2016 Lincolnshire Rural Charities’ Dinner aims for £40,000 target 21 Mar

Following its highly successful debut in 2014, the charity dinner organisers’ aim for this year is to raise £40,000 for the four Lincolnshire rural charities, exceeding the total for the 2014 event, which raised nearly £30,000.

In April, Lincolnshire’s own celebrity chef, Colin McGurran, chef patron of AA 5* Winteringham Fields will be at the event to showcase his specially developed menu, which will highlight some of the wonderful produce the county has to offer, including new twists on macaroni cheese and plum loaf!

The celebration of local produce is the centre-piece of the dinner, which will raise a significant amount of money for The Lincolnshire Rural Support Network, Lincolnshire Chaplaincy Service, The Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance and the education work of the Lincolnshire Agricultural Society.

The event could not take place, however, without the extremely generous support of key sponsors who are again backing this tremendous charitable event.

Returning to support the dinner again this year are the four main sponsors: agricultural consultants Brown and Co, Clydesdale Bank, Wilkin Chapman LLP, solicitors, and Smailes Goldie Turner, accountants. The champagne reception will again by sponsored by Limagrain.

Charity dinner organising committee chairman, Meryl Ward, said: “I am delighted that everyone has shown such commitment to our second event and I am especially grateful to our returning sponsors whose support is vital to allow us to stage the event again this year.”

Highlighting the work of the four charities, a new film will be premiered on the evening, made with the generous support of agricultural nutrition specialists, ABN. After the dinner, the new film will be available on the charities’ websites.

Tickets, which went on sale in November, soon sold out and the 550 guests at the event on 7 April, as well as enjoying a spectacular dinner of local produce, will be entertained by Lincolnshire’s multi-talented Sean Sparling, with a few surprises of his own in store. An additional feature this year will be a specially created “turf bar”, from Yorkshire-based WowGrass, which is sure to be the talk of the drinks reception!

Meryl Ward continued: “Our special guest on the night will be Warwickshire-based farmer and former National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (NFYFC) chairman, James Chapman MBE whose life was irrevocably changed following a farm accident, in which he lost his left arm. The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire air ambulance airlifted James to Selly Oak Hospital within minutes, where he underwent major, life-saving surgery. Since his accident, James has put his energies into promoting safe working for rural workers.”