Rfc#1.

Report just in from the Symon Suite...

I'm so proud to be a Bear and a member of the fund. WATP

Fantastic gesture by these good Bears.

Note to self: Reminder of the Rangers TV and Match Programme Sponsors...


A massive thank you to our 4 Erskine Match Programme Sponsors:
Erskine Park - Eck the bear Erskine Mains - Carling1873 Erskine Bishopton - offshoreworker Erskine Glasgow - quinty Hollybush House - Various Loyal Fund Members Whose £50 donations to the RM Erskine Lunch Fund will ensure that Every Bear in Erskine Care can enjoy their third season of uninterrupted Home Match Programmes delivered to their door.
And a massive thank you to our 5 Erskine RangersTV Sponsors:
Erskine Park - HairyBeary Erskine Mains - bettertogether Erskine Bishopton - offshoreworker Erskine Glasgow - G13 Hollybush House - thistleman Whose £50 donations to the RM Erskine Lunch Fund will ensure that Every Bear in Erskine Care can enjoy a whole year of Rangers TV.

And a big Thank You to Loyal Fund Member thistleman whose £50 donation (back in May) has now paid for Hollybush House's Rangers TV for a year.

RangersTV Annual Subscription for Hollybush House (Combat Stress) now purchased.
Cost: £49
Already the Lads have had good use from it - staying up on Friday Night till 3am to watch the whole game - again!

Ticket Summary:
For the 3 games so far, we have provided the following:
Burnley - 23 Tickets (including 2 Bar 72 tickets) Peterhead - 28 Tickets St Mirren - 26 Tickets (including 6 Hospitality Seats and 4 S/T Seats) Total: 77
For the next game (Hibs) we're currently at 16 tickets.
So far, so good.

Great to hear some good feedback on the sponsors fund mate, even better that the family around your mates made them feel more than welcome, which should always be the case, WATP after all.
GB gets a bit of grief at times and a normal person may let it get to them, he never seems to and carries on regardless with his shameless punts for more funds and wanting even more donations. However the way I see it I could piss £10 in a bar toilet after 30 minutes and a few pints, GB can give someone a smile. That's worth a tenner at least to me so a fiver is a steal.
PS Well done for sorting out the handbags at dawn routine by the way, most people nowadays would turn a blind eye and sod off. Not really something that should be done especially amongst fans but maybe a bit of frustration in life was a play with one of them. some people are not as Fucking diplomatic as I am

It's posts like this that make you appreciate all the more the need for the RM Erskine Fund.
Good to hear they had a great time.

Glad to hear it.
We should hopefully have enough tickets for another carload at the Hibs game. I believe they've all been claimed already.
The lads I've been chatting to have given me a few examples of how it's been helping them and others, but those are personal medical things, so I can't really talk about them here. Suffice to say, that for some Residents, just like at Erskine, the chance to get to Ibrox is the highlight of their week, and sometimes it's the only thing that will get them out of their room all week.
So considering these tickets are mostly free (as part of our unused S/T Seat donation scheme), I think it's a fairly effective use of the no money it costs us.
All it needs is for enough Season Ticket Holders to let me know if they're not going to a game, game by game.
Next Up - Hibs. That should hopefully be a very therapeutic session.
I think we've got a couple of tickets lined up already, but we still need a couple more seat donations from members for this one.

Two old guy had a wee accident in the Albion car park no great shakes but the guy in the expensive car decides it's a private car park and he's not going to give his details to the other wee guy. Anyway he gets out of his car and tries to intimidate the wee guy to move his motor. The wee man gets out of his motor and walks up to the other guy and said "hey I need your details cause I can't afford to get this repaired" the other guy still refused to give the wee man his details and pushed him. The wee man then proceeded to get off a couple of good digs. We then jumped out of our car,we'll sort of jumped as we are all carrying injuries, and separated them. The bigger of the two refused to behave and was promptly lifted off his feet by the big man and dumped unceremoniously in his motor lol. The polis arrived and the pantomime was over lmao. Ok that must be worth a donation into the fund. WATP

