Thought we might have a quick update.

*Derwentside Mind has so far raised £243.10 courtesy of its Jam Jar Army fundraising among users of the service in the Consett and Stanley area.

*Sainsbury’s Hull have so far raised £214.72 from fundraising in one primary school. The store also donated 500 jars of jam  to another primary school which will be coming in nice and jingly when term starts, alongside jars from the staff who work there. All in aid of Humber Rescue (the inshore lifeboat rescue service.)

Jane Richardson, the force of nature behind the Sainsbury’s Jam Jar Army fundraising efforts in Hull is famous because of it.  She said: ” A couple of weeks ago I came outside my house to put something in the car whilst getting ready to come to work (so I was in Uniform).  Three schoolboys aged about 8-9 years old waved to me as they walked passed.  So I waved back.  As I went back into my garden, one of them said, “Excuse me, are you from the JamJar Army??”   I said “Yes I am. Are you taking part?”  He nodded and said “I thought I recognised you.”

What an honour …To be recognised in my local Community as being from the JamJar Army!  I certainly must have made an impression!”

*Pattesons’ glass jar company have  also just launched their own jam jar collecting charity called Wish in a Jar modelled on our very own Jam Jar Army. Check it out.  Money in jars. Schools. A great local paper involved. And all for a great cause.  Here is wishing Patteson’s great and on-going success.

*Hedgefund CQS did its own jam jar army collection over Christmas in aid of  the Missionaries of Charity’s work with London homeless and raised £400.

*And most recently, it turns out in Derbyshire they have set up their own jar jar appeal to buy trees to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee….

gets everywhere jam.

So far, there have been: muppets;  fab seventies pop superstars  Showaddy-Waddy;  top-up donations; a bag pack; and of course lots and lots of jars.

The Alnwick Sainsbury’s have jars by the till, the Playhouse has wristbands for sale; and a cream tea is promised any day now.  We’re alive to the sound of jam.

Pausing to  enjoy the moment.

And now we are doing it again. The Northumberland Gazette asked readers to nominate another beneficiary of Jam Jar Army efforts and more than 200 readers voted for the Alnwick Playhouse Youth Theatre. The youth group works with around 135 kids from the age of seven upwards from all over North Northumberland with the kids putting on six shows a year. A £40,000 cut in funding puts the youth theatre’s efforts at risk; undaunted, the kids are taking charge of the situation and launching their own Jam Jar Army campaign to bring in £10,000.  That’s £10,000. Another £10,000. Gulp. No problem.

We have also been joined by another friend – the Sainsbury’s store in Hull are taking out their own jam jar army to a 300-strong primary school near them. Congratulations guys. You’re in the army now. This is the fourth approach from a Sainsbury’s store – Hull  now joins the ranks of Edinburgh, Debden in Essex and Sunderland (as well as the Alnwick store who first provided our jam) who all approached us wanting our secret recipe for penny jam so they could spread the word and raise their own funds for their own charities.

Oh and the hospice asked me for a piece for their autumn newsletter so here it is…

“Shout out for Jam Jars

 A couple of months ago I had this idea about the book I’m writing on good deeds. Why not use jam jars to collect money for charity. Why not set up a Jam Jar Army.

 Of course you can’t set up an army on your own, because an army of one can look a bit silly. So I went to talk to the editor of the Northumberland Gazette, the ever-enthusiastic Paul Larkin, and he made me a nice cup of tea and promptly launched an appeal on behalf of the hospice inviting Gazette readers to spread the jam, spread the word and fill a jar with change.

This was a fundraising scheme where everyone could give what they could afford when they could afford it. Gazette readers, schools and shops have already helped us raise the best part of £3,000. (We’ve gone up substantially since I wrote this.) Schools in particular have been fantastic with around £500 from Seahouses Middle School alone and contributions from Ellingham First School, St Paul’s RC First School (Alnwick), Belford First School, the Duchess High School (Alnwick) and the James Calvert Spence College (Amble).

