Next October we will be taking a group of challengers to
India for our Lets Trek for Children 2016 event. Let’s Trek for Children is all
about fundraising for children charities by taking on a trek, so far we have
taken this challenge to Jordan and Nepal raising a vast amount of money for the
charities involved.
Let's Trek for Children in India entails five days of
trekking starting in Dharamsala the spiritual home of the Dalai Lama. We will
trek through spectacular mountain landscapes and sleep under the stars in
remote mountain camps as we head for our finish line at Laka Got (3,550m) well
above the Himalya snow-line. This amazing Indian adventure culminates with a
visit to the breath-taking Taj Mahal in Agra.
The trek takes our challengers through some beautiful places
however the terrain and the amount of walking they take on per day is what makes
the trek a challenge. This week we hear from one of our intrepid challengers on
why taking on this type of fundraising challenge is important to them.
My chosen charity is The British Heart Foundation…
Hi
my name is Sally, I live in a very bustling village just north of Cheltenham in
Gloucestershire. I work in the Doctors surgery there which is the ideal place
to start fundraising as it is extremely busy and we run lots of clinics for
heart and stroke monitoring.
My chosen
charity is the British Heart Foundation and I have done around nine treks and a
bike ride for them. I chose that charity as they do phenomenal research into
heart disease, ground breaking work which truly helps to save and change lives.
In
2016 I'm doing a trek in the northern region of India, for Children. The
BHF does very important work with pre-natal, neo-natal and infancy to find
cures for genetic heart disease and disorders. This is vital work which
makes a difference to lives and to children born with heart defects.The
BHF have agreed for me to do this coming trek for them.
Fundraising
is a challenge in itself…
When
you sign up for a 'challenge' you are normally given a target amount to raise.
Fund
raising is a challenge in itself! Faced with being asked to raise £3000-3500 is
often daunting and many folk don't like asking the same family and friends to
sponsor them.
You
also need to achieve a reasonable level of fitness - often another challenge in
itself.
A
few years ago I decided to hold a 'coffee and cake' morning. I asked many friends
and patients at the surgery to come and also very cheekily suggested they
contribute a cake if they felt able!
Amazingly
response was good and my kitchen looked like 'The Great British Bake-off'!
I
then decided to include that if anyone had any 'unwanted' items, they donate
them for us to sell!
This
has proved a popular and winning formula - it has become an annual village
event, typically raising around £1000 each time! The effort is a lot but so
worth it. I'm lucky to have a fantastic army of fabulous friends who always
turn up to help me run the event. My kitchen is buzzing, table heaving with
cakes, garden lively with folk sitting with their coffee,tea and yummy cake,
people seem very happy to chat and they go away with a bag of goodies, some raffle
tickets and having guessed the weight of the cake!
The
secret seems to be that we don't charge any prices - we simply ask for a
donation. People seem to want to be more generous that way!
Sale
items include books, DVDs, plants, jewellery, clothes, shoes, small furniture,
toys, bric-a-brac etc. My house looks like a Christies sale!
By the way,
all unsold items are bagged and boxed and taken to other charity shops so
nothing is wasted. This year all clothing was collected to be taken to help
with Syrian refugee crisis, small items sold by local post office for Acornschildren's hospice, other items to cancer research and Macmillans shop.
Fantastic effort by everyone and so far this year I have banked £1068 for the
BHF with another £50 or so to come.
The
challenges are life changing, fantastic fun and give you enormous personal
strength.
So I
say just Go for it!!!
Want
to support a charity?
There
are still spaces available on Lets Trek for Children in India 2016. There are
two ways in which you can fund the challenge, a popular way is by self-funding,
so paying for the trip yourself and then fundraising on top of this for a
charity of your choice. Alternatively, you can select the children's
charity of your choice, register for the challenge and then fundraise £2,900.
Providing you have raised the funds 10 weeks before the challenge your charity
will pay the tour costs on your behalf with the remaining money and any money
you raise over your minimum sponsorship going directly to support the work of
your children's charity.
By
taking on a challenge you could be supporting research for children's cancer
treatments, or help grant a magical wish for a child fighting a life
threatening condition or even help fight blindness. There are lots of children charities
out there, you can visit our website for a list of those we have supported
already.
We
hope you feel inspired to take on a life changing challenge! May be see you in
India next year?
Feel Inspired? To find out more about Dream Challenges events please visit the website or contact us directly:
W: www.actionforcharity.co.uk . E: events@dreamchallenges.co.uk T: 01590 646410
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