I just got back from a fundraising event in aid of tsunami victims in the Civic Hall in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was a concert put on by local primary school children, & god was it boring. I only went because my daughter was taking part.

The 420 seater hall which the Civic Hall Trust had provided free, wasn't completely full. The MC was the actor who plays Flitch in the Harry Potter films, & who livened the proceedings up by doing a reasonable Elvis impersonation (voicewise only); the food during the intermission was provided by volunteers; the 70 or so kids( they were also volunteers btw) were wearing t-shirts printed up & donated by a local company; the programmes were provided at cost by another local company; the bar profits went into the pot too.

There was no ticket price,just buckets at the door for donations going out. I popped mine into the bucket which the Lord Mayor was holding, & there were plenty of notes in there. The smallest note in England is worth around $8.

I'd be very surprised if the take was less than £3000/$5000, it could quite easily be double that.

So if fewer than 400 doting parents/aunts/uncles etc can raise that amount, God is really having a bad day with his poxy $25,000.