Celebrating Literature: Our Sponsorship of the Felixstowe Book Festival

Jane on April 18, 2024

Welcoming Readers to the Felixstowe Book Festival

The Felixstowe Book Festival has been running since 2013 and attracts many visitors from far and wide. This event is a celebration of ‘Books by the Sea’.

Felixstowe is not just a container port; it has many facets to it, including this very popular literary event, the Felixstowe Book Festival.

There are almost 25 ‘meet the author’ events spread out across Felixstowe between 26th and 30th June. There is something for everyone, no matter what age you are.

So book your tickets today, because it’s going to be a sell-out.

Supporting Cultural, Sports events and Charity in Suffolk

Billie Box are proud to be sponsors of the Felixstowe Book Festival, helping to promote literacy and community engagement.

Jane (owner of Billie Box) & Clare (Jane’s sister) grew up in their parents’ newsagent in Felixstowe and supporting local organisations has been a key part of Jane’s business ethos. 

Billie Box supports many local initiatives and cultural events. Organisations that Billie Box supports include HomeStart in Suffolk charity, St. Elizabeth hospice, Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club, Suffolk Sound Radio station and the Felixstowe Book Festival to name a few.

Jane feels that this aligns with Billie Box’s business values. It builds trust by giving back to the community. 

A Celebration of Literature in Felixstowe

The Felixstowe Book Festival has a unique intimate and welcoming atmosphere. Many visitors have a fun-packed long weekend of listening to their favourite and newly found authors along with eating great food and walking along the prom past the beautifully coloured beach huts. The Spa gardens are also a great spot to have a picnic looking out to sea or even at the beautiful flowers in the gardens. Some even go for a bracing swim.

At the book festival events, you have the chance to meet the authors and get your book signed. There is a mix of genres such as fiction, poetry, non-fiction and children’s events. Some of the areas covered are history, art, politics, economics, the environment and much more.

The main venue is the stunningly beautiful Harvest House that dates back to Edwardian times. The building is now mostly private apartments but the ground floor rooms are excellent for ‘meet the author’ events. You can even have a light lunch/snack at the events and sit outside looking out to the North Sea. Such a great setting.

Join Us at the Felixstowe Book Festival

Here is the programme of events and how you can buy tickets. Click on the image below.

So join us for a fun-packed long weekend of fabulous literary culture at the Felixstowe Book Festival because it is going to be a fabulous event.

We are Billie Box Ltd, a family-run container sales and rental business with expert knowledge and traditional values.

We offer:

🔵 20ft & 40ft Shipping Container for storage for hire

🔵 20ft & 40ft Shipping Container for storage for sale

🔵 10ft & 20ft Chemical storage Containers for sale

🔵 20ft Portable Container Offices for sale

🔵 Bespoke Container Conversions

🔵 All with delivery to your door

📞 👉 Call us on 0800 121 7388 or visit our websites:

👉 Billie Box

👉 Chemical Storage 4 Farmers

Moonlight Ball 2023 for Home-Start Suffolk

Jane on February 23, 2023

We are pleased to announce that Billie Box will be part of the Gold Sponsorship program for the Moonlight Ball 2023 in aid of Home-Start Suffolk.

Home-Start in Suffolk are hosting their sixth fundraising Ball on Friday 19th May 23 at The Hangar, Milsoms Kesgrave Hall near Ipswich (Buy your tickets here). The Moonlight Ball is their charity’s biggest annual fundraising event, with all money raised going directly back into providing support for Suffolk families.

Home-Start in Suffolk is the county’s largest family support charity. Our vision is that every child in Suffolk is given the best possible start in life because of the love, support and guidance they receive from their parents, guardians or the people performing the role of their parents. Home-Start in Suffolk supported more than 1,500 local families in 2022 thanks to a network of fully trained award-winning volunteers who help families with children up to the age of 12 overcome a range of challenging issues including loneliness, isolation, mental health, domestic abuse, bereavement, health struggles, disabilities, poverty and much more.

In the last year, Home-Start have experienced an exponential increase in the number of families needing to access the charity’s support services, making fundraising events such as this more important than ever. This year’s Moonlight Ball organisers are therefore looking for local businesses and organisations to help support their event. There are a range of sponsorship opportunities available starting from just £200 for a table sponsorship package up to £2,000 for Gold sponsorship. Bespoke sponsorship can also be arranged. 

