Representatives of Dartmouth Caring, the Dart Music Festival Foundation and performers from the special event with Spice Bazaar owner Shahar Lashkor.
A musical fundraiser at Dartmouth’s Spice Bazaar restaurant has brought in valuable funds for Dartmouth Caring and the Dart Music Festival Foundation.
The event, held on November 11, raised £2,300 to be shared equally between Dartmouth Caring and the Dart Music Festival Foundation.
The event was the third fundraiser held at Spice Bazaar organised by the restaurant’s owner Shahar Lashkor, Rob Lyon, musician and Dart Music Festival founder, and Dartmouth Caring.
Each event has always raised funds for two good causes: Dartmouth Caring and one other, and this year the Dart Music Festival Foundation was selected as the other deserving cause.
Dartmouth Caring is a charity which looks out for elderly and vulnerable adults in the Dartmouth and district community – it runs social clubs, information cafes for those with short term memory loss and Parkinson’s Disease, runs a book club for the visually impaired, co-funds two healthcare workers who visit members of the community that have recently left hospital or are at risk of going into hospital to reduce unnecessary hospital stays, gives well-being checks to carers, funds counselling sessions for community members and helps people make benefits claims.
The Dart Music Festival Foundation is a charity which aims to promote young people and their musical endeavours. It was set up after the success of the Dartmouth Music Festival, which was started in 1998, to help more youngsters from the Dartmouth area succeed in music.
An auction of fantastic prizes was held, with local marketing guru Alan Depledge as the auctioneer and, along with a fantastic raffle and the ticket price – because Shahar donated the restaurant and food for free – £2,300 was raised to be split between the two charities.
Music was a huge part of the evening, with performances by Rob Lyon with Dr Phil Braakenburg – husband to the Dart Music Festival chairman Pam –Jonathan Hughes-Jones, James Harris, and a number of other performers to create a fun, carnival atmosphere.
The fantastic food was provided by Shahar and his team for the 50 hungry guests, and as always the quality was superb.
Dartmouth Caring chairman Dee Nutt said: ‘Yet again Shahar and his team have given us an amazing night with fantastic food and a brilliant atmosphere. Rob, as always, helped to create a wonderful evening. The funds we have raised will help Dartmouth Caring – which is helping the elderly and vulnerable adults in our community every day – immensely. We get almost all our funding from events like this and donations from the public, so thank you to everyone who came down and supported us, every single penny really does make a difference.’
Pam Braakenburg, Trustee of the Dart Music Festival Foundation said: ‘We were delighted to be part of what is now a regular and much-loved event. The music was fantastic, as always, Shahar and his team did a marvellous job, as always! It is great that there are events like this bringing in funds for the Dart Music Festival Foundation. We believe our festival is the best small music festival in the country because we have such a wide range of music on offer – the foundation supports the young people of Dartmouth in their musical endeavours, and we will hopefully be seeing some of them performing at the festival itself.’
Shahar said: ‘I am always happy to support Dartmouth Caring, a charity which helps people around us in the Dartmouth community every day. And as a Dartmouth businessman I’m delighted to support the Music Festival Foundation, which does so much good work helping young people to follow their dreams of playing music. This event helped the community in two very real ways, by supporting those who need help to live independent lives, and a group which promote the cultural life of Dartmouth.’
Phil Scoble 