Jan's 100 tunes for The Big Collection

Inspired by The Salvation Army’s Fundraising Team to use their initiative and be part of The Captain Tom 100 Challenge, Jan Sebbage, Captain at Long Eaton Corps, decided to do just that on Friday 30 April 2021.

"I only decided to do something the week beforehand because you know what - everyone can do something - no limits, no excuses. That is the mindset with which I approached it.

Having been given a gift - a digital piano recently, and the gift of learning to play the piano as a child, I devised a plan, a challenge for myself with the aim of raising some much needed funds for The Salvation Army’s Big Collection."

Jan set up a Just Giving Page appealing to her friends and family for their support and began putting together her selection of 100 best tunes to play on the piano ‘doing it [her] way’.

She put together 4 sessions of 25 tunes in each session, starting in the morning at The Salvation Army hall, with three further sessions from her home during the afternoon. Her tunes were a mixture of SA tunes, contemporary gospel, melodies from the musicals, music from the great composers like Bach and Schubert. She included some old singing company arrangements and one of her favourites written by her grandfather the late Bandmaster Edgar J Cuell.

"I did 4 short live videos on Facebook (something I’ve never attempted to do before) to introduce each session with comments and some of the tunes. I had a steady stream of encouraging views and comments throughout the day."

Jan went over and above her £500 target which she set herself - well done Jan!