Great Western Coffee Shop

The Summer 2015 Prize Quiz winner Adelante_CCT has kindly donated his winnings to charity. Between us we decided to poll forum members to chose a charity. I've added another fiver to the pot so there's ^25 to the charity that polls the most votes.

Obviously I can't list all the charities in the UK so I've picked 5 from a broad spectrum of campaigns.

Cancer Research UK (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/)
Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/)
PDSA (https://www.pdsa.org.uk/)
Railway Children (https://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/)
Mind (http://www.mind.org.uk/)

I'll make the donation online once the poll closes and then post a screengrab of the payment confirmation in this thread.

Thank you, Adelante_CCT - and bignosemac.  :)

You'll have another fiver in the pot from me, too: I've voted for Railway Children, simply because it's an excellent railway-related charity. ;)

Thanks Chris. Pot is now ^30.

Make that ^35, let us know where to transfer the ^5 to.

Thanks Ollie. PM sent.

Looks like I've started a thing!

 I would also like to add an additional ^5, likewise BNM if you could let me know how to get this too you that would be great.

Yes the railway children does seem an appropriate charity for this to go towards, so that gets my vote too.

I will chuck a ^5:00 your way let me know where you want me to send it  BNM.

Happy to throw another ^5 into the pot....Paypal seems easiest? Let me know?

These are all worthy charities in my opinion. My personal choice was Mind only because I have done fund raising for another Cancer related charity (McMillians) who I think do an amazing job.

For anyone looking to collect money for a charity I would recommend "Just Giving" which allows donations either by debit card or text message. I've included the link below not because I am attempting to solicit any donations from forum members but because I wanted to show what is possible if you spend 10 minutes setting it up. One of the main advantages of this approach is that the funds go directly to the charity you select thus relieving the person who sets it up of any further responsibilities in terms of collecting monies. My only connection with Just Giving is that I am satisfied user.

https://www.justgiving.com/David-Bareham/ (https://www.justgiving.com/David-Bareham/)

I apologize for taking this thread on a tangent but it seemed relevant .

Admin hat on. We have to be concerned at indirect or direct charity (or indeed other business) promotion, especially in a public area.   Having "firstgreatwestern" in our domain name, we could be seen as using their name for commercial reasons ...

I'm leaving this thread open and running, but please let's not follow that tangent.  And a "Thank you" to the prize (and other) donors to the good cause(s), and to those who work to promote good causes.

.....and another ^10 from me (^5 from me and ^5 from my wife ;) )

I've been away all day today so apologies for not replying to those who wish to donate to the poll winner. Each of you that have offered to add to the pot will be contacted by PM this evening with details of how to forward your donation.

By my reckoning, with the fivers from Adelante_CCT, Western Pathfinder & ChrisB and the tenner from SandT Engineer, I make the current total ^60.

BNM has PM'd a 7 digit account number - don't pay until you get an 8 digit account number from him

I've sent another PM to those who offered a donation after Ollie. With the correct account number. Sorry about that. Been a long day dining on the Pullman.

I received CfN's and Ollie's fivers fine.  :)

As I'm no longer a moderator I'm back to the 10 Personal Messages an hour limit. Can't reply yet personally to those who recently transferred. But I can confirm two recent payments received.

The total now stands at ^100 as SandTEngineer has upped his contribution to an unbelievably generous ^50.

Could I ask a mod to amend the poll title to remove the amount as it is ever changing.  ;D

Done!

On behalf of the admin/moderator team may I again express our thanks to those who have generously donated and to bignosemac for administering it.

Mine will go in the morning

A couple of days left to vote in the poll ( and/or contribute to the pot  ;)).

As soon as the poll closes I'll make the donation online to the winning charity.

I understand that the pot now stands at ^100 - or GBP100 (our forum software seems to be scrambling posts which include ^ signs :-[ ).

This poll, as originally posted by bignosemac, was left open at 'three days from each latest post' - so I've now amended that, to set it a specific deadline, of midnight on 11 August 2015.

Please do vote and / or make a donation, if you haven't already - and our very grateful thanks to everyone who has already contributed!

There has been some discussion, behind the scenes, as to how we set a specific closing date / time for this poll. It's not quite so simple, apparently. ::)

My humble apologies to bignosemac, for meddling with his topic - so I've now chucked a further fiver into the pot.  :-X

Any more contributions, from any of our readers - before the deadline?  ;)

Last couple of hours to vote before the poll closes.

Also, I'll accept any further pledges until 1pm tomorrow, 11th August 2015, to add to the pot. PM me for details of how to donate.

Tomorrow afternoon I shall make the lump sum donation to the winning charity then post here the confirmation.

Voting has now closed.

The winning charity, Railway Children, will receive ^100 shortly. ^105 has been pledged but one donation won't come in until later this week. That additional ^5 will be forwarded to the charity later.

Thank you all who voted and special thanks to those who generously added to the pot.

Indeed - a big "Thank You" to those who contributed - and a huge thank you to YOU too for organising and administering this, BigNoseMac

The donation has been made. Attached is the confirmation email from Railway Children.

Railway Children tweeted also: https://twitter.com/JustinMcAree/status/631075105750122497

I've also posted on the Railway Children Facebook page. The link, for those on Facebook, is: https://www.facebook.com/railwaychildren with my post in the 'Visitors Posts' section.

The final fiver that was pledged has been transferred to Railway Children. Confirmation attached.

Once again a big thank you for organising this BNM.  It has gone to a worthy charity  ;) :D