I'm Back - Better Late Than Never!

Well, this is a belated post - isn't it? After starting sixth form at the start of September, I've been showered with deadlines and due dates I haven't had time to put my school work down. However, instead of sitting on the sofa stuffing my face with unhealthy food watching X-Factor on a Saturday night, I thought I should probably update this blog. 

Because of school my fundraising has slowed down a little just while I get into the swing of A-Levels. But in September I managed to raise £188.10 bringing my total to £1645.20. This £188.10 was made up from £125 wages, £60 in donations and £3.10 misc.

I'm still planning my main winter events which is exciting. I'm running a talent show at school alongside some fellow expeditionees which will hopefully be a success and take place sometime in Jan/Feb 2015. Then I am planning my own events to run over the winter months. I'm hoping to run a Borneo Bingo night and then a Coffee Morning sometime soon. 

With it currently being mid-way through October, I've raised an additional £89.61 bringing my running total to £1734.81. Football season is back and therefore I'm running my tuck-shop again; in the first week I raised £32.95 from selling sweets and drinks under this rather fancy pagoda that conveniently appeared on the field where my brother plays his footie matches - result! We also saw the return of Barney & Poppy, the two cats who I have looked after multiple times now and got paid £25 for letting them out of the house and feeding them for a few days. 

I'm also giving a special mention to Anicka and Salma who both emailed me unsure about whether to partake in a Camps International expedition as they were put off by the fundraising and were unsure how and where to start. Hopefully, you guys are really thinking about taking part as it's definitely worth it and I hope my email motivated you in some way! 

Good luck to anyone who is fundraising at the moment and remember I'm just an email or a comment away if you want anyone to talk to about the expedition/fundraising - just click the 'Contact Me' tab at the top of this page. As well as me, don't forget there is both Sophie and Rachael at Camps International HQ who will be happy to talk to you regardless.

Happy fundraising!

....hopefully there won't be such a long delay for my next post.

What I've Been Up To: The Rest of August

With August now ended and the summer holidays over, it has been the end of a bumper month for me. During the month of August I managed to raise £826.25 in total doing lots of various things including my sponsored trek. My sponsored trek was were a majority of the money came from raising £344.

However, after my sponsored walk I did a few extra things to earn some more money during my time off before returning to school and starting sixth form. I posted several flyers around my local streets informing people of the trip I'm doing and told them how I'm raising money to get there. Through delivering about 100 leaflets, some of my neighbours asked me if I would look after their pets, plants and houses whilst they go anyway on their holidays. By looking after peoples pets, gardens and houses I managed to raise £180.

August 21st a.k.a Results Day, saw some benefits too! As well as earning 2 As, 5 Bs and a C, I was rewarded with £60 towards my trip by my mum.

I also received my August wages, after keeping a little for myself, I was left with £90 to add to my expedition fund. Mum also ran a carboot for me as I was unavailable to go and raised me £63.25 which I was very grateful for!

Finally, I had £15.00 donated to my expedition, baked an 18th birthday cake for £34.00 and I am also currently in the process of painting some fences for one of my mums friends and she has paid be £40.00 for the work I have done so far!

x

Sponsored Trek Success!

You may or may not have known that on the 6th of August I did a 25.7 mile trek around Rutland Water. Despite the fact that I was absolutely knackered within the first 10-11 miles, I pushed on like a trooper and finished the entire walk taking just over 8 and a half hours, or 510 minutes, phew! I arranged the walk myself alongside a fellow fundraiser Louis. Doing a personal challenge like this is a great way to fundraise and you get such a sense of achievement at the end. I raised £344.50 and people are still giving me donations!

We walked the entire red dotted line, which doesn't look like much, but boy was it!

I also attempted to 'vlog' the walk but that was a total fail. I have half of the footage but nothing at the end as I was too sore, exhausted and emotional to even think about turning a camera on! However, I did take some jolly good photos for your eyes to see!

 
 


I was so grateful to everyone who sponsored me. Though I'm glad I never have to do it again as my muscles ached so much the day after and Louis hurt the muscles in his ankle! It's so easy to arrange your own sponsored trek, all you need to do is: 

1. Find a date well in advance that you/you and your fellow expeditionees are free.

2. Find a location and set the distance you want to walk, the longer the distance, the more of a challenge it will be! I would recommend avoiding busy roads and motorways; stick to designated foot paths and public byways. 

