Burton Belles, and a bit of burlesque

As you know, the play Calendar Girls - which we are performing at Burton's Brewhouse from March 12-16, 2013 - focuses on the WI.
We loved visiting Egginton WI last year to talk about our experience of creating our own charity Calendar Girls calendar.
Next month, on February 13, we're talking to another WI group - this time the Burton Belles who meet in the town centre at the St John Ambulance HQ.
The Burton Belles are also turning out in force to come and see opening night of our play in March.
So we were thrilled to see them getting a mention in an article in the Daily Express about the changing face of the WI.

You can read the full article here.

Burton Belles are a great example of a modern WI and the feature refers to one of their events - a Burlesque dance evening. 

The Burton Belles website is here - and I'm sure they would love to see any ladies of any age at a future meeting to find out more about their group.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support. You may have seen that this week we past the £1,250 mark with our fund raising for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Our fund raising will continue through to the end of March 2013. 

If you'd like to help you can:

• Text 'BCGS90 £1' to 700700 - to donate £1 to our fund. It will go straight to the charity and you'll even have an opportunity to add gift aid if you wish.
• Visit our JustGiving page at http://www.justgiving.com/BurtonCalendarGirls to donate any amount safely and securely online.
• Buy a calendar for just £5 - find out how on our How To Buy A Calendar page.
• Buy a ticket for one of our shows in March. There will be a chance to donate any loose change in collecting buckets on the bar or buy a ticket in our nightly raffle where prizes on certain nights will include signed pictures donated by the professional cast of Calendar Girls. Tickets for the play can be bought via the Brewhouse box office - call in person or ring 01283-508100 - or book online at http://www.ticketsource.co.uk/littletheatreco. There's NO booking fee.

From nuns to nudes

It's been a hectic week since the PINT craft fayre with many of the Burton Calendar Girls playing nuns in Little Theatre Company's production of The Sound of Music.

Carol, Vicky and Chris have been selling our calendars in the bar before and after all the performances - and special mention must go to our good friend, and honorary Calendar Girl, Kate who achieved record sales on Thursday night.

The nuns have been having a great time backstage. Some of them follow very suitable nun-like pursuits - like our bible-reading 'Sister' Dawn, a Miss March.

Others sit in quiet contemplation and do a spot of crocheting. Like Sister Cait (a Miss December) and Sister Tilley (a Miss October).

Pausing to occasionally burst into song.

But soon we'll be saying 'goodbye' to Nonnberg Abbey and 'hello' to Calendar Girls rehearsals.

The cast has been announced - and we'll bring you the news about that in the coming weeks. Rehearsals for our March 2013 production of Calendar Girls start on Tuesday November 27.

Tomorrow, after helping take down the set and pack away the costumes, we'll be selling our calendars at the official switch-on of Burton-on-Trent's Christmas lights. Come and find us in the market place.

Then, on Wednesday three of us are guest speakers at Egginton WI.

Meanwhile, please support our efforts to raise as much money as possible for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Donations are always welcome if (for any reason) you don't want a calendar.

Find out the latest places to buy a calendar by clicking the link at the top of this page called "How To Buy A Calendar".

As you know, our calendar reflects a theatrical theme, and as we've not given away any secrets from the calendar so far - here's the December shot of us all looking over programmes from past Little Theatre Company shows. From nuns to nudes...... it's all in a day's work for the Burton Calendar Girls.

Back to the Calendar Girl roots

As you will probably know, the Calendar Girls story began 13 years ago when the members of Rylstone and District Women's Institute decided to strip off for a charity calendar with a difference after the husband of one of the women died from leukaemia.

Since then they have raised an amazing £13 million.

We are thrilled to have been invited to speak to two local Womens' Institute groups - Egginton WI and Burton Belles WI - about our own journey.

Burton Belles held an open evening this week, when Elaine popped down to meet some of the ladies. It was extremely busy at the St John Ambulance HQ where they meet. But they still found time to buy a few calendars, and a few more will be on sale at their October meeting.

We are very happy to consider taking our calendars and a little stall to any events or meetings in and around Burton - although we don't have a budget to pay for stalls I'm afraid. But we'd be happy to send along a couple of the girls to give a talk. Get in touch on Twitter or via our Facebook Page if you are interested in having a Burton calendar Girl or two at your organisation or event.