Service before self
WHEN we go to an event, whether it’s a get together with friends or a visit to a huge trade show, it’s fun and usually goes smoothly.
For the organisers, an event compares favourably to herding cats, nailing jelly to the wall, or catching fog with a net. And that’s on a good day.
This week however, it isn’t so much that what of the event as the why, who and wow!
Services for screening
Based at Royal Berkshire Hospital and supported by a pair of mobile units visiting Swallowfield, Wokingham and Twyford among nine other places, the breast screening service in the western half of Berkshire invites over 85,000 ladies between the ages of 50 and 70 to take part once every three years.
This service detects around 200 breast cancers while GPs and hospitals diagnose another further 250. The main benefit of screening is to find the early signs of cancer in healthy ladies with no symptoms because, when detected early, the successful treatment and survival rates are far higher. It makes that much of a difference for you (or your loved ones).
Over the decades, the equipment used for screening has improved by leaps and bounds. The fixed x-ray units of the past have been superseded by portable ultrasound machines like those used in pregnancy scans. The hand-held scan heads can detect smaller and smaller cancers that are more easily treatable and usually curable. They’re more comfortable and quicker to use, which is particularly important for the relatively few who need further investigation.
The screening equipment in our region is nearing the time when it should be replaced and the Royal Berks Charity is over half way to the £70,000 that’s needed.
Services for fundraising and organising
Rotary Club and its counterpart Inner Wheel have aimed to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worthy enterprise since they were founded in 1905 and 1924 respectively.
Locally, the Maiden Erlegh branches have worked with the Reading Guild of Artists since 2008 to choose a charity to raise funds for and to organise an event for exhibiting and selling paintings, prints, sculpture and ceramics (pottery and glass).
What was new this year was the choice of venue – Leighton Park school, who kindly provided their Oakview dining hall for the exhibition. With its circular architecture and central light well, the hanging boards for the paintings were arranged radially to make best use of the natural lighting.
Headmaster Nigel Williams was delighted to welcome the event to the school, not only cutting the ribbon at Thursday evening’s preview party, but going on to purchase a fine piece of art too. By welcoming Crosfields School participation, it gave pupils of both schools a great opportunity to have their works on display at the event as well.
Clinical Director of the screening service, Dr Elizabeth Cave gave a brief talk at the preview party to describe the work that the service undertakes and 2017’s Reading Charity Art Fair was well and truly under way.
Services given freely
A brief visit on the Thursday evening was a chance to photograph the organisers, beneficiaries and artists next to the exhibits. A follow-up on Sunday afternoon gave time to discover what everyone behind the scenes had been doing.
From small things, like the warm welcome the entrance stewards gave to visitors, to bigger things like the school caterers, Thomas Franks Catering, gifting all of the materials that helped the Inner Wheel donate 100% of the funds from preparing, selling and serving the food and drinks.
All the participation fees from the 30+ artists likewise went into the pot, also funds from the silent auction for a remarkable rendition of a Rembrandt self-portrait by a local artist, as did the slightly noisier auction for a Porsche driving experience at Silverstone, donated by Porsche Reading.
But it was a chance comment from one of the participants that brought things into focus when she said “the organisers were so easy to work with, they knew what was needed and that made our job of supporting them really easy”. This isn’t just rare – it’s unique.
A moment of wonder
There’s so much rubbish in everyday life – from politics, war, crime etc. that encountering not just one but multiple groups doing something for the community came as quite a surprise. Which then turned into something wondrous.
From dialogue with organisers and supporters, the one blending into the other, each contributed a part of something that was far from easy to identify or categorise. It wasn’t fluffy altruism that made this event, any more than it was virtue signalling or casual philanthropy.
It was as if one was observing a small part of a giant dance, beautifully choreographed with the players each helping to create a happy and harmonious outcome that no single person could have done by themselves.
What also came across was a quiet unassuming pride that comes from selecting, focusing on and achieving a goal in an understated manner - like a beacon of happiness shining out and showing everyone there’s a positive side to life too.
The last word
It’s a pleasant surprise to discover that the £5,000 target set before the event has been surpassed and that over £9,000 has been raised.
The final figure won’t be known until the Waitrose Community Matters contribution is made at the end of December.
So if you’re shopping at Waitrose in Woodley, you can make a difference by putting your green token into the box for the Reading Charity Art Fair.