By Kathy Martin…
Another great charity, Children in Need was having a charity lunch to raise money towards the publication of the book, “Joshua’s Woodland Adventures” written by Bill Haley, translated into Turkish by Sacha Main (Libby Main’s daughter), with the help of her school teachers and illustrated by Pam Schofield.
Woke to a beautiful, fresh sunny day after the excellent rain we had yesterday (18th October 2016) the island feels rejuvenated! My good friend Aynur Rigby had agreed to drive me over there and we arranged to meet in the Lemar Karakum (I am sorry only now the Turkish name and have no idea what Karakum was called before) car park. Unfortunately, one of my other friends, Margaret Lonergan, was not able to join us. As neither of us had ever been to the Black Olive, in Alsancak, (again sorry no idea of previous name) Cansev Korcil agreed to come in her car to Lemar and we would follow her!
We arrived in good time and joined about 40 other ladies who attended the lunch (46 in total).
About 18 months ago Bill Haley approached Pam and asked, as a well-established artist, here in The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, (TRNC), could she provide the drawings for the children’s story he had written. She admitted her first reaction was “no”, however, when she was told about a child who had been hospitalised for a long time, by the Children in Need charity, and had become very attached to a book that was taken away from the child when he/she left hospital she decided to see if she could help.
Once she read the story, she drew a few rough sketches, which Bill agreed were “just what he was looking for”! Pam started a delightful time sketching the various characters from the book.
After our lunch, provided by Vicki Karaca at The Black Olive Cafe and Studio in Alsancak, Pam took us through her sketches and a brief synopsis of the story.
As you can see from this group you can see they are wonderful
The characters are all met by Joshua and Eric (his dog) as the year progresses. They are Oscar the owl, Princess Phoebe (the spirit of the forest), Sheldon the snail, Stripey the badger (used his picture as the link for this article), Welford the worm, Frank the field mouse, Mountfield the mole, Sally song thrush, Belinda butterfly (don’t have copies of the sketches for Sally and Belinda) and hedgehog is simply hedgehog!
The book covers all the seasons of the year, introducing children (the book aimed at the 4 to 9 year olds) to the facts of hibernation (for some animals), keeping the countryside clean of litter, kindness to others etc
Pam informed us that a publishing company in Lefkoşa / Nicosia would charge them USD800 to print 100 books and as they will need 100 in English and 100 in Turkish for local children.
Pam had provided a table quiz to keep us entertained as we ate our very tasty lunch (menu was on Vicki’s Facebook page in advance of the day!
Pulled Pork
Coronation Chicken
Waldorf Salad
Red Coleslaw
Warm honey and mustard potatoes
Greek salad
Beans with sun-dried tomatoes and feta salad
Cous cous
After the raffle was held and Pam had an excellent system by which the winner picked an envelope, which disclosed the number of the prize won, which saves the winner of the ticket at the end getting that one prize no one wants! Also said she would sell some prints of her characters for 15tl, with 10tl going to her fund-raising and 5tl to cover the costs of the card, etc involved in producing them. She, also, said she could take orders if more than one print was wanted.
We finished up the afternoon with a timed table quiz. There were a total of 39 questions over the two quizzes and to our delight we (Aynur, Cansev and I) came second with 31 correct after the winners with 32!
We opened our prize to share with the ladies opposite us (Gill, Marilyn and her daughter Natalie Haigh, who works for İktisat bank and had very kindly brought along all the pens and note books for us to use during the quizzes etc).
If truth were told we shared an answer to the question “Which woman was the first to fly solo from England to Australia”? I was very frustrated as I have read her autobiography, a few years ago, but for the life of me could not remember her name.
One of their team said to me was her first name “Amy”? Immediately her surname “Johnson” came to mind! So, when we won second prize, we offered to share our prize with them. We opened the packet of Tiramisu flavoured chocolate biscuits, only to find the chocolate completely melted and runny! A few of us ate one and VERY DELICIOUS it was but we all agreed that Aynur could take the box home, put in her fridge for her husband!
Pam ended the lunch by telling us that she was delighted to announce that we had raised 1,100tl. As at the present rate of exchange 800USD equates to 2,464tl Pam has a while to go before she can get the books published (needing 100 in Engish and 100 in Turkish).
Unless anyone would like to sponsor this excellent project!
Please email Pam for further information pamschofield47@yahoo.co.uk
