New raffle prizes ;-)

Yesterday I went to a charity lunch for the Scottish Spina Bifida Assocation in Dundee. Unfortunately I had to leave early as all the medication I have been on this last week has made me feel quite sick and very drowsy. However I had promised to go and glad I made an effort. The afternoon included a champagne reception, nice lunch, live entertainment, raffle, Auction and even "butlers in the buff" ;-0 The entire event was a great success raising £4800 for SSBA but I couldn't believe the prize of raffle tickets (£10 for 1 or £20 for 3!) and the amount people were prepared to bid in the Auction. I know it's for a great cause and it seemed people were happy to pay for it but I had planned to sell my raffle tickets for 50p each or 5 for £2! Maybe I'll have a re-think! Speaking of raffle prizes I have received another 2 kind donations this week:

• A family ticket for Camera Obscura for 2 adults and 2 children. I used to love going here as a child, seeing the optical illusions and the magic gallery. I am sure the lucky winners will have a great day out, many thanks to Tony and his team for this kind donation ;-)

 

 

http://www.camera-obscura.co.uk/

• A £50 voucher towards a trike-tour around Edinburgh with Trike Tours, Scotland. My friend Tracy and I went on this tour a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! The lucky winner of this prize receives a fantastic discount on the tour price and I am sure will have an awesome experience!

        For more information visit: http://www.triketoursscotland.com/index.html

 

 

 

 

Sx

 

www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013

Company sponsorship

This week I have had to have 2 wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic, not a pleasant experience by any means however with my recent dental experiences I found it quite apt that today, "Straumann", a company focused on restorative dentistry should choose to sponsor me!

A very good friend of mine, Tracy Quinn is employed by the Straumann Group and kindly forwarded a letter from me to her boss Jason Longden. In my letter I explained about my charity challenge and how I am aiming to raise £111 every week until October. I also made reference to Straumann's core value - "achieving more is our future", particularly as achieving more was my New Year's resolution which led me to this challenge.

Jason kindly honoured my request by agreeing to sponsor me and very generously did so on my Just Giving page today to the sum of £120. Such a fantastic contribution can buy a tap stand with a gravity flow system in a country such as Bangladesh. This would provide lovely fresh water from a spring or unpolluted stream right in the heart of a village and prevent women and children having to trudge for miles to fetch clean water.

Adding together recent offline donations from my generous colleagues, online donations from family and friends via Just giving and the proceeds of my recent cake bake I have currently raised £682, that's 17% of my target!!

Heartfelt thanks to Tracy, Jason and the Straumann Group for the difference you have made, it means a lot.

 

For more information on Straumann please visit: http://www.straumann.co.uk

Sx

www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013
 

Cake Bake Success ;-)

So after baking into the wee hours on two consecutive nights, 3 trips to the supermarket for ingredients (including a visit to Asda at 2am!) and a failed batch of cupcakes due to me forgetting to double my quantity of eggs when I doubled everything else I am pleased to say my cake sale at work was a great success!

 

£167 raised from my home baking, I am amazed and delighted!

 

Many thanks to everyone who came to my stall and supported me. Thanks also to Kirsty and Angela for helping me set up before everyone descended! Also big shout outs to my neighbour Barbara for lending me some tupperware at the eleventh hour, my good friend Tracy for the very useful hessian bags for carrying it all in, to Sandy at work for providing me with the trestle tables and to Kenny, one of the security guards for letting me into the office in the middle of the night! Amazingly everything was gone within 40 minutes and I was delighted to receive some lovely comments for my baking, notably for my cupcakes, carrot cake and heart shaped jammy biscuits. Mum, you taught me well! ;-)

 

Here are a couple of photos from the event:

 

 

Sx

www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013

WaterAid Committee in Edinburgh

My WaterAid contact in London had advised me that there is a WaterAid committee group based in Edinburgh and suggested I get in touch. They meet every second Tuesday of the month and give support to the organisation by organising fundraising events locally in Edinburgh and promoting WaterAid's goals and vision. The committee members give their time voluntarily and I am sure their help is invaluable.

I went along to their meeting last night and spoke at length to a lady called Marianne Hughes, who chairs the committee. She was supportive of my fundraising ideas and will help me promote my events, including my forthcoming Karaoke night! She can also provide me with a banner and some collecting tins for the event which is super!

We also spoke about WaterAid's Speaker Network, a national network of over 570 speakers throughout the UK. Volunteers are trained in public speaking and are encouraged to generate talks amongst community groups in their local area to raise awareness and promote WaterAid's key messages. I plan to read up about this and see how I can become involved.

The Edinburgh's group will meet again on 12th March and I hope to have some good news for the members regarding sales for my Karaoke night. Remember early bird promotion ends Friday (2 tickets for £15!).

Sx

Valentine's Cake Bake tomorrow!

CHARITY CAKE SALE

in support of

Buy something sweet for Your Valentine or simply treat yourself!

Lots of yummy cakes and cookies, handmade by my fair hand.

All donations to charity

10am - 11:30am (unless cakes sell out quickly!)

Thursday 14th February, 2013

BNYM Coffee Lounge (BP, Edinburgh)

      

www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013

Sx

Date for your diary - 14th March - Karaoke night



Exciting news dear readers - my first fundraising event has been booked!
 

On Thursday 14th March I am hosting a Karaoke party at Supercube on George Street! With over 21,000 songs to choose from you can be guaranteed your favourite song will be there! The biggest room takes 25 people and I am hoping to fill it plus a few other rooms! Come along and exercise your vocal cords all for all a good cause! Don't worry if you don't want to take control of the mic, you don't have to sing, you are very welcome to come along and enjoy yourself, watching those who view themselves as the next Beyoncé!

