes to sell more BCCS Annual Draw tickets in support of their work. Father Gerry became a Member of Honour, and we ran a Christmas quiz for the Sacred Heart CAFOD project too.

We ran the bottle stall at the Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Joseph parish Christmas Fayre on the 3rd December, and continued to sell more BCCS Annual Draw tickets in the parishes and then held a Christmas social for our members and widows the following Saturday. The next day we ran the coffee morning on behalf of the parish of Saint George and the English Martyrs for their funds and individual members began collecting extra food supplies to be passed to The Storehouse (who were at our October Community Fayre) in support of the homeless and needy of Southend for the Christmas season. We ran our Keep Christ in Christmas sticker and poster campaign again for the start of Advent and if we missed any parishes of any denomination that needed supplies of these then we apologise in advance and will look to supply any parish next year if you would like to get in touch. We were also able to support another of our Community Fayre exhibitors by passing Hopeworx an oil heater, toaster, microwave and unwanted crockery to support their work in the community.

All this is on top of the regular monthly meetings we hold, the quarterly countywide meeting we attend, the regular committee meetings and evenings spent discussing and planning the future.

2016 did provide us with many challenges. We are currently putting plans together for 2017 and hopefully we can focus on more quality than quantity of activities but it is difficult to plan for the unknown as we found this year however we will do our best moving ever forward.

Thank you for your continued support.

Community Fayre in Westcliff-on-Sea

Saturday 22nd October 2016

Nazareth House, 111 London Road, Westcliff, SS1 1PP

The Knights have organised a Community Fayre at Nazareth House in Westcliff for the people of the area and we have several local charities, local groups and local businesses that have something to offer both locally and globally.

This is to happen on Saturday October 22nd between 10am to 1pm.

The whole ethos of the event was to gather and offer many groups and charities working in the Southend area all under one roof for the benefit of the people of the area, with Fair Trade and supporting others being a part of the thinking too.

There are several exhibitors that have not been confirmed as yet but to date, those with a table display will be:

• Sainsburys (from Southend Superstore) who will be bringing their range of Fair Trade products for people to see (not to buy though) and the concept of Fair Trade will be one of the underlying currents of our event
• Essex Savers Credit Union will be there to help stop people using loan sharks by offering local ethical banking protected by the FCA. The credit union is there to help those on low incomes and help is also needed from people who have income to save which can be used back in the community
• We have Southend Soup coming who are a micro funding project group working and helping small groups in Southend to make a difference
• We have NF Collins and Son Dairy from Rayleigh coming along and they offer a milk round and still do the glass milk bottles which get reused, and have local milk. Particularly helpful for people who struggle to carry milk home from the shops or who are housebound
• We have the SVP - St Vincent de Paul Society that tackle poverty and disadvantage by providing practical assistance to those in need regardless of denomination
• Southend Association of Voluntary Services (SAVS) will be present amd they are an independent charity known as a council for voluntary service or CVS. That means they work behind the scenes to help local charities and community groups achieve their full potential
• Catholic Agency For Overseas Development (CAFOD) is an aid agency and an international development agency standing beside people living in poverty – whatever their religion or culture
• The BCCS or Brentwood Catholic Children's Society will be in attendance and they provide social workers for counselling and support to children and young adults up to the age of 18 in schools of all denominations
• We also have the Alzheimer's Society to give help and advice to those dealing with dementia or who are affected by dementia also
• A re-use centre called Hopeworx based in Rayliegh provide affordable used furniture for the community
• The Knights will also have a table to collect used stamps, old mobiles, and unwanted currency and will be collecting unwanted spectacles for recycling with VisionAid Overseas.

We will also be having a raffle of fantastic Fair Trade items and we will have a second hand book table too.

It will be open from 10am to 1pm and is free to enter.

There will be light refreshments such as Fair Trade Tea and Fair Trade Coffee and home made cakes.

Come and meet some great local people and get some help and ideas whilst having a decent cuppa.