NB sorry for the late post but was a late night for the CS lads. By the time we got back to Hollybush it was about 2300 hrs. And after some food and watching the game again on Rangers TV it was 0300 hrs. Meds taken and into our pits and back up at 1000 hrs to work with the clinical staff. Anyway last night what can I say? As a ST holder I was in my own seat but the other 4 boys where in all areas of Ibrox even the Manchestter Bear who was in BR4 doing the bouncy with the lads and at 6'8" he stood out like a sore thumb lol. Each of the boys were adopted and made to feel like family by all Bears around them which they really appreciated. On behalf of the boys I would like to take this opportunity to thank every single bear for making Ibrox bounce and take these guys to a different place other than with their personal demons.
Can I also thank GB and the members of the fund for making this all possible as one of the guys said he couldn't believe the kindness shown to them and he shed a tear at the game and when he went to his pit, yes us roughies do weep.
Anyway to the 2 old bears having a handbags at dawn in the Albion Carpark hope you have recovered from your fright as 4 squaddies separated you and the big fella lifting you and sitting you both back in your cars, I nearly pissed myself lmao
So many thanks Bears for your kindness and from me personally thank you for giving me a reason to exist even if it's only every second Saturday. WATP

Not yet. The Combat Stress Guys will be knackered, having been up till 2am re-watching the game.
I met the Combat Stress Guys before the game, and had a good chat with them. As always, they were extremely grateful for the opportunity.
I also very briefly met the 2nd Erskine Bus as they were driving in to the Car Park (the 1st was already parked up and empty), and only had time to pass the DVD Box Set through the passenger window. Everyone looked very happy.

£100
I got so excited, I just had to run on to the pitch.

Another good day for the Fund…
I gave the 'Rangers Legends Volume 2' (6 DVD Box Set), which Bluepeter9 kindly donated, to Erskine tonight. We also bought them Volume One off ebay, so now they have all 12 DVDs – That should keep them going for a while.

I also collected £60 for the Fund.
SoldierBlue1 also gave me £51 to buy him a Year’s worth of Rangers Lotto. He's decided not to buy a Puma Shirt this year, because he reckons Rangers Youth Development needs his money more. He's right!
So we now have 6 Fund Lines, Plus 2 Member Lines per week. So that’s £415 to Rangers Lotto so far this season.
And did you notice – we won 3rd Prize in tonight’s Rising Stars Raffle. Good to see Mr Tombola intends to support the Fund again this year.
So that’s £100 we won tonight. I've got the cheque already. We’ll obviously want to spend our winnings on more Rangers Youth Development.
Total raised today: £211
Oh and I’m sure you will be glad to hear that the Residents of Combat Stress will all be staying up till midnight tonight, so that they can watch the whole game on their shiny new Rangers TV account.
And we’re also now a step closer to me being able to tell you about that excellent news I’ve been keeping under wraps, but not just yet.

That's another of the Fulfilled Wishes now ready for framing and going on the wall...

Apparently they've almost run out of wall space on the fulfilled wishes wall. which is great news.
That Was Erskine Park Home. Erskine Mains Home will be booking their Loch Katrine Trip shortly.

I only typed what every other member on here was thinking, and the sentiment is warranted in your case mate .......... you are not alone in here GB, just as you make the veterans feel they are not alone also, the work you do is a treat to behold and it would have been a sad day indeed had you not taken that shower, and came back on duty soldier.

Welcome to member number 160 - AlBear85

who has thrown in a very impressive £50 for us to do with as we will.
I'm off down the bookies.

