Get Inspired – Featured Big Curries

On Saturday morning 21st April, over 140 staff, governors, students, and parents of students who attend St. George’s school, will be pounding the pavements of Harpenden, Rothamstead, and the Lea Valley, to raise funds for The Soldiers’ Charity. Connecting to the charity’s “Big Curry” theme, the school has organised its second annual “Great Curry Run” – entrants running or walking 10 metres for each service person killed or wounded in action in Afghanistan. With 2208 such casualties, those taking part are having to exceed 13 miles, more than half marathon distance.

Joining the school community will be teams of paratroopers from 201 (Herts & Beds Yeomanry) Parachute Battery, Royal Artillery (Volunteers). Already, the event has raised around £14,000, delighting St George’s Deputy Head Paddy Storrie, who stated, “There are some pretty unlikely participants taking part, including some very brave Year 13 students. Seeing the kilometre markers, and knowing each km represents 100 casualties, is a great incentive to keep going.” 

You can support the efforts of those taking part at www.justgiving.com/teams/greatcurryrun. The run starts at 9 am. 

To continue the “Artillery” theme, on Monday 23rd April, St George’s Day itself, the school is hosting the Band of the Royal Artillery. The band will be doing a demonstration for the students, and then running workshops in the Music Dept before a tea-time concert alongside student musicians. While students and staff are foregoing normal lunch on the day to eat curry as an additional fund-raising exercise, a key part of the school’s priorities is to get the students to better understand issues of service and sacrifice. 

We are really grateful for the amazing efforts that all at St George’s are making. We can’t wait to hear how the run goes and we look forward to joining them on the Monday to see the Big Curry in action! 

Caroline Bodger is one of our regular Big Curry supporters and holds an annual Big Curry event. She chose to support ABF The Soldier’s Charity as her eldest son, Seb will be going to Sandhurst in September 2013 and is currently being sponsored through university by the army.  She has held a Big Curry for the past 5 years with the help of her family and Seb’s friends. 

Their Big Curry this year was a 2 course Thai Curry Supper held at Cliffords Mesne Village Hall on Saturday 14^th April. Every year Caroline, and friend Sarah, ask 50 of their closest friends to support them, so it is gradually becoming a bit of a fixture.

Caroline says “We charge £15 for a 2 course supper and for the past 2 years my amazing Thai sister in law has cooked the curries.  She and my brother run a fantastic Thai restaurant in Ambleside and they are hugely generous.   We offer a choice of curries and then a mixture of set puddings so it makes it simple. We print off menus and we always have a little bunch of red, white and blue flowers on each table.

 “Starting with last year and following on this year, we devise a Military/Curry Quiz and this year’s was done for me by our middle son Chris. We found a Chilli Chocolate Roulette Game as the prize for the winning table. The raffle this year was particularly successful, but in a way I think the Auction last year was better, although it does take more organising. We are absolutely thrilled to be able to send a cheque for something in the region of £1250 this year.”

Big Curry Month for the traders of West Road, Shoeburyness, Essex

The recently set up group, West Road Traders and Community Association based in Shoeburyness, Essex, are following on from the success of The Polash restaurant who were named ‘The Most Successful Big Curry Restaurant Fundraiser 2011’, and joined forces to participate in their own Big Curry Month. During April 2012 all involved had collection boxes and posters in their stores, while their staff encouraged customers to visit The Polash and take the ultimate taste test.

Naan but the Brave is a flatbread so fiery it measures over two million on the Scoville Heat Units (SHU) scale, which rates the hotness or piquancy of chilli peppers. It contains a variety of the most potent spices and chillies from across the globe; including the fearsome Naga Viper, rated as the World’s Hottest Chilli by the Guinness Book of World Records. The flammable flatbreads were sold for £5 each, with all the cash going direct to The Soldiers’ Charity and this contributed to the fabulous grand total of £1,214!

Polash manager, Rubel Khalique, said: “Yet again we’ve had an amazing response from all our customers and we thank them all for getting involved. This is the first project we’ve undertaken as the West Road Traders and Community Association and we are delighted we’ve raised even more vital funds for this really worthy cause.”

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This fabulous pub in Southsea, Hampshire kindly held a Big Curry Evening as way of showing support for Soldiers and their families.  They charged £6.99 for a curry and a £1 was donated for everyone sold.  

As it was Easter, they held an Easter Egg Raffle which were generously donated by the volunteers, and this was followed by a disco into the night. The event was advertised via a banner outside the pub and through promotion in their local newspaper and also supported by their loyal customers. In total they raised a fabulous £200! Thank you so much for your support!