THROUGH the letters paged, on behalf of Bolton Interfaith Council, I wanted to most sincerely say a very heartily“ Thank You“ to a number of organisations, many volunteers and the very generous public of Bolton, who supported the fund raising event last Saturday in the town centre for the victims of the recent Nepal earth quake.

We were blessed with a real summer’s day and an event so hastily arranged became a wonderful occasion for Bolton family to come together for a very worthy humanitarian cause.

Many organisations provided their services for free, such as Aquila Marquees, Swaminarayan Bag Pipe Band, Bolton Halwa Centre, John Bates Brothers, Sainsbury’s stores, Bolton FM, Minerva Prints, Bolton Council, Victoria Hall, Bollywood Divas, Smile of Hope, Sakhi group, St Philips Church, Runshaw College, Krishna Mandir, Interfaith Ambassadors, British Red Cross, Bolton News and almost fifty excellent volunteers providing variety of activities and services to help towards collection.

At the moment, we do not know the amount we have collected on the day as British Red Cross will inform us of the final amount this week. Whatever the amount, it will help towards rebuilding of this beautiful but devastated country.

Over the years, at times of need, where ever in the world, the generosity of British people is unique. Although this event was a month after the initial earth tremors, we witnessed unbelievable kindness from people from all walks of life. People were giving donations before we had even started. The Swaminarayan Gadi Pipe Band played a big part in collection as they went around the town centre and people responded to the beautiful unique music they play so well. Everyone played a big part on the day and whilst it takes an effort to pull everything together, on reflection it was a very rewarding day to see so many organisations, volunteers and above all Bolton’s extremely generous people coming together as “Bolton Family” working together for goodness of humanity.

Once again, a big “Thank You” and well done to everyone who played a part in a very memorable day. God Bless.

Chan Parmar

Bolton Interfaith Council.