The format of the evening includes a 3-course meal, a raffle for each table (each prize is worth approximately £150), an auction of 6-8 major prizes, and great live entertainment until midnight!  Any support in identifying or serving as a sponsor, supplying raffle prizes, or donating major prizes would be gratefully received.

Your funds will be put to very good use. Independent evaluations have shown that for every £1 spent on supporting families, Home-Start return £6 in savings – an unprecedented value for your investment.

How will your donation help?
£10 will support a family with telephone or video calls for one week.
£15 will support a family with home-visiting for one week.
£25 will support a family attending a family group for a month.
£50 will support a family with home-visiting for one month.
£100 will train a new volunteer to support a struggling family.

Jane Billing has agreed to act as volunteer fundraiser for this event. With all her contacts in the local business community, she is confident that there will be many supporters of this great charity. If you feel you would be in a position to help support this very worthwhile cause, then please do let Jane Billing know.

Billie Box have been supporting this charity for the last 3 years and are really keen to continue helping wherever possible. Please help if you can.

We would also like to thank the following for their generous support:

Woodbridge Books

Yoga with Manon

Andrew Laws from Yeseo

MCP Plc

Tony Southgate of Ginger Pickle

Emmas Florist

Tilley & Grace

Archway Carpets

Ruth Leigh author

1975 Winebar Woodbridge

Felixstowe Rowing Club

Polyspiral web design

Chaffinch, Woodbridge

IMS Wealth Management

Hudson Group

Select office furniture

Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club

Maid 2 Clean

Tyson Cooper

Natasha is Wide Eyed

Busy Bees Cosmetics

Christopher Montrose Coffee

The Burgess Group

Bodylines Beauty Salon

Sponsorship for FFSC 2022/23

Jane on August 25, 2022

Billie Box are delighted to announce that they are sponsoring the following in 2022/23:

Youth sailing at Felixstowe Ferry

Billie Box are proud to sponsor Youth Sailing at Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club for another year. For more information about Youth Sailing, have a look at the FFSC website.

FFSC Safety boat called Carl Giles

We are equally proud to continue sponsoring the FFSC’s safety boat, named Carl Giles after the well-known cartoonist. To read more about the boat and its namesake, read our blog post all about the FFSC safety boat from when we started sponsoring it in 2018.

FFSC Regatta in August 22

National 12’s Burton Week held at FFSC

Felixstowe Ferry sailing club is close to Jane and her family’s heart and they want to support the club as much as they can.

If you are looking for a shipping container solution, why not call us today 0800 121 7388 for a quote.

#ShippingContainersSimplified

Art at the Ferry 2020

Jane on December 6, 2019

Due to the COVID-19 Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club has postponed this event until 2nd and 3rd April 2021.

Watch this space for updates.

Billie Box will be sponsoring the 3rd Art at the Ferry in 2020. The event in 2019 was such a success, Jane Billing from Billie Box felt that sponsoring again would be such a great event to put Billie Box’s name to.

Art at the Ferry is an annual event held at Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club, Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk, IP11 9RZ and will be a 2 day event in 2020. The dates are Friday, 10th April and Saturday, 11th April 2020 (Good Friday and Easter Saturday). There will be many artists exhibiting their beautiful creations.

Here is a list of the Artists as follows:

Tracey Barritt Brown – Willow sculptures – Both days

Stella Burgess – Acrylic painting – Friday only

Jenny Butcher – Embroidery & needlework – Both days

Clare Curtis – Printmaker & illustrator for cards – Friday only

Helen’s Shed – Pine needle weaving and ceramics – Both days

Viv Davies – Beaded jewellery – Friday only

Alaco Doyle – Acrylic nauticalia & still life – Both days

Susan – Woven on Water – Handmade Carribean jewellery – Both days

Paul Fleet – Original surreal oil paintings & giclee prints – Both days

Sandra & Mick Goddard – Up-cycled steel works of art – Both days

Jane Hullis – Vibrant paintings (small and large) of boats and seascapes – Friday only

