Last Friday Daventry Brass held a charity concert to support two of its members on a trip to Gambia this summer.

Helping hands

Principal cornet Hannah Brown and flugel player Claire Fisher are travelling to Gambia with the charity HELPING to spend two weeks teaching in a summer school in a nursery.

HELPING supports nurseries, schools and communities in Gambia by providing direct, practical assistance in the form of educational equipment, clothing, school building and sponsorship.

Both Hannah and Claire sponsor children through the charity and decided they wanted to do more to help. Hannah is a teacher in Northampton and decided to offer her services for the summer. Claire will be taking on the roll of classroom assistant4BR

Do more

Both Hannah and Claire sponsor children through the charity and decided they wanted to do more to help. Hannah is a teacher in Northampton and decided to offer her services for the summer. Claire will be taking on the roll of classroom assistant.

When the band heard of their plans they immediately offered their services for free. Dennetts Garden Centre of Daventry kindly sponsored the concert as John Dennett is a player in the band and was very enthusiastic about the whole project.

Wonderful night

A wonderful night was had by all. Around 150 people came to the concert, many more than expected.

Nigel Howard, Musical Director told 4BR: "What a great concert. We had a fantastic audience and the band played really well. They certainly deserved the standing ovation they received at the end. Thank you to everyone involved for making it a huge success."

Hannah and Claire meanwhile thanked the band and Nigel for all their hard work and John for sponsoring the concert. The concert and generous donations from people on the night has raised over £1000 towards the cost of the trip.