A BRIC a brac sale held at the weekend to raise funds for Cwmbran’s Congress Theatre raised £800 towards the £100,000 appeal.

Around 300 people turned out to support the event on Saturday as the appeal had £3,849 left to raise.

The success of the well attended event sees the fund short of just £2,000.

Cwmbran’s Congress Theatre is pulling out all the stops to reach its fund-raising goal before August for its £100,000 refurbishment.

With successful bids of £50,000 from the Arts Council of Wales, £50,000 from the Community Economic Development Programme and £10,000 from the Cwmbran Trust, the dream is a step closer.

But, in order for the theatre to be given the grants, the theatre needed to raise £11,000 independently.

Congress Theatre’s volunteer Joyce Liddle, 69, arranged the sale event which included stalls selling clothes, bottles, cakes, books and toys.

Theatre manager Martyn Redwood hopes that the community will continue to support them.

The Congress Theatre is holding a big raffle to raise further funds for which tickets are being sold for £1.

The first prize is £200 cash with others including restaurant vouchers and train tickets.

Barclays Bank has also pledged to match fund the theatre if they can sell 1,000 tickets.

So far 410 raffle tickets, which can be purchased at the Congress Theatre, have been sold.

You can also join in fundraising prize bingo on July 4 at The Congress Theatre at 10.30am.