In-between belting out classics and the latest chart-toppers, appetites and thirsts will be sated with a slice of pizza each, as well as a drink for each guest, with a choice of vodka and a mixer, a bottle of Carlsberg, or a glass of house wine. Of course non-alcoholic options are also available. Tickets for this event are just £8 which includes 3 hours use of the Karaoke 'booths', pizza and your first drink. The party starts at 7pm sharp and although the Karaoke session ends at 10pm we may well continue the party elsewhere. Please spread the word and encourage your family and friends to come along, please note as it is licenced premise no under 18s are allowed.

 

***Early bird offer - buy a pair of tickets until 15th February for just £15!***

 

Tickets on sale now :)

 

Drinks promos on the night include vodka mixer £2, Jagerbombs £2.50 and bottle of Carlsberg £2.20.

 

Join in the fun!  
 

Sx

 

Website:  www.supercube.biz

www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013

Machu Picchu

 

Tonight I have been reading up about Machu Picchu and watching videos on you Tube. Imagine my surprise when I came across this film (see above) and one of the group leaders from my China trek, Emma Bennett, popped up on screen! It is a great wee video and totally inspiring, although I think the altitude and the camping are going to be my biggest challenges! Well, that and walking down hill as my knees tend to give way. My trekking poles were a godsend on the Great Wall and I won't be boarding my flight to Peru without them!

Another raffle prize donated ;-)

A lovely surprise in the post tonight - a £20 gift voucher kindly donated by Tiso for my raffle.

 

Tiso is an outdoor specialist with numerous stores across Scotland and I am sure I will be visiting their Edinburgh store in the coming months to stock up on trekking essentials! Big thumbs up to Lisa Mayes at the Rose Street store and to Andrew Price at Head Office for taking the time to read my letter and for supporting me! It really is appreciated and I am sure the lucky winner will be delighted with their prize!

 

 

Sx

The generosity of others

"Donors don’t give to institutions. They invest in ideas and people
in whom they believe" - G.T. Smith

 

It's been a good week with regards to sponsorship. As promised my colleagues have been generously donating since we got paid on Monday and I am delighted to say so far I have raised £245 with another £85 pledged. Once my sponsorship form is completed and all monies received I will be delighted to send a cheque for the total amount off to WaterAid! It means so much that those I work beside have the faith in me to succeed and I truly appreciate their support!

Sitting at my desk today I was drawn to my calender and suddenly realised I am heading to Peru in 36 weeks, so to reach my target of £3995 I really need to raise £111 each week until then so I am thrilled I am currently on track! Over the next few weeks some of the events ideas I have will hopefully begin to take shape and I'll let you know what's planned. First off though is a cake bake at work on 14th February, naturally with a Valentine's theme! I look forward to donning my apron and digging out the heart shaped cookie cutter ;-)

Also at work today a colleague told me trekked the Inca trail to Machu Picchu himself a few years back and highly recommended it! It was exciting to hear his tales but the stark reminder that I will be camping high in the Andes where night temperatures can fall below freezing was worrying! Clearly, it's not called a Charity CHALLENGE for nothing! Thermals and a extra warm sleeping bag will be going on the shopping list pronto!

This evening my very good friend Laura dropped by for tea and amongst other things I filled her in on my fundraising plans etc. We ended up digging out my old photo album from the Great Wall of China trek and it really reminded me of why I am doing this challenge. Naturally it's a daunting prospect heading into the unknown, especially on my own, but the friendships I built in China are still with me and I am sure with like-minded people the same will happen in Peru! I was inspired tonight to re-watch the video I made after completing my Great Wall of China trek - http://sassie09.blogspot.co.uk/ - feel free to watch it yourself, you never know it may just inspire you to doing something life-changing!

Sx

First donation gets the ball rolling!

Hello everyone!

 

Apologies for the lack of posts this last week. I have been suffering from an impacted wisdom tooth and not been in great shape! Fortunately I feel much better today and have an appointment to get the offending tooth out soon!

 

So what has been happening since I last wrote? Well the most exciting piece of news is I received my first donation on my JustGiving webpage on 15th Jan, from my lovely Dad. Subsequently the generous security officers at my work emptied their pockets in support of my challenge and donated a fabulous £40 between them. A big thumbs up to them! Quite a few of my work colleagues have advised they would be delighted to sponsor me after payday, so hopefully from next week funds will be building up! Remember you can donate anytime at http://www.justgiving.com/trekforwater2013  and if you are a UK tax payer Gift Aid can be applied :-)

 

In terms of fitness I have been at the gym a few times and tried a Pilates class for the first time every last week. I really enjoyed it and plan to incorporate it into my training plan as it will really build my core strength and increase my agility, which will come in handy in the Andes! I'll be like a mountain goat! ;-) Unfortunately I felt I had to cancel my planned hill walk on Sunday with the Sunday Brunch Club as I was in a lot of pain with said tooth but look forward to joining the club for future walks in the future. In addition to the gym I think it is important I clock up as many miles as I can on the hills to get to grips with varying ascents and terrains. Charity Challenge have also sent me a training schedule in the post so I need to seriously map out my action plan for the next 9 months!

 

On a final point for tonight I have received my second raffle prize in the post!! The lovely people at the National Trust for Scotland have kindly sent me a year's membership for 2 people, worth £84!! The lucky winners will enjoy free entry to over 100 properties for 12 months, ranging from historic castles and gardens, to spectacular nature reserves and state-of the-art museums. Definitely a prize worth buying raffle tickets for! Thank you NTS!

 

 

Sx