Moles 25th Anniversary

On a glorious day for rugby the Gravesend Moles gathered at HQ…not to don their black shirts and do battle against the opposition…but to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Moles founded by #1, forever thankful that 200 years ago William Webb Ellis picked up the football in frustration at Rugby School and ran with it, thus heralding in the lovely game of rugby.

The idea was presented at the Moles AGM to raise £5,000 and a call to arms was put out for ideas and for people to drive the fundraising ideas to fruition, and when the initial ideas rolled in and some early targets were put up, the organising committee concluded the Moles could push for a much more ambitious £25,000!

It was also the official launch of the M25E fundraising campaign and in the glorious late Summer sun, Moles, past, present and future, and their plus ones, plus friends and family, gathered at HQ to sip a sundowner outside on the splendid new patio. As is the way at Moles events there was much kissing and hugging and bum squeezing.

So much perfume in the air… such lovely clothes… and the Moley wives and girlfriends looked fabulous too! After a few drinks and some chit chat, the whistle blew and everyone filed into the hall where black and while tables awaited, with a handmade mole statue in pride of place in the middle of each table.

Slack jawed we surveyed the mother of all buffets, with the centrepiece being an outrageously calorific anniversary cake, shaped in a green 25, replete with rugby posts, mini moles and the slogan…”Who are we?...MOLES!”… baked by the lovely Mrs Squeaksy. One buffet table was ENTIRELY devoted to cheese. Oh yes please!

Fortified with 2 heaped plates of top-notch scoff each, Squeaksy and Miami took to the stage to welcome everyone to the 25th anniversary party. There was a collective “gasp” around the hall as everyone heard, not the £5,000 fundraising target mentioned at the AGM, but the very ambitious new target of £25,000!

Squeaksy noted that various activities pre launch had already raised over £1,000 and Miami explained there was a growing list of activities that were being explored and diarised but that a crucial contributor to the success of the campaign would be individual Moles taking on a personal challenge IN ADDITION to the list of events being steered and coordinated by the organising committee.

Elvis has kicked off the Moles personal challenges with a bang, committing to two open mics a month at the Mole Hole through to June 2024, with all tips going to Ellenor. His first night bagged £80 towards his target of £1,000. If EVERY Mole took on a personal challenge, to fulfil with their personal circle of family, friends and work colleagues, and raised only a modest £100 each, this would amount to a very large sum towards the target?

We need to broaden the pool of fundraisers to beyond those involved thus far and we need to broaden the pool of potential donors to outside the club, otherwise “donation fatigue” will set in with club members. So, please, Moleys, come forward with your personal challenges so we can log them and we can gauge progress towards the target.

If you need a JustGiving page to facilitate your personal fundraising challenge we can show you how to set this up.

After yet more scoffing Squeaksy took to the stage to kick off the raffle. Fiona Norman did a sterling job rounding up some great raffle prizes for the evening and then did an even more sterling job gathering up notes and notes and notes from all the tables, before happy prize winners collected their prizes, such as a £100 Bartellas restaurant voucher, Cape wine, and more….

Squeaksy reminded us there were 103 Moles ties in circulation but that sadly 4 brothers had gone to the great club house in the sky, namely, #1, Gary Theobald, Pedro Redelinghuys, Paul Wakelin and Brian Rayner, and all those in the hall stood to toast our absent friends.

The cheeseboard extravaganza then took another late evening hit, not only the centrepiece of an ENORMOUS block of manly English cheddar but also the surrounding ensemble of other squishy, effete foreign cheeses. (One contained pineapple!) The Moles is a broad church and caters to ALL cheese eaters.

After endless rounds of good night kisses, the pink cheeked partygoers got their rides home, all feeling replete like Toad of Toad Hall, with bellies full of port, cheese and Guinness barely contained by their waistcoats. As we headed home with hearts filled with the joy of being involved in this lovely game we thought ourselves lucky to be raising funds for such a worthy cause.

As Squeaksy is unfamiliar with calculators, using only his fingers and a blunt pencil to count up the takings, it may take a while before we hear the final sum raised on the night and the total to date, but a very big thank you to those involved in organising the launch event, making the food, helping out in other ways and to our excellent bar staff for keeping our thirsts at bay.

So Moleys, the Ellenor fundraising campaign across the club is up and running and we need your support for the events ahead, which will be announced as they are confirmed but we REALLY need you to come forward with your PERSONAL challenges!

The next event in the calendar is Moles vs Badgers on the 16th of September, where the most recent Mole #103 will be made the “Guardian of the Orange Bucket” (GOB) for the day and must return it with at least £100. The following game will be the turn of Mole #102 to be the GOB, and so on. After that coming down the pipeline is a Burns Night, Captains Day Lunch, Race Night, Xmas Hampers…and more…

Ellenor is running its own events and they would be delighted if we could support some of these. The next one is The Twilight walk on 22/09/24. This is an important fundraiser for Ellenor so it would be great to see a few black shirts at this 10k evening walk.

The M25E campaign JustGiving page will be launched shortly and we need all fundraisers who collect cash to put the cash into their bank accounts and then pay it into the M25E Just Giving page. If you set up your own JustGiving page please let us know because we can link all the JustGiving pages together to keep track of our progress.

To those who came to the 25th party and launch event, lovely to see you.

To those who could not make it, see you at the next one.

Fantastic start to the campaign, the folks at Ellenor are very excited about what we are doing!