One Hell of a Fundraising Weekend!

A few weeks ago I had my 19th birthday and celebrated it by having a house party (I've been told my house parties are pretty good...) My boyfriend Matt and I went to Morrisons in the day and spent just under £200 on alcohol and food! My initial budget had been £60-£90 so I went just slightly over. :-/ We party-proofed the house, and by that I mean moved everything that might get broken into the utility room and made that out-of-bounds. Matt set up his DJ equipment in the conservatory and I set up the raffle. The plan was that as people came in they bought raffle tickets at one pound each, and with each raffle ticket they got a free drink. Surprisingly enough we sold over 200 raffle tickets, and when we drew the raffle at midnight, all the raffle prizes were won! I think some people enjoyed the alcohol a wee bit too much however, as there were a fair few people vomiting all over my house. Really classy eh? But sick can always be cleaned, albeit a horrendous job, and by the time I kicked everyone out, I had made £340! So £140 profit just from a house party is rather good going I'd say.

Saturday was spent cleaning up, with each floor being mopped and swept about four times. Once the house was clean however, I was able to move onto preparation for my next fundraiser: a cake sale. With the help of my sister and my dad, I made 100 cupcakes on Saturday night, and then woke up at 7am on Sunday morning to ice and decorate them all. See attached photo.
The sale, which was at a church in Buxton, went very well. All the cakes were sold, and I made a grand total of £84.02! I reckon that church congregation must have been pretty hungry! 

To top off my busy weekend, I attended a service of celebration and thanks for one of the trust who have given me money. They asked me to do a little talk about the project, so I did the usual: introduce myself, give some background to the project trust organisation, talk about the selection process, the fundraising process, and finally what I will actually be doing out in Malaysia. Apparently I spoke well, as I was congratulated on it by some of my old school teachers who had been present.
All in all it was a very productive weekend, with a grand total of £300 being added to my fundraising. :-)
I'm getting there...Slowly but surely, so keep an eye on this blog as I've got a few more fundraising events lined up for you to hear about and perhaps attend if you so wish to!

Until then - Selamat Tinggal! x

Back On Track

After a few weeks off from fundraising focus over the summer, I have once again knuckled right down to organising events and thinking about more ways to raise the final funds. The running total so far is £1963.15, with £1000 yet to receive from a charitable trust (once I have raised £3700). I've got a couple more ideas stuffed up my sleeve for ways to raise money. In september, I'm combining my birthday party with a fundraising event, asking for donations for drinks and food and stuff. Hopefully it won't feel too much like a rip off for my friends who are coming, as they've all been so very supportive already. It'll definitely be a party more than anything though!
I'm also hoping to get another concert lined up with a quiz, raffle and refreshments. That's yet to be finalised though - still in the pipeline as it were! On top of that I have written to every supermarket for miles around asking if I can do a bag pack. Apparently you can raise about a grand in one day through them! None of them have got back to me yet though, but patience is essential I know.
Last week I spent an entire day, from morning until evening, sitting in Hanley library, trawling through the Directory of Grant Making Trusts to find some final trusts to write to. I managaed to find 16 new ones!
Fingers crossed, i'll raise the money from somewhere, but until next time...

Selamat Tinggal! 
(Goodbye in Malay)

The 3 Peaks Challenge!

At 20:35 on Monday 2nd July 2012, Charlotte Gould, Louisa Ramsay, Lucy Soden-Craven and I all finally completed the UK Three Peaks Challenge! We were absolutely exhausted and had feet, joints and muscles that all felt as if they were concrete, but we finished the challenge!

