In my first blog entry, I said one of my reasons for blogging is to raise the profile of the charities I’m supporting under the Mayor’s appeal. Last year’s Mayor, Peter Evans, raised a fair bit for Dorothy House, the Wiltshire Air Ambulance and the Sam Waters Memorial Fund.

My charities are The Guides, Canon’s House and the Devizes & District Opportunity Centre. At the end of my term, in May 2007, I shall split all moneys raised equally between them. Here’s a few details on each:

Canon’s House is based in Belle Vue Road, Devizes. It's a respite home for children with severe learning disabilities. The Friends of Canon’s House aim to raise money to enable the children to experience many more activities than would have been possible. They’ve already raised enough to buy a Variety Club mini-bus and an on-site mobile holiday home for the children and their families. I speak from personal experience when I say that respite care is essential not only for the children themselves but also for their families.

The Devizes & District Opportunity Centre is also based in Belle Vue Road, Devizes. It provides pre-school education and care for children with disabilities and special needs. The earlier you can help children who need it, the better.

Devizes Guides. You all know what the Girl Guides are about. Our local Guides are building a new Headquarters. I want to help them with this.

Fund-raising has been fairly low-key so far but I’m looking to step up the pace over the next few weeks. I plan to hold a Beer Festival at the Wyvern club on January 26th and 27th. The Mayor’s Ball is at the Corn Exchange on February 10th. I’m also trying to do something about the 10K run which I said would happen. I was hoping that people would forget about that when I found out that 10K isn’t just once round the Market Place … but people have long memories and a nasty habit of reminding me of what I’ve said.

I have also been trying to bring people from Swindon Town to the town to hold a fans’ forum with a director or two, the manager and a couple of players. But this is proving tricky. I first approached Bill Power. We’re both Queens Park Rangers fans (should I be admitting that?) and he was well up for it. Bill put me in touch with Mark Devlin. He was very interested in the idea as well. Mark’s another QPR fan (we’re taking over … as customers of the Spar shop on Bath Road might know) and, on top of that, he was in the year below me at school. With these contacts, I thought it would be un moreceau de gateau. But then came the awful plane crash that nearly did for Bill and Mark and since then … well, if you’re interested in Swindon Town, you’ll know the rest. Suffice it to say, I’m still trying to get something set up, but I’m not as confident as I was.

There will be other events so, although I try to avoid cliches like the plague, watch this space.

If you have any ideas for events then please give me a shout. If you want to do a sponsored event for my charities, please let me know: I’ll make sure your efforts are recognised. Raffles may seem a bit old hat these days but they raise an awful lot of money. I’m already gathering prizes ranging from flavoured teas to a signed copy of a Rick Stein book. If you have anything that you’d like to donate as a prize then please contact me at don.jones@devizes-tc.gov.uk or drop it into the Town Hall.

Cash is always welcome as well. Maybe you’re an ex-pat, listening to the World Service in far-off climes and keeping up with news from your old town through this web site. Perhaps you just want to give to three worthwhile causes. Any which way, if you fancy making a contribution to Devizes then you could do a lot worse than making a cheque out to the Devizes Mayor’s Appeal and sending it to the Town Hall.

I chaired the meeting where we started to set out budgets for 2007/8 last night. It was hard work but we need to make sure that we get it right. After all, it's your money we're talking about.

My eldest's back from Newcastle tonight. We're really looking forward to seeing her. Apart from going to the opening of the new kitchen at the Crown Centre tomorrow, it's a family weekend. I hope you have a good weekend too.