Ticket summary:
Sunday v Peterhead:
Erskine Veterans: 14 tickets bought and delivered, and 4 Smartcards activated (9 Adult, 9 Concession - West Enclosure 2 & 4: Rows C&D (the first row behind the wheelchairs!) Aisle seats.
So if you see some old chaps near the front with a bit of purple somewhere, please go over and say hello. Unlike most of us, they love saying hello to folk they don't know - but they do know RM & gb, so you'll be warmly received!
Then we've sent 8 tickets to Combat Stress for the use of their Residents and/or Staff. Got some good seats for them near the middle of the Govan rear.
And 2 tickets posted to an Old Soldier, for him and his Mrs to have a cheap day out.
So that's 28 in total. (£385).
And the good thing is - it's all done and dusted and I won't have to run around Ibrox 3 times missing calls from the Veterans needing the tickets at the other end - which will be a first.
Fund Members however, is always another matter!

Next Friday v St Mirren
Long before any of us had any sort of enthusiasm at all for this game, The Erskine Loyal have been raring to go!
I may have mentioned that St Mirren is Erskine's second-best supported team. So there's bragging rights at stake here!
12 Enclosure Tickets (6 Veterans, 6 Carers - £224 ) I had to work fast to get 12 suitable seats when they went on sale. It made me realise that we may well will most probably struggle to get these same seats we've been getting easily up until now. So we need to remember that before we promise something we can't deliver.
So they're all sorted. should arrive with me tomorrow. I'll post them on to Carol. easy peasy.
Plus they've also got the 4 Smartcards already valid as they are for all Home League Games
6 Disabled Hospitality Tickets for Erskine (3 Wheelchair Users & 3 Carers - £388.80). (Posted directly to Erskine.)
So that's 22 in total.

So there's a bit of accounts to be updated, but as you can see, there's almost a grands worth of tickets there, which is a pretty impressive sum for little old us, and just what the club needs.
Obviously not sustainable, it was just a big splash. From now on we'll have to be a bit more moderate in our spending.
At least until we find out how much we've raised from the PayPal campaign - which is still open by the way...
http://www.rangersmedia.co.uk/forum/donate.html

Guys/Gals....... I'm not a veteran or armed forces......just an ordinary guy that fully appreciates, and is thankful, that there are guys/gals who want to serve in our armed forces and protect us.
For that reason, I give what I can.
This will always be a special cause....(my only connection is my dad in WWII)
and to those who give elsewhere.......very much appreciated.
No arguments.......... no point scoring...........simply..... Respect and Thanks

One Govanblue ........... There's only One Govanblue .............. One Govanbluuuuuue ............. There's only One Govanblue.
ONE GOVANBLUE ........ THERE'S ONLY ONE GOVANBLUE ......ONE GOVANBLUUUUUUUUUE ......... THERE'S ONLY ONE GOVANBLUE.
You know it makes sense.

I don't know what happened either but I sincerely hope GB reconsiders co-ordinating this. I know it's time consuming and a nightmare getting donations but I honestly hand on heart have the utmost respect for GB for the time and effort he puts into this. I couldn't do it and I don't think anyone else could do it as well as GB.
My grandpa was in Erskine before he died so it is a place close to my heart. I wish he had been alive to see all the hard but worthwhile work that GB does because of the superb donations from RM members. He would have been made up to get a day out to his beloved Rangers and even more so to have gotten a ration pack. He loved his whisky!

No idea what went on dont really care just great to see RM best thread back we just need our pain in the arse leader back now and all is good

A wee push?
I've been pushing relentlessly since December 2012.
If they had any intention to, they would have signed up (or pledged) long ago.
I reckon they're all taigs.

You make it sound like it was somehow their fault that I was running around the stadium phoning all the wrong people at all the wrong places!
Those guys were just a small part of the ridiculous number of meetings I had scheduled before kick-off, but, after Erskine, were the most important! So I owe it to them to do better. Solution found.
Oh btw - a message from Combat Stress before the game...
And their reply to my tongue in cheek email to them today, when they also thought they had caused me hassle, and not the other way about...
(it's harder putting pipes and sticky out tongues in emails! : )
So as I said,
from now on we'll make it easier for everyone.
I'll buy 8 Peterhead tickets on Friday, and get them posted out to them. Job done.