On Sunday 1st, my dad, who had kindly volunteered to be our driver, drove us all up to Fort William in Scotland so that we could start the ascent of Ben Nevis at 5pm. Louisa and I had written up route cards the day before, and we anticipated getting the the summit of Ben Nevis at 21:10, and then reaching the bottom again at 23:45. Instead we reached the summit at 20:15, and then reached the base at 22:30! Somehow we cut an hour and a quarter off our time which was fantastic!
The weather was really quite decent on the way up Ben Nevis, the lot of us walked up in strap tops (and Louisa and I in shorts), only putting fleeces on when we got into the cloud at the top and found all the snow! As we neared the top, this Royal Navy helicopter flew over and paused about 1km up the path from where we were, so I, being a bit of an aircraft nerd ran up the mountain to get a better view! It turned out that the helicopter was dropping off a mountain rescue team at the base of the cloud so that they could walk up through the cloud and rescue a person who had fallen off five finger gulley. If you have ever been up Ben Nevis you will definitely know what five finger gulley is like. It's five sheer drop gulleys which in snow and fog like it was when we were up there, are very easy to fall down! A lone climber had fallen and we saw them being pulled up over the edge as we headed back down. I hope whoever it was was okay!!
There was another team who were doing the Three Peak Challenge at the same time as us and raising money for Help for Heroes and Cancer Research. They were faster than us on the way up, but on the way back down we overtook them, and then as it was such lovely weather, and such a good feeling to be nearing the bottom of our first mountain, Louisa and I decided to run down down the last kilometre.

Start of Ben Nevis

View as were neared the bottom on our descent

Ben Nevis Summit!

The unexpected snow

The hard climb upwards

Part of Five Finger Death Gulley

Panoramic from the summit with the ruined observatory centre right.

We arrived at Wasdale Head, after having followed the other team's minibus because we didn't have a sat nav, at 04:30. I ate a breakfast of pork pies and yoghurt, and then we all kitted ourselves out in waterproofs, hats and gloves to combat the weather. It was pouring with rain - sheet rain - all the way up and down. I think next time it might be wise to invest in some goretex, as the rain soaked through all of our layers and we were literally dripping by the time we got back to the car at 10:20. Navigation was quite difficult as we neared the top of Scafell Pike, because, for anyone who has ever been there will know, the path is kind of non-existent; it's just shale and rocks. That's bad enough even in good weather, but when you have visibility of about 20 metres max, it's quite hard to work out where the path goes! We eventually got to the top thanks to compass bearings and cairns, but it wasn't like Ben Nevis where we sat around for ten minutes and admired the view...we got there, touched the trig point and got off the summit as quickly as possible! When we eventually got back down to the car, it was a case of wet clothes off, dry clothes on and off we go!

The base of Scafell Pike: wet, windy and cold

 

Horrendous weather at the summit

Louisa looking happy in the rain

 

Panoramic with two overflowing rivers on Scafell Pike

We had aimed to start Snowdon from Pen Y Pass at 15:20, but the sole had fallen of my boot on the way down Scafell Pike, so unfortunately we had to nip into Cotswolds in Betws Y Coed and buy me some new boots which added a bit of time on...It did mean that I had nice dry boots to start the last mountain in though! Sorry to you guys who all did it in wet boots! :-S We started our ascent of Snowdon at 16:30 and headed up the Pyg Track. Yet again the weather was horrendous: sheet rain, fog and wind, but it was quite cooling when we were all sweaty from climbing! I didn't dare take my camera up Snowdon with me, because I'd had to change raincoats to a dry one, which was bit thinner and I worried it wouldn't protect my poor camera. We had a photo at the start and then I sent a text message to my friend, who wrote a facebook status for me when we reached the summit, and finished the 3 peaks challenge! In fact he wrote all my facebook status' along the way. (Thanks very much!)

Start of Snowdon at Pen Y Pass

When we'd finally got into the car, curled up and decided not to move again for a month, my dad drove us all down to the Snowdon Ranger Youth Hostel where we got to sleep in A BED and eat a COOKED BREAKFAST in the morning! It was the best thing ever, and a great way to finish off what had been a very difficult and exhausting, but a hugely rewarding challenge.

Thanks to everyone who gave their support on facebook, by text and on the Virgin Money Giving page. You can still donate if you would like to on the VMG page:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ptthreepeakers
More photos from the challenge are also visible on there in the photo album on my page. Please have a look at the photos even if you aren't in a position to donate!
Thanks all!


Josie xx

The 2 Major Fundraising Events so far...