Walking the 'Walk'

Walking the 'Walk' for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society (BCCS)

Group photo at the end of the walk with certificates

On Saturday the 4th June, the Knights ran our annual seafront sponsored walk for the BCCS from Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Helen in Westcliff-on-Sea to the parish hall of Saint George and the English Martyrs in Shoeburyness. A walk of various guises has taken place each year for must be over twenty years without a nod towards the archives but it must be noted that this would not happen without the support of our parish priest at Saint Helens; Father Joseph who without his support this annual event would stumble. Father Joseph gives us our starting point; a Mass for everyone involved to participate and not just those walking.

We are also thankful to the parish of Saint George who allow us to use the hall for rest and refreshments at the end and we have not always had clear established start and finish points in the past.

Margaret

There are several other key players who also play a major part in the success of our walk - Julie from the BCCS who is ever present in the hall at the finish in her own time to meet and greet the weary travellers and hand out certificates with gratitude. Husband and wife Frank and Val who open and set up the hall and provide hot drinks and a mountain of biscuits for the walkers to enjoy and always with a welcoming smile which really does help. Also thanks must go to Margaret who every year raises extraordinary amounts of funds for the BCCS and without Margaret we really would miss the effort and promotion that she brings.

Frank and Val

So what happened this year? Well, the return of the winter weather we had during the week was pleasantly replaced by the 'right' walking weather when we set off. It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold with cloud cover and no wind. A contrast to previous years which have either been blistering hot sunshine or persistent drenching rain. Cars were left in Shoeburyness early in the morning and those from Shoeburyness were collected and taken to Saint Helen's for the start of the 10am Mass.

One of the pier trains in the gloom of the cloud and below the train are the still waters of the Thames Estuary

We had fourteen walkers in total with John and Hilary making the train journey (not the pier train) from Stratford to Westcliff-on-Sea to walk separately to the main group and met us in the hall at Saint George's. We had Brian walking from Saint John Fishers in Prittlewell having locked up that church after morning service and walking the extra journey to meet us on route, and a thank you must go to Faustina who did most of the walk despite not being well and stopped on route to get the bus back home.

As always the seafront walk is never a race and we have a Knight to the front of the column of walkers and one at the rear to keep an eye anyone who may need some assistance and also to stop our chairman from pretending to tie his shoe laces while the others continue and then nipping into The Castle pub for a swift pint before catching a taxi back to the fold before anyone notices. That last sentence may not be true but it is always best to be prepared!

Walking along the seafront in Westcliff-on-Sea with the tide in (to the left of the picture)

It is always fun to find out who was first to reach the hall and then to shock them that as 'winners' they have to do a lap of honour which naturally is the whole walk again. We did the five and a half miles in good time and the walk gives those walking an opportunity to catch up and talk and it is surprising to not realise how quickly the walk can be finished when one walks with others in conversation and taking in the beautiful views along the seafront.

It is early days yet before we find out how much the whole event raised. Exposure and promotion is always good and the funds raised go towards the great work that the BCCS do not just in the Catholic schools around Essex but their demand sees them regularly called to other schools to help young children also and it is an honour for us to be able support them in any way we can.

We hope to be able to continue to run the walk again around May/June 2017 and we always welcome new people taking part as every penny raised regardless of the how much or little or always very much appreciated.

Thank you to all who took part and to all who supported in any way.

Successful and Fun Evening at Our Bollywood Night - Saturday 16th April

Our Bollywood Night on Saturday 16th April raised £1,115.83 so a big thank to all who contributed in any way.

It was hard work that started back in 2015 when the original plan was to have an auction but we changed it to an evening of Indian culture with an Indian buffet, music and film, and we held a raffle with a staggering 21 prizes to offer. We sold just over a thousand tickets for the draw and with 21 prizes the odds were good of winning one of the prizes and we had 108 people at the door all greeted with their own garland for the evening.

Mike with coffee ready to meet and greet the 108 guests for the evening

Thank you to all the people and businesses that contributed and helped to make the evening a success at the Mazenod Hall in the grounds of the parish of Saint Peter in Eastwood. We had a slideshow projecting a promotion of all the businesses, contributors, and the raffle prizes onto a large wall throughout the evening so that those present were aware of how the evening was being supported.

