Each year the choir members nominate and then vote to select a charity to support throughout the year, raising money through concerts and events. Often there will be a personal link or connection to an organisation from the choir members themselves.
In 2024 and 2025 the choir has adopted Burton and District Mind to support. This is being done in memory of our late Chair, Helen Klich. She worked with Burton & District MIND on projects supporting mental health service users, and they have established a new fund in her memory – ‘Helen’s Bursary’.
Our concert on Saturday 26th July 2025 raised more funds for Burton and District Mind and Helen’s Bursary. An Eco therapy project, based in Burntwood, has benefitted from the bursary by using eco materials to develop and deliver wellbeing activities.
‘Sometimes, one of our participants has a one-off need that no funder can fund, or partner charity can support – this might because it is out of scope or because the need is just so urgent. We have committed the donations from our friends at Kaleidoscope Choir to go towards a new bursary called ‘Helen’s Bursary’, which can be used by our Recovery Workers or Outreach Workers who have identified these needs. Perhaps it’ll fund essential travel, or white goods, or anything else that can really accelerate that’s person’s mental health recovery’.
We hope that Helen Klich’s huge commitment to helping people with mental health problems can be remembered by this legacy. Together, we’ll leave no mind behind.” (Keri Lawrence, Development and Sustainability Officer, Burton and District Mind).
‘Kids like Us’ is a charity supporting juvenile arthritis and CRMO, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis in the West Midlands. It was adopted as our supported charity for 2023. The choir held fund-raising concerts and raffles and donated money from rehearsal refreshments amounting to £914. In addition the charity joined the choir at a concert with collection buckets and merchandise, which raised a further £400.
The choir raised a fantastic £607 for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetic Research Fund) at a concert in September 2022.
The choir had adopted the Memory Café as its 2022 charity and funds were raised both at concerts and during rehearsals. These funds have enabled Memory Café members to enjoy extra activities such as a visit to the panto, and dancing. It also enabled the organisation of a coronation party.