On the 22nd June I held my concert at St Thomas More School in Buxton. Despite only having managed to sell 10 tickets for a 200 seat room, the turn out was pleasantly surprising! I chose to arrange the hall with tables that the audience could sit around, and each table had one lovely rose in a vase in the middle (courtesy of my mum!). Before the event I had been around to a couple of printing shops to get quotes on how much it would cost me to get 200 programmes printed, most places gave me a quote for in the region of £120 - £170 and said it would take just over a week! Fortunately, it's not what you know, it's who you know in this world, and I have friend who put me in touch the the printing company who used to print his father's business materials. They gave me the whole 200 for £50! Thanks to Benj Smith for designing the programmes and Alyss Girling for designing the flyers, leaflets and tickets! I don't know what I would do without my friends supporting. I appreciate it guys!

I think the concert was a success. At the last minute I received a load of little raffle prizes as donations, so that swelled the number of prizes for people to choose from, and of course meant more people bought more tickets. The prizes included a waitrose hamper, a fruit bowl, flower in a plant pot, bottles of wine, meal for two vouchers, webtex military webbing, free cut and blow dry and many more! I can't name them all... There was a table at the front though, who just seemed to win everything! I reckon they might have rigged the ticket pick somehow.

To see a full run through of the acts, look in my photo gallery, as I have uploaded a picture of the programme, flyer, tickets and so on. By the end of the night, I had raised a fantastic £441.20! It was fantastic! Thanks so much to everyone who helped.
That brings my running fundraising total up to £1222.50. Only £3477.50 to go!!

The next event is the UK 3 peaks challenge. That starts in approximately 16 hours from now, when we will start the ascent of Ben Nevis, then drive straight down to Scafell Pike, do exactly the same again, then finish with Snowdon. It should be a bit of a mean feat, but it's a challenge and just in case you hadn't noticed, I do like challenges. We will start driving at 9am to get up there to start at 1630hrs. So on that note I think it may be important to catch some kip.
You can see some of the training photos so far in the gallery, and also I will be doing a running  facebook update so keep an eye on that...see if we actually do manage in in the proper 24hours rather than the summit-to-summit timing that we are intending to do at current.
Good night!

I totally forgot to mention that I had an article written about me in Buxton Advertiser last week! A fantastic bit of publicity for me. :-) You can view it online at:

http://www.buxtonadvertiser.co.uk/news/local/dream-trip-for-buxton-teenager-1-4655441

xx

Hello All,

I've not blogged for a while I'm afraid. Exam revision has been getting to me, but I've got loads done!

So far I've written to 30 grant making trusts and had two replies (both rejections) but hey i'll keep perservering! Maybe they'll get fed up of me and give me some donations just to shut me up... Hopefully!

The big concert is also drawing nearer. On the 22nd June (in two days!!) at 7.30pm I am holding a concert at St Thomas More School in Buxton. The tickets are available from the Muzik and More shop on Buxton Market Place, or from the school reception. You can also buy them directly from me (just give me a call; my number is available through the Buxton Advertiser link) or on the door on the night.

The concert will consist of a number of local live acts, a presentation from me about my project, a raffle with prizes such as Toni and Guy free cut and blowdry, gifts, wine, meal vouchers, and many more! Refreshments will also be available in the interval.

If you can't attend but still want to donate please visit my *all new and improved* Virgin Money Giving Page:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/josie.projecttrust

See y'all soon!
Josie x

The Ease of Donation

I set up a page with Virgin Money Giving today for the Three Peaks Challenge, so hopefully that will make it a little easier for people to get in touch and donate!
 Josie Virgin Money Giving - Project Trust

The sponsorship forms for that also went out today and so far I have got one sponsor for £50!! What a generous teacher is all I can say!

The whole writing letters to charitable trusts thing is taking a little longer than I thought it might, because I feel I have to write an individual letter to every charity to make it more specific to the causes that they donate to. Hence, I have so far written 20 different letters and will hopefully get them sent tomorrow. :-) I'll try to make that a weekly occurrence, as I found out that one of the girls who was on my selection course has already raised almost £1200 from charitable donations, just from routine, bulk letter sending.

So tomorrow...it's to the Post Office for me!