It WAS Last Night Raising Caan Saturday May21st , Sat 21 May 2011, 9:00 PM (71)

...aaw, ... Cherub ?

Hopefully this will help raise the event

• One hours worth of dungeon rental at MJP's place, chocked full of gear to play to play with.
• Begging prayers have finally been answered, a half hour Dom, sub or Switch session with Miss Aimee. Blimey!
• MistressJuliaPink has decided to throw two more events soon, a slave labour camp and a curves night, ticket to be thrown between either if you can roll a dice, black or red? Devils game that one!

That's just three for now.

I just wanted to say a more public thank you to Julia for choosing CAAN as an organisation to donate to - we survive on the generosity of our supporters, which enables us to carry on our work.

Just so you know where the money is going, any donation you make will be really appreciated and will be put towards paying off the loan we had to publish an awareness raising book exposing some of the discrimination faced in the UK by people who have an alternative sexuality. "Beyond The Circle" earned Jane the title of Writer of the Year 2010 at Erotic Awards.

CAAN is not a charity, but an unfunded diverse network of volunteers who campaign and facilitate campaigning for sexual freedom in many different ways - visibly in public forums, street protests, at events, running workshops, speaking and in the media, as well as much work behind the scenes making this possible.

A second function has evolved: we use the expertise of people in the network to seek, identify, or offer, support to people from the alternative sexuality communities in crisis and others affected by the laws and regulations which disriminate against us. It was never a function we planned to fill, but people started to come to us for support and it was an obvious use of the network's contacts and knowledge base - so it naturally developed.

Part of that work is signposting people to other relevant organisations, such as Backlash who can help if you are charged for extreme porn possession (ER images of consenting adults), or Spanner Trust for people in crisis following SM related matters needing legal support and advocacy.

We are allied with a number of other organisations too and our activists include Peter Tatchell and Ben Westwood and supporters span far wider include MPs Lords, Tom 'Glad to be gay' Robinson, sex performing stars Buck Angel and Cristian Torrent and Mr Leather Europe, Paul Stag, and so on.

So far CAAN people have offered peer support and sometimes expert advice to people in various situations following discrimination, criminalisation, victimisation: for example threats, attacks, suspensions from work, outings, arrests and so on. Sex workers, professional dominants, teachers, students, and so on have come to us for support and helped each other through us linking peers up.

CAAN is powered by people donating their own time, ideas, energy and skills, creating opportunities. We use minimum necessary money, utilising donated resources and funding our own involvement.

Now we're attempting to fundraise with the sale of the book by Jane Fae which we have published which is on the front page of our website www.caan.org.uk. 'Beyond the circle' a book about sexuality related discrimination. Please feel free to share this link or ask us for some to sell at your establishment or event.

We're working towards equal sexual rights for all consenting adults, which benefits us personally too. We received a Gay Sex and Fetish Award at the last run in 2008 for best website and our convenor received 'Campaigner of the Year' at the Erotic Awards this year

Thanks for helping us carry on our work!

I haven't been able to attend so many events as usual this year and whilst another more local CAAN activist is supporting you with this event, I will attend if I am able, to support you all.. I'll bring my cane too, if needed Miss Pink? .

Have lots of fun!

De (Miss Dennis Queen)

Convenor for CAAN

THANK YOU to everyone involved who have been so generous in supporting this fundraising event, and worked so hard. I was blown away and so was Julia, who was literally shaking with emotion when she realised how much more she had raised than her original hope - more than double, in fact.

Thanks to everyone on IC who recomended these two organisations. CAAN has so far been runs on a shoestring from our own pockets mainly, a few generous donations, and lots of donated time and resources from people in the scene and allies. This is CAAN now able to clear our debt from printing the book ( http://www.caan.org.uk/beyond.html ) & having actual available cash for the first time ever to help us continue to campaign and support people in crisis due to sexuality related discrimination - wow!

Two CAAN people were overseeing the opening and counting of money and sharing out to make sure both organisations got the cash people paid in to them. I am sure Wood Street Mission will be equally delighted at this gift from people in the BDSM scene as we are. I was thinking of Excalibur while the counting happened and think he would be so proud of everyone for remembering the mission this year in his absence and the tradition he has left behind him.

Thank you first and foremost to Julia, whose hard work and ideas led to the most successful and fun fundraiser I've ever witnessed. You are an inspiration Julia and it was a delight to meet you at last! A formidable, down to earth scene member and professional with breathtaking talent.

Thank you to all the gorgeously vicious Mistresses who donated their time and energy to come and buy slaves for their amusement, some of them having travelled the length of the country just for this party, making sure nobody was left out and everyone had lots of fun.

Thank you to all the businesses who donated raffle prizes, the prizes were so many it meant a lot of people did win something and all the winners were delighted. There will be some at home who weren't there receiving notification of wins soon.

Thanks to everyone who bought raffle tickets. Julia needed to go and get a second ticket book having sold so many more than she expected!

Thank you to everyone who prepared the venue and kept an eye on things and helped in the kitchen and those boys who'll be cleaning up the aftermath of much fun this morning.

Last and not least of course, thanks to all the male slaves who entertained us all evening with their service, their stamina, their jokes and songs and dances and their pain with enthisiastic decidation. You boys should be proud today of all the money you've raised.

Also thanks to the dominant who was auctioned off for a massive £50+ quid and the (secret) person who bought him.. and a personal thanks to the person who drove P and I home after finding out the taxi was double the price we thought!!

Thanks to Silent Storm and Phoebe for representing CAAN with me, ensuring anyone who wanted to chat about CAAN and find out more had the opportunity to do so.

Thanks to anyone who's been missed out too!

What a brilliant night!

Degenerate

(Miss Dennis Queen - was Clair Lewis), for C.A.A.N. Consenting Adult Action Network www.caan.org.uk