A fundraising event supporting Oskar’s Dreams and its Jade’s Place project will take place in Douglas on 28th March.
The event, at Salt Bar & Kitchen, sees the return of the popular ‘Night at the Oskars’. For the first time it will be possible to book tickets online, thanks to backing from online business directory MiQuando.
Tickets cost ?25 and tables of any number up to 25 can be reserved. The evening will include a meal, guest singer and DJ.
Oskar’s Dreams was established by Heath and Aly Craig and named after their son, who was born with the rare condition Malignant Migrating Partial Epilepsy. Oskar was just 18-months-old when he passed away in February 2007.
The charity’s initial aim was to equip at room at the children’s hospice Rebecca House and name it in Oskar’s memory, but huge public support allowed it to provide improved facilities and care for poorly children in the Isle of Man and their families.
One of its current projects is Jade’s Place, the refurbishment of a counselling room at Isle of Man Hospice in memory of Jade Quirk, who passed away aged 17 in March 2013 after a seven-year battle with Ewings Sarcoma.
Jade’s mum, and Oskar’s Dreams secretary, Dawn Herbert said: ‘Night at the Oskars has taken a break for a few years, but we’ve been encouraged to organise it again by members of the public who had such a great time when it was held before.'
‘It will be a fantastic night out and will help raise vital funds for the charity.’
She added: ‘One of the difficulties in organising an event like this is looking after the ticket sales. Everyone involved in the charity is a volunteer and has a fulltime job, so it isn’t always possible to be available to take a booking when someone wants to buy tickets. Then it takes a huge amount of time following up on inquiries, chasing payment and looking after the administration.
‘When MiQuando offered to set up online booking for free for the event it was a huge boost. It is a first for us, but means people who want to come along can just go online whenever they like, whatever the time, make their booking and complete the payment. It is much more convenient for them, and will make life much easier for all the Oskar’s Dreams volunteers.'
‘This is a huge thing for us and will make a massive difference. We just couldn’t be more grateful to MiQuando for making online booking available for Night at the Oskars.’
Dawn is also manager of Salt and knows how successful MiQuando’s online booking service can be.
She said: ‘It is a great tool, and we are really starting to see it take off at Salt. It means people can book a table when they want to, whatever the time and whether we are open or not – simply we don’t miss out on customers.’
Nigel Jones from MiQuando said: ‘We are huge admirers of Oskar’s Dreams and when we heard Night at the Oskars was returning, we all wanted to see what we could do to help. Speaking to Dawn it became clear that looking after ticket administration was a headache, especially as they are all volunteers, so it made perfect sense to offer them online booking for the event.
‘We were delighted to set up the booking for free, allowing people to buy tickets at their convenience and hopefully making organising the fundraiser much easier for the charity. We know Night at the Oskars is going to be a huge success.’
To book tickets just visit www.bit.ly/nightattheoskars.
Photo - Nigel Jones from MiQuando with Dawn Herbert of Oskar’s Dreams.