Seashells, Felixstowe – Textiles – Saturday only

Wendy Johnson – Embroidery, Ragdolls and Cushions – Both days

Simon Lilley – Wood Carvings – Both days

Suzy Mason – Local photos and greetings cards – Both days

Bonita McCarthy – Local still life and landscapes in oil – Friday only

Kandi Munson – handmade jewellery – Friday only

Maxine Newell – Local watercolour and acrylic paintings – Saturday only

Margeurite Paterson – Watercolour paintings – Both days

Polly’s Textiles (Danielle Wade) – Textiles – Both days

Anne Ravenscroft – Blank cards from original paintings – Saturday only

Ellen Rebecca – Paintings – Both days

Jenny Storer – Felixstowe Art group – Both days

Maggi Rutterford – Framed Textile Art – Both days

Vicky Thornton – Ceramic Pots – Saturday only

Pat Todd – Ceramic pots and on wood hangings – Both days

Barrie White – Graphic novel – Saturday only

Chris Wood – Painter and Sculpture – Both days

Janet Woodard – Animal Artist – Both days

Andrea Wright – Handmade silver and gold jewellery, hand painted bags – Both days

Sole Bay Crafts – Derek & Christine Yallop – Stained glass wall hangings, free standing creations using glass, copper, metal, wood, stones – Both days

The event is on Friday, 10th April 2020 and Saturday, 11th April 2020 between 10am and 4pm.

Felixstowe Ferry Sailing club is a members only club and offers many sailing facilities, Try sailing days, club dinghy racing, members owned yacht cruising section, sailing training for the young and adults. There is also a large youth sailing club within FFSC that takes 10-18 years dinghy sailing and training courses. Training courses are available to members and non-members.

Look forward to seeing you at Art at the Ferry over Easter 2020.

Billie Box sponsors FFSC safety boat

Jane on September 12, 2018

Billie Box is sponsoring the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club (FFSC) Safety boat named: Carl Giles. Yes that’s right Carl Giles OBE, the world famous Cartoonist!

safety boat, FFSC, rescue, sailing club, Billie Box sponsors, sponsorship, Carl Giles

Carl Giles safety boat at FFSC

But why Carl Giles? Carl Giles was the President of the FFSC from 1984 to 1995.

FFSC own the second largest collection of Carl Giles cartoons and many of the characters in the cartoons were members of the club. The largest collection is owned by the Daily Express, which is the newspaper Carl used to work for.

FFSC is based at Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk, at the mouth of the River Deben. The racing is very challenging both in the river and out to sea. Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club has a large Youth sailing section who sail on Saturday mornings. The club also offers RYA sailing training. The club racing turns out a good fleet. There is a yacht cruising section and many social events on offer. The FFSC also hosts many sailing Open meetings, National championships and even the occasional World championships.

Jane Billing of Billie Box has been a member of FFSC since 1966, in fact she was born in Deben Week (1 week’s sailing on the River Deben, which no longer runs). Jane’s father sailed with the White family in Firefly dinghies during the 1960’s and Jane followed in her father’s footsteps and started sailing Mirror dinghies in the 1970’s.

Jane, with the help of her father, won the ‘Ladies cup’ at Felixstowe in 1978 And that same year won the ‘Ladies cup’ with Andrew Johnson at Waldringfield. Later on, Jane became social secretary of FFSC and successfully raised funds for FFSC through various social events. Jane sailed Lark dinghies around that time.

In 1994 Jane, on behalf of FFSC, worked alongside the East Suffolk Waterski Club to fundraise for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). That year, with the help of the FFSC and ESWSC members they raised £1,700 for the RNLI. Also helped by Red Arrows flypast, Warren Mitchell (friend of Carl Giles) and Griff Rhys Jones making an appearance. Every year FFSC fund raise in aid of RNLI.

Over the last 52 years Jane has been part of the FFSC and has many family and friends there.
Nowadays, Jane helps out in the Crow’s nest on a Wednesday night sailing race night. The crow’s nest is where races are started and finished. Jane also helps with the various sailing Open meetings,National and any World championships that FFSC host.

When Jane was asked to sponsor the FFSC Safety boat; Carl Giles, it was a no-brainer.

Jane said; “Here at Billie Box we are proud to support the FFSC, and hope to be able to continue our support for many years to come.”

If you would like to know more about FFSC and find out how to get involved, then please drop in and have a chat with one of the committee members or visit their website. The club is open Wednesday & Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays from Midday to 5pm.

