What’s been happening?
We’ve gone bi-monthly: This takes effect from January 24, meaning you should expect a new edition in March, May, July, September and November this year.
Thanks to all who supported us throughout 2023 – a message from Shiv: Customers! We are so proud to see our ‘Gari family’ grow! Thank you for coming out and getting involved; we have loved seeing you all on events like our band nights, party nights and Gariokes. It’s been our pleasure to host your birthdays and special occasions too, and we look forward to many more.
Volunteers! We thank all of you who come forth and participate in creating a warm, welcoming space here at the Gari. Particular appreciation for all who work so hard on the garden led by Sarah Maye and special thanks to Phil ‘The Mower’ Maye, those who help out on clean-up days, host Garioke, the fixers and the menders, you know who you are! We love you all and couldn’t do all the things we need to do without you.
Sponsors! These of course include St James Place, Molson Coors, Ashley from Argos Redhill who arranged sponsorship of the Coronation in May and the Community Christmas Dinner in December. Shouts also to ‘The Gari Good Guys’ for running our Rotarian charity beer festivals.
Donors! Multiple charitable offerings from a plethora of people, through numerous ways, including our weekly meat raffles (in other words garden donations), and all who contributed items to our Charity Christmas raffle. The generosity and thoughtfulness shown by people at our pub never ceases to impress.
Fundraising updates: We are proud to have been able to support our local community financially, and here’s some examples of how well we did against that aim in ’23:
- Age Concern – £553
- Redhill food bank – £3,000
- Smile (via The Gari Good Guys’ beer festivals – more to come this year!) – £2,000 I Choose Freedom – £1,615 (via Christmas raffles and beer festival)
- St Catherine’s Hospice – £219
- Surrey Choices – £1,000 (also via the charity beer festivals)
And all this with our New Year’s Eve buffet donations still yet to be collected and tallied! See below for details of our regular fundraising portals.
Community groups and events: We really ramped this side of pub life up in ’23, with a wider range of different activities through which people can come together and enjoy the things they love:
Book club, Golf society, Quiz nights, Music bingo, Art and crafts classes, The Forces Fry-Up (hits its second birthday in February!) Christmas market, Garden gang, Televised sporting events.
In other news:
Website upgrade – our new website is well underway but we’re looking for help with content and photography. If you are interested and can spare us a little time please leave your details at the bar or Contact Us.
New beers please – Shiv reports that we’ve some fantastic new beers that can be found in our beer fridge, and naturally across our five cask and three keg lines, alongside our usual firm favourites. A carefully-crafted selection of low and no-alcohol beerage is available too!
Garden hire – don’t forget you can hire our lovely garden! If you have an event, birthday or class you would like to use the generous space for, please contact us at the above email address.
More community eventing – we hope to give a home to even more community groups this year, expand our arts and crafts classes, coffee mornings, or any other kind of activity that could benefit from being hosted at the Gari. If you would like to use the space or have an idea please get in touch, either at the above or by speaking to Shiv or one of our Bar team.
And finally – those of you keen to keep abreast of all that’s unfolding up here at their local, and who haven’t already done so, are reminded you can sign up to receive this newsletter by email! Just contact the editor at the email address at the end of this edition and it shall be arranged.
Regular fundraising activities: As regular readers will know, newsletters are a convenient platform for plugging our four primary ways through which you can help raise some readies.
- EasyFundRaising
- The Garibaldi Pub One Lottery
- ‘Your Fund Surrey – Join The Local Conversation’ Meat raffles
What’s on – regular events:
Meat raffle – weekly: All readies realised go towards funding our garden, which is an all-year-round process. Drawn at 5pm, every Sunday.
Quiz night – fortnightly: With thanks to our excellent quizmasters Fran and Jim, the quiz remain in our social calendar. Starts at 8pm, every alternate Thursday, from 1st February £2/person cash entry.
‘Music Bingo’ – fortnightly: Join our bingo mistress Alexis for three rounds of bingo. £1/ticket (cash only) Starts around 8pm, every alternate Thursday, from 25th January.
‘Forces Fry-up’ – monthly: To honour our local armed forced members past and present, for whom Shiv and ‘the Naafia’ team and with the help from the lads at Bhunny’s, cook up a lovely along with tea or coffee. 10am, every third Saturday in the month, from 17th February, £5/person, booking essential.
‘Garioke’ A sometimes splendid, sometimes strident, but always joyous sing-along to all kinds of popular tunes (well they’re at least popular and tuneful before we get our vocal cords around them!), to help while away yet-another jolly evening a la Gari. We’re bringing this one back as a monthly event owing to its persistent popularity last Summer. From 8pm, Saturday 27th January; from 8pm, Saturday 24th February; March and later months TBC.
Bhunny’s Sunday roasts: Bhunny’s continue as our regular outsourced food partner, and in addition to their usual weekly offerings will be adding a Sunday roast to their menu, and seasonal fare too. Come up to the pub and you could enjoy spit-roasted chicken, or succulent pork and crackling, served with generous portions of seasonal vegetables and topped-off with Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets. The next dates will be 4th & 25th Feb from 12 – 4pm.
Book club: A get-together of like-minded keen readers who work their way through selected tomes, then meet at the pub to share their thoughts in monthly discussions, and consider ideas for shared reads in the future. Revived successfully by Sarah Burgess (thanks for making this one of our regular features Sarah!). Monthly – next meeting at 7pm, Wednesday 28th February.
What’s on – one-off events:
Brewery tours: Beer lovers can join us in this social event, where you will sample the range of fine cask and keg ales on pump/tap, at local breweries. Shiv ran several of these in 2022 and ’23 very successfully and so they’ll be back for ’24. Details are still to be nailed down, so now is your chance to let us know if there’s a particular brewery you’d like to travel to and we’ll see if it can be arranged. Saturdays TBC – watch this space! Plant swaps: Come over and swap plants and seeds with fellow gardeners, as those of us with the luxury of a garden space start preparing for the Spring, and our Garden gang begin to get the pub’s space into great shape for the sunnier seasons. Throughout March, dates TBC.
Easter events: The Gari team will be prepped and ready for some exciting events to give the long weekender a boost. Our annual treasure hunt – a family favourite – will definitely be running, so keep an eye out for more firm details as we move closer to the end of March. Saturday 30th/Sunday 31st March. Specifics TBC.
Beer (and possibly cider) festivals:
What is it?: A popular event run at the pub at least three times each year whereby beer drinkers – be they seasoned cask lovers of old or intrepid new beginners – come together to sample a specially-curated selection of cask ales from across the UK, representing different styles and strengths, in alignment with the season. In short, it’s a rip-roaring real ale rumpus! This year Shiv is also considering doing a cider fest and wants to know if anyone would be able/willing to help out with such an event – do tell her if you are.
When is it?: Exact dates still TBC, but our Gari Good Guys have committed to running two fests, one in Spring, one in Summer, while Shiv and team will likely look to host our own efforts in Winter and Autumn. Keep ’em peeled!