Doorway, the North Wiltshire charity drop-in centre for homeless and marginalised single adults, is once again organising a sponsored SleepOut on Saturday 30th January 2010 from 8pm until 7am the following morning, at Chippenham Rugby Club.

The SleepOut has been organised to coincide with Homelessness Sunday 2010, an annual day of prayer and action marked by over 2,000 churches in England, Scotland and Wales, highlighting the devastating effects of homelessness.
After the phenomenal successes of the 2008 and 2009 SleepOuts, Doorway staff, volunteers and members of the local community will once again be braving the great British winter weather and sleeping rough to increase awareness of homelessness in North Wiltshire and raise much needed funds for the Doorway drop-in centre.

The 2008 SleepOut raised over £10,500 and Doorway was featured on BBC Points West news!

The 2009 SleepOut raised just over £7,000 and Doorway was featured in live radio interviews on BBC Radio Wiltshire and Heart FM!

However, they are aiming to increase both the number of participants and the amount of sponsorship this year. With this in mind they are allowing children over the age of 10 to participate as long as they have parental/guardian consent and are accompanied by a responsible adult aged at least 18 years old.

Doorway would like to invite members of the public, businesses and other organisations to support this event by participating in the SleepOut, joining them for the first part of the night, or by publicising the event.

Pre-registration is essential, so that they know how many people will be attending, to enable them to manage the event safely and efficiently. To pre-register please send a completed registration form for each individual (including children) to Doorway, The Salvation Army, Foghamshire, Chippenham, Wiltshire SN15 1HB.

Information packs, including guidelines and general information regarding the event; registration and sponsorship forms; A4 poster and A5 flyer, can be downloaded from the Doorway website www.doorwayproject.org.uk or obtained by emailing info@doorwayproject.org.uk or telephoning Doorway on 01249 445385.

Thank you for supporting Doorway and please spread the word.

Remember that although we are giving up a warm bed for the night, we still have one to go back home to in the morning…

On a different note altogether, as Christmas gets closer it's got me thinking about favourite Christmas songs and carols. My personal favourite is Kirsty McColl and Pogues "A Fairytale in New York", but there are so many others that it's a tough decision to pick just one!

X-Factor winner Joe McElderry is looking less and less likely to be Christmas number one in the UK charts, thanks to a Facebook campaign. If you've ever heard Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name of" I think you'll agree it would be a highly unusual choice, but according to the bookies it could well get there. Poor Joe (and of course Simon Cowell, who the campaign is aimed at).

Do you have a favourite Christmas song? If you do, why not let the world know by commenting below?