3. Log-in to the resources page using the link http://www.campsinternational.com/resources and print off sponsorship forms. Don't be scared to ask for sponsors just whip your sheets out whenever you see a window of opportunity and spread the word! Use social media to your own advantage!

4. TRAIN. I cannot stress this enough! You might think walking a long distance is no different to being on your feet all day. Well let me tell you, if you do no training there is no way on Earth you'll complete your event. If you don't complete it, people may take away their pledges to sponsor you. I planned my walk back in April and went out when I could in the evenings to do some walking right up until my event date.

5. Do your event. Hurrah! Your event is upon you and it's up to you to complete it! Make sure you take plenty of water and food with you in a rucksack. I carried a 30L backpack and took: an extra pair of shoes, a jumper, leggings, 2L of water, first aid kit (because you're going to get blisters no doubt about it!), sunglasses, a hat and my camera! I would also advise to take or at least apply some sun cream before leaving too because I got burnt all over my face - not good. 

6. Pester the people who haven't yet paid your sponsorship. Now, I don't mean be rude, but just ask nicely if you can now have your donation from them, if they haven't paid already, because you completed your event. Everyone I spoke too had at least a 15 minute conversation about how I got on with it when I spoke to them! 

7. Time to plan your next event. Now you've done one event it's time to get your next one planned! The fundraising never stops!  

Keep posted for the next step of my fundraising journey and keep up the hard work yourselves! There's still 3 weeks left of the summer holidays!

x

What I've Been Up To: Car-booting

Yep, me and mum forgot about our Sunday morning lay-ins and left the house at 7:00am to do another car boot. Car boots are a great way to make money and get rid of the stuff you don't want anymore. We were there for about 6 hours selling different things and I sold my own things to make some money towards Camps. I raised about £32.80 which isn't loads but it all adds up - eh?

This is just a quick post but I can feel a few car boots coming on over the summer! Why not do one yourself? 

x 

What I've Been up to: Pet Sitting (Again!)

Once again I have been looking after pets whilst their owners are away on holiday. If you have seen my previous post, you'll see that I looked after my Nan's dog for a week whilst she was in the Isle of Man. However, this time the cats stayed at their house and I visited every morning and evening to sort them out. I had to change their food and water every morning and evening, change the cat flap settings to let them out during the day and shut them in at night and clean out the litter tray every-other-day.

It was a fairly simple task to do and great for people who don't want to spend a lot of money putting their animals into kennels/catteries but don't mind paying you to do it. I earned £50 from this alone which is great as I've earned £100 in the past two weeks!

Have you looked after anyone's pets as a fundraising idea? If not, see if you can arrange to as it's easy money for your expedition!

x

Going Green-fingered

Over the course of both yesterday and today I've been going all green fingered in a hope to raise some money towards my expedition. My great-grandma had some weeding that she wanted doing as she is now to frail to do it her self. I popped round yesterday and was there for just over an hour, hoeing the soil and pulling out the weeds, eventually ending up with a horrid blister on my thumb (..and I am the worst when it comes to blisters ewwwwgh!)



Today however, I took out my paint-brush and spent about 6 hours painting an array of fence panels. I can't say that painting is my favourite thing to do (it really is as exciting as watching paint dry - literally.) but I'm going to end up doing things I wouldn't do out of choice if I want to make the full cost of the expedition! Luckily, mum was on hand to help me out and we pushed through it together. Otherwise I would have been there for ages! Thanks mum!



Fundraiser:
If you have grandparents unable to get out on their gardens, take care of it for them or if friends/family don't like to do labouruss garden work ask if they would like you to do it for them instead in return for a donation! I earned £46 doing it, so it's definitely worth it even if you do encounter some blisters and aching arms - you know what they say 'no pain, no gain!' 

xx

What I've Been Up To: Summer Fayre

So, it's been about 2 weeks since I last posted on here but here is my first post for July! Today, my old primary school were holding a Summer Fayre and they let me have a stall for free! Unfortunately, I work every Saturday so was unable to attend therefore my lovely Mum and Nan (pictured above) ran it for me instead.

We sold things from around the house and things that mum managed to find on offer and in sales etc. Plus lots of sweets, cakes and chocolate. She also used one of the games we had in our playroom and charged 30p a go; if you could complete it without the machine buzzing, you won a prize (but no-one managed to complete it!)

All together they made £52.30 in two hours for me which I'm so grateful for! This week I also washed mum's car and earned another £10 which is good going to kick off my fundraising for July! Next week I am also pet sitting again, but this time they're two cats!

Happy fundraising! 

x