Phantom Nationals 2018, safety boat, sponsorship, Billie Box sponsors,

Thanks to Ben Hawkes for this photo

About Jane Billing
Jane Billing has over 30 years in shipping container supply. During that time Jane has earned a very broad knowledge of the whole shipping container industry. From construction, to shipping, to adaption and conversions, if you have a question about any aspect of the shipping container industry Jane will likely have the answer for you. After many years working for some of the biggest names in the shipping container industry Jane set up her own company, Billie Box Ltd in 2012. Since launching in 2012 Billie Box Ltd has sold well over 1500 new and used containers.

Mid Summer Party 2018

Jane on February 22, 2018

Billie Box are sponsoring the Mid Summer Party 2018 in aid of Age UK Suffolk.

Over the last 5 years, Billie Box has raised funds for many charities. A lot of the fundraising was for cancer-related charities. Previously, Billie Box has held 2 Billie Box Balls, so this year (2018) instead of Cancer and a Ball we thought we would sponsor a ‘Mid Summer Party’ to raise funds for Age UK Suffolk. This charity is another worthwhile cause.

The Mid summer party (23rd June 2018) was designed to be a fun night with lots happening, we have Troubadour (I have had it on very good authority that this band are excellent), we have food (2-course dinner, cheeseboard and welcome drink) Heads & Tails, Raffle and auction. All the makings of a great night out.

With this in mind, why not join in with the festivities?

If you can’t make the event, then why not sponsor or offer a raffle or auction prize? Please call Jane @ Billie Box on T: 01473 557409

About Jane Billing
Jane Billing has over 30 years in shipping container supply. During that time Jane has earned a very broad knowledge of the whole shipping container industry. From construction, to shipping, to adaption and conversions, if you have a question about any aspect of the shipping container industry Jane will likely have the answer for you. After many years working for some of the biggest names in the shipping container industry Jane set up her own company, Billie Box Ltd in 2012. Since launching in 2012 Billie Box Ltd has sold well over 1500 new and used containers.

FFSC Lifeboat Day 2017

Jane on August 24, 2017

Billie Box has sponsored a couple of different charities 2017. The first was FFSC Lifeboat weekend in September 2017.

This event raised over £3000 for the Lifeboat – Fantastic work by all those concerned.

FFSC, Fundraising, RNLI, Billie Box sponsorship,

Fundraising For

fundraising, charity, RNLI, FFSC, Billie Box sponsor,

Jane & Matt are members of the FFSC (Felixstowe Ferry Sailing club) and their sailing club is holding a whole weekend fundraising events for the Harwich RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

RNLI is Such a worthy cause, they save lives at sea everyday of the year. RNLI is run by volunteers and rely on public donations to keep their organisation going. It cost £485,000 per day in 2016 to run the RNLI.

During 2016 the RNLI rescued 23 people everyday of 2016, they trained and equipped over 610 lifesavers and 8,851 lifeboats were launched throughout 2016.

FFSC are holding a weekend of events:

Friday, 22nd September 2017 – 6.30pm to 10pm

  • Opening by the Mayor of Felixstowe
  • Fish & chip supper
  • Live music by ‘Bits & Pieces’
  • Beer tent

Saturday, 23rd September 2017 – 12 noon to 11pm

  • RNLI Fundraising stalls
  • Live music by local Pop and Folk bands and artists including ‘Troublesome Reach’
  • RNLI Lifeboat viewing
  • Try sailing taster
  • Children’s entertainment
  • Beer tent
  • All day BBQ, Tea & Coffee
  • Evening curry
  • Rowing machine
  • Fly your Teddy!

Sunday, 24th September – 12 noon to 6pm

  • RNLI fundraising stalls
  • Live music by local Pop and Folk bands and artists
  • Children’s entertainment
  • Duck race
  • All day BBQ, Tea & Coffee
  • The Traditional – Golf Ball over the river competition
  • Tombola
  • Seamanship Race
  • Fly your Teddy!
  • Tug of War

So if you fancy a day or even a weekend out in September, why not come on down to the Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club and support the RNLI. Or if you can’t make it, why not donate today!

You know it makes sense.

About Jane Billing
Jane Billing has over 30 years in shipping container supply. During that time Jane has earned a very broad knowledge of the whole shipping container industry. From construction, to shipping, to adaption and conversions, if you have a question about any aspect of the shipping container industry Jane will likely have the answer for you. After many years working for some of the biggest names in the shipping container industry Jane set up her own company, Billie Box Ltd in 2012. Since launching in 2012 Billie Box Ltd has sold well over 1500 new and used containers.

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