Music marathon at Park Street church (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Music marathon at Park Street church

4:48pm Saturday 20th March 2010

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A CHURCH band is performing for 24 hours in Park Street as it helps raise money for an impoverished African village.

The band, consisting of guitarist, bass player and drummer, started playing at 11am during morning worship at Park Street Baptist Church in Penn Road, and will continue all night, ending during tomorrow morning's service.

Their marathon performance has been sponsored by church members and other villagers as part of a fund-raising drive for MECI, Mission Enfant Pour Christ Internationale, a charity working in the west African nation of Togo.

Event organiser Kathryn Wheeler explained: "Elizabeth - a friend I have known for ages - went out to Togo to do some nursing a few years ago.

"She met a Togolese man - Gademo. They fell in love and got married. They lived in Park Street for three or four years but in January they went back to Togo to work out there.

"Togo is one of the poorest countries in the world, and has had a lot of political unrest.

"Children aren't really valued there, so a Togolese child is the poorest of the poor.

"Gad is is doing church work with the children - they don't have Sunday school,clubs or anything.

"Elizabeth, who is a nurse, is working more on the social side.

"We want to raise £10,000 to dig a bore hole and build toilets.

"After that we want to build a clinic but there's no point in doing that until they've got clean water and basic sanitation."

The music marathon evolved this afternoon into a community sale, with villagers young and old visiting the church where cakes, toys and second hand children's clothes are on sale.

Kathryn's nine-year-old daughter Lizzy said: "I have given some of my toys to the sale because I have outgrown them and I wanted to help.

"I have been helping on the toy stall which I enjoyed a lot.

"I think the band are very good - I don'tknow how they manage to keep going."

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