Bucket collection

Bucket collection complete. Managed to raise £146-46 at the Sainsbury's store in Plymouth's Armada Shopping Centre. Not as much as we had hoped, but pretty good considering we were up against two other collections that had been arranged through the Armada Centre itself. Happy Hospital Children's Fund and the Merchant Navy Association had arranged for collections at the centre and were positioned by the escalators, and entrance/exit. The Armada Centre had double booked. Realising what had happened, the Merchant Navy Association collectors stood down. They said that they would always back down when children's charities were involved. They also put money in our collection box. Very many thanks to them for showing such consideration.

It was a good day. I think we learned many lessons on where to stand and what to wear. Sainsbury's have a rule that charities are unable to hand out leaflets - this gave us an excellent opportunity to explain the role of the charity to those who showed interest. The key words and phrases that they bought into seemed to be 'children', 'local', 'special needs' and the fact that we are all volunteers and no-one in the charity draws a salary from the charity.

Looking forward to the next collection!!! Also looking at developing the ideas for our future fundraising events now that we have kicked things off with the abseil and bucket collection.

Many thanks to staff and customers at Sainsbury's.

Holiday blues

The blues are setting in. Back from holiday, suitcase emptied, washing on, photos downloaded! 469 photos this year compared with 489 last year. Not bad for a week in Cornwall, in what has probably been the worst August for a long time. Stayed dry for most of the week - couple of heavy downpours overnight. Beautiful day on Friday - went to Paradise Park and St Ives. Paradise Park is excellent for kids - especially on a sunny day! We have also found a superb static caravan park which we have used for two years running. May change scenery next year, but it will take some beating. Anyone got any tips on good sites (or sites to avoid)?

Back to the charity - the bank account is now live. We have a cheque book and paying in books. Hopefully we can put these to good use with money raised from the abseil, and from the bucket collection at Sainsbury's Armada Centre on August 30th. Haven't caught up with the abseilers yet, but will add a post here when further details of amount raised is known.

Now looking to progress plans for future events - Jailbreak, half-marathon etc.

Hope your holiday has been a good one.

Countdown

Only three days to go to the abseil. Feelings of excitement and disappointment. Excited - we can at last get our fundraising off the ground. Disappointed - that we didn't get more abseilers, and that I won't be able to attend - total mess up from me on the diary front with holidays!

Anyway - good luck to all of the abseilers on Sunday. We have used the Rock Centre before on two occasions. The training is excellent, and it is great to do an abseil on real rock rather than some fairly anonymous piece of concrete somewhere.

If anyone else is looking to do an abseil, caving or rock climbing, I can strongly recommend the Rock Centre. http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~trc/ Wendy and the team there are excellent. I will set myself an objective to try one of their other activities. The idea of rock climbing and caving scare the pants off me - but...it must be done!!! As the saying goes - you only get one life - this isn't a rehearsal. A sponsored "scared the pants off me" event!! Hmmm... now there's an idea.

Insurance

We have now finalised our insurance policy through a company called Access Underwriting. This has taken a bit longer than expected, but the team at Access have been excellent in understanding our requirements and finding the best solution. Many thanks to the team at Access.

Our bank account forms have been returned by the NatWest team in Hornchurch, with a note that due to the nature of the organisation we can open an account through our local branch and not the centrally operated system. This will take a little bit longer, but again will ensure that we get exactly what we are looking for.

Abseil just over a week away. We haven't had the response that we were hoping for, but still have enough volunteers to make this a worthwhile event. We have opened up the event to others who might want to raise funds for other charities. We have been joined by two people wishing to raise money for The Centipede Trust (formerly the Child Development Centre arm of "Give A Child A Chance"). Again, they will be raising valuable funds for a worthwhile cause. Many thanks.