It felt like stepping into a small corner of the United States of America with every one dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls, a ranch bar and US flags flown high.

A trio of fundraisers from Cranleigh organised the barn dance in the Surrey Hills at the weekend to raise money for Cherry Trees.

Glen Lewis and his good friends ‘the Pecks brothers’ idea of putting on the themed event was a hugely successful fundraising alternative as a way to raise money for the charity, bringing in £1,000 on the night.

All three will be taking part in the ASICS Manchester Marathon in a few weeks’ time and chose Cherry Trees as the cause they wanted to raise money for at the same time.

The Surrey Hills Hoedown held on Saturday 23^rd March at Shalford Village Hall saw 110 people attend, arriving in chaps and spurs, denim and checked shirts as cowboys and cow girls whilst Orange Circus, an Americana country band gave a professional and authentic performance.

Glen and his friends professional and organised fundraiser garnered them a healthy fundraising amount. 

Everybody had got into the spirit of the night, whilst many local companies from Cook Cranleigh, to Silent Pool Gin, to Squires Garden Centre backed the evening with generous raffle prizes.

A huge ‘bucking broncho’ donated by friends serving out in Afghanistan helped raise a lot of extra money on the night with many taking up the Rodeo challenge before being bucked off into the abyss of onlookers.

Glen who is a former Royal Marine, specialised as a Mountain Leader and spent four years in the forces has a good level of maintained competitive fitness, coming in with a 1 hour 20 minute finish time at the Reading Half Marathon earlier this month.

Cherry Trees was selected by Glen because he felt ‘when looking around for charities locally, Cherry Trees really stood out, for us, because everything we would raise would really make a difference – a genuine difference, we didn’t want all that we raised to get lost and we can see the impact that it will have. We are local boys and it’s near to where we grew up.’

Glen and his friends will run the ASICS Manchester Marathon on Sunday 7^th April. Donations can continue to be made on the boys challenge page:

https://www.cherrytrees.org.uk/fundraisers/glen-and-pecks-262-in-manchester-for-cherry-trees