A few weeks ago we had a phone call from Pam Dixon at the local Volunteer Bureau. Masterfoods, the towns main employer, were having a sales conference in town and on the last day of the conference it is customary for the associates to volunteer an afternoon of charity work in the town. Did we want twenty volunteers to help with the hall?

A few days later Trevor from Masterfoods turned up at the hall had a good look around and decided they could repaint the whole of the main hall in one afternoon. In addition to that they could also remove the old kitchen which was a little past its sell by date.

On the 18th December at around 2pm an army of 20 volunteers armed with paint brushes, rollers and sledgehammers descended on us. Within the hour the kitchen was removed and the hall was half painted. By 5pm the hall was painted, all evidence of the old kitchen was removed with the time left over half the new kitchen units had been assembled.

This help has probably put us six months ahead of what we would have achieved alone. Thank you to everyone at Masterfoods

What we are aiming for now is to revive the pre-school playgroup. Once we get the new kitchen installed and some small building work carried out we should get the official approval to do this.

We have formed a charity called Pay it Forward (UK). All the money which is raised from renting out the hall for kids parties etc is paid directly to the charity. Any excess money goes back into buying equipment for the user groups and keeping the hall going for the community.

The first year has been very lean and we have just carried out the work by buying a the odd bits we needed for repairs and tins of paint on payday. But I think with the work that has been carried out and, once the kitchen is fitted, the hall will be a little more desirable for hiring out. Hopefully this year it will be a little more self sufficient and we can concentrate more on the people who will be using it.

We have also just put up our pay it forward website www.pif.org.uk and would like you to have a look. If anyone would like drop us a line we would love to hear what you are all up to and we would like to hear your pay it forward stories too. You will see we have created a page called 'Your Stories' which we want to fill. We really want to push the idea in the UK and we feel we are making a small headway.

Andy and Teri

(Earlier correspondence) i have seen the movie and was truly inspired by the whole idea that the whole world could be affected by one persons actions. In my town we have a brownie and guide group who are selling their hall. I don't know if you have the same thing in the U.S. but the brownies are a group of girls upto the age of 11 and the guides from 11 upwards. They do good deeds and odd jobs for people and sell cookies and the like. They also have activities and games when they meet once a week.

A short while ago the boy scouts, who have a part share, in the hall decided they wanted to cash in their share. The brownies and guides do not have the money so they have to sell the hall. Even if they could raise the cash they still wouldn't be able to afford the repair bills and the general upkeep.

There is also a mother and toddlers group who use the hall three mornings a week.

I have decided to buy the hall so the group can continue. I do not have the money either but i can raise it by selling my house to use as a deposit and get a mortgage for the balance. Once the deeds have been signed over to me i am then free to invite other charity organisations to use the facilities available. I expect the sale of my house to go through in the next 8 weeks.

What i would like to do is build a PIF movement in the UK.

kindest regards andrew mullen