Wokingham

Jon Land ~ 24dash.com ~ 2005-10-24

An environmental health technical officer dressed as a French maid to serve tea on the lawn to his colleagues.

But Ian Gough's cross-dressing stunt wasn't just for the fun of it - he was raising money for a good cause.

Ian, who works for Wokingham District Council, will is travelling to South America this month when he heads to Peru for a holiday.

Before setting off, however, he set himself the target of raising £500 for Project Peru, a charity that helps children and families in need at a refuge in Zapallal near Lima.

His fund-raising mission got off to a quiet start when he completed a sponsored silence, but then things took a slightly more adventurous turn.

When he asked his Wokingham District Council colleagues to submit tasks for him to do in return for donations to the cause, he couldn't have envisaged the authority's planning, regulation and enforcement team pledged over £200 for him to serve tea to them in a French maid’s outfit.

Ian, who has been completing other Wokingham tasks from car washing to sandwich collections, said: "I made an offer to my colleagues to carry out any duty they wanted at lunchtime of after work, whether that's collecting lunch from the sandwich shop, cleaning cars in the car park or making teas and coffees, all of course at a cost.

"I had a fair number of requests, but my most immediate colleagues in planning, regulation and enforcement really went out of their way to think about how they could make me look foolish and I ended up in the French maid’s outfit.

“I can’t really complain, however, as they raised a really great total and I’m thrilled to be able to take a good deal of money out to Project Peru. And I’ve still got some time to go, so I hope to see the total get even higher.”

“I intend to go with the project to buy the items they need so I really see what a difference the money has made. It’s really a good cause and I’m very grateful to my friends and colleagues for their support.”