Most of the prizes on display before the start of the evening

During the evening, guests took the chance to have their picture taken professionally by Picture Perfect Pro who also donated one of the top prizes. This proved popular with the guests who had travelled from all around the parishes of Southend and from further a field also.

The run of tables ready for the range of hot Indian food.

The Ashiana Indian Restaurant in Southchurch provided the food for the buffet at a great price with a wide selection of dishes to choose from and they brought it, piping hot to the hall for us straight from their kitchen. Everyone was delighted with the food and one couple won two tickets to Sunday lunch at the Ashiana in our raffle draw. For dessert Liam had risked a frozen car that afternoon by buying a car load of ice cream tubs that had people coming back for seconds. Duncan with Phil manned the bar and were serving drinks all night long including Fairtrade tea and coffee as part of our commitment to our CAFOD LiveSimply work that our Council are working towards.

The raffle draw as it was under way

We drew tickets for the prizes in two intervals; just before the food was served for prizes from twenty -one down to ten, and then after dinner our ten top prizes with the flat screen TV being the first prize - just to build some excitement. The money raised on the evening is to be split across several charities that we are supporting currently, with the main benefactors being MISSIO, Nazareth House in Westcliff-on-Sea, and the Brentwood Ecclesiastic Education Fund for the training of new priests in our Diocese.

It was a real joyful evening, and for everyone to say how much they enjoyed themselves as they left to go home was good to hear. We tried hard to better our Jazz evening from September 2015 and I think this Bollywood evening was equally as good. Special thanks to go all the Knights present who helped with setting up the hall, working throughout the evening and clearing up afterwards. The wives were fantastic too especially with organising the men in the kitchen as the amount of washing up was phenomenal. We tend to struggle to take pictures as the evening progresses because we are always in the thick of the action and the same applied here as all the Knights were busy each doing their own particular task to keep the evening flowing as smoothly as it could.

Promoting our sponsored walk on June 4th

Onwards to our next event which is our sponsored walk for the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society on June 4th and we couldn't miss the opportunity to promote this to our valued guests (along with our Knights pilgrimage by coach to Aylesford Priory on the 12th June too; closest Sunday to the Feast of Saint Columba).

Thank you all.

QUIZZYLIMPICS COMES TO SAINT JOHN FISHER'S IN PRITTLEWELL 

This was a long time coming after this quiz had changed venues and dates on more than one occasion but after advertising this in the bulletins around the five parishes and seven churches locally, the Knights of Saint Columba finally held this event in the Borough of Southend-on-Sea on the evening of Saturday 20th February and a very enjoyable evening was had by all present. This regional quiz was contested with a chance to reach the grand final as part of an initiative by the Brentwood Catholic Children's Society (BCCS) and was free to enter which made the evening very attractive.

The teams set about choosing a name for their tables and if points were awarded for the names they all picked then the scoring would have been high before the quizmaster had even asked the first question.

Sitting at the top table helping the quiz to function along its merry path can certainly give you a relieved feeling when you see the questions and think 'Oh I know that', and then when the answer is finally given, you realise that what you thought was a name of a type of tortoise was in fact one of the most deadly snakes on the earth. Yes I was having a bad day and lucky for the teams that I wasn't placed on one of their tables!

With that confession out the way, the quiz was highly contested with two teams tying for last place and two teams finishing joint first. Thankfully the two teams that came first represented two different churches so they qualified to both go forward to the BCCS Quizzylimpics final on March 18th in the hall at Brentwood Cathedral.

We held a mid quiz raffle with some fantastic prizes on offer; well it wouldn't be the same if we didn't and a retiring collection for the BCCS ensured that as a fundraiser the whole evening was a worthwhile exercise.

QUIZZYLYMPICS – Saturday 20th February 

Organised by the Knights of Saint Columba (KSC) of Southend-on-Sea in aid of Brentwood Catholic Children's Society (BCCS). Free to enter to anyone, please bring a team to Saint John Fisher Hall to compete in this topical quiz where the winning team will advance to the Diocesan Final to be held in Brentwood later in the year. If you do not have a team don't worry, we can form individuals and couples into groups. Doors open at 6.30pm for a 7.00pm start – there will be a raffle during the interval in aid of the KSC and a retiring collection in aid of BCCS.