We particularly need to thank design company Chunky Orange for “Geordie the Jam Jar” icon, Ollie the Approachable Geek and Lazy Grace for their work on the jam jar army website, Sharon Williams of Warkworth (who has helped collect the money and persuade the shops and cafes of Warkworth and Alnwick to join our army), Stephen and Dan Waddington (who raised £136 in one jar), Ali Morris (who got the Percy Hunt on board), and Anne-Marie Trevelyan (the Tory PPC whose party supporters pledged to return lots of jars).

Then there’s Josie, the school cook at Ellingham First School who quietly left a jam jar full of silver on a shelf without mentioning it to anyone; Norma at the Christon Bank Post Office and shop who has been giving out jars to shoppers; and Martin of the Mocha Mondeo coffee stand at Alnmouth railway stand who makes delicious cappucinos and who handed over three jars of change collected from his customers. I could be here all day. Because the Jam Jar Army is about all of us – the shopkeeper who puts up a poster, the café owner who puts jars out on her tables, the little old lady in the retirement home with a jar filling up with tuppeny bits and the child who puts in his week’s pocket money rather than spend it on sweets.

And it’s these jars we need back – ideally full of Northumberland’s very own penny jam. You can bring your jar in to the hospice offices in Alnwick and Berwick, the Gazette office and the Lions bookshop in Alnwick, or call the hospice and someone will come and pick it up. Times are tough. Bills are high. We’re not fussy. We’ll take coppers and silver and folded notes. After all, we’re in this jam together. ”

Ho hum back to jam.

Catch- up…word has come to us that Derwentside Mind is taking the Jam Jar Army on as a fundraiser in the Stanley/Consett area. Go forth and spread the jam guys.

Collection in Alnmouth today. Particular thanks to Dandelion cafe who gave us a huge jar (which we promptly dropped all over the road.) Sorry about that drivers forced to wait while we shovelled up pennies and shards. You waited in aid of a good cause, OK?

The Jam Jar Army would regard it as a privilege.

I can’t quite believe it and hopefully it’s our first £1,000 and not our first and last £1,000.

Stars in the Jam Jar Army include:

*Seahouses Middle School which raised a massive £491.02. This is astonishing bearing in mind there are only 104 children in the school to start with.  We had 60 jars in from Seahouses (including one jar with £55 from a walk  publicising the army) which means that on average per jar the Seahouses kids raised around £7.39 (about twice what we were expecting from our jars).

*Ellingham School which also raised £132.69 and particular thanks to all those parents who didn’t leap into their boots as I approached them with a big smile, another empty jar and the good news they get to do it all over again during the summer holidays.

*St John’s First School which raised £114.24 (including a £10 donation from the lovely school secretary Francis.)

Two more big time stars in the Jam Jar Army who took us over the £1,000 mark, are communications guru Stephen Waddington and his son Dan Waddington who packed their jam jar with pound and £2 coins to see just how much money one jam jar can hold. £136. We want to know whether anyone can get any more into their jars – this is the official Waddington Challenge. The winner gets my gratitude and a jam jar with actual jam in it. Seems like a fair exchange to me.

Three cheers for the stars of the Jam Jar Army (and I should mention my husband who stayed up till 2am and counted most of it.)

Well my husband is an optimist so the fact we have £88.80 from jars which have been brought into the Gazette offices is a cause for celebration as far as he’s concerned. “That’s nearly 1% of your target,” he says cheerfully while I bang my head on the table and think of the other £9,900 (and change)  we need.

It is probably not a bad idea to think of it in percentiles – less overwhelming that way. We have 1% and we haven’t started collecting yet apart from in schools.  So far, I have 15 jars sitting on my kitchen table from Ellingham School and more still to be picked up before the end of term. There’s 30 odd jars in Seahouses Middle and 25-ish in St John’s First. We haven’t yet made contact with all our schools but two have asked their kids to fill jam jars over the summer holidays, a couple of schools were always minded to do it in the autumn term, and one (you know who you are) committed to do it and haven’t. They’re now talking about doing it in September as well, so I am keeping my jammy fingers crossed on that one.

On the up and up side, a glass jar manufacturer has asked to adapt the Jam Jar Army for use in Lincolnshire to collect for Help for Heroes which is fantastic news. Go for it guys.