'Fun'-draising

(Tried to make that title into some sort of fantastically witty pun, but failed miserably...)

Visitors to this brand-spanking-new blog might well notice a box in the sidebar and wonder what it's all about. Well, let me explain a bit more about it...

I have been asked by Camp Quality, the charity I volunteer for, to co-direct an activity holiday for children with cancer. The holiday takes place on 16th-23rd August in Chamonix, France and will cost the charity approximately £15,000 to take around 30 children and volunteers along.Camp Quality ensures that both Campers and Volunteers don't pay anything for their holiday, but raising £500 will pay for a child to go along.

The box is a widget developed by Just Giving, "the easy and efficient way to donate and raise money for charity (!)", that links through to my fundraising page. By adding the widget to the blog, it gives another outlet for people to donate to my cause.

So far, I have only sent out the details of the page to maybe 10 people, as Just Giving suggested:
"Before sending an email to your entire address book, asking your closest friends and family to donate first. An empty page can be a little intimidating, so do make sure to capture a couple of donations before contacting your entire list of potential sponsors. People tend to match the amounts already listed on the page, so do target your most generous supporters first!"

And, to my surprise, my brother, Greg, kindly donated £20 literally within 90 minutes of me sending out an email (what a legend!). I was so surprised that someone had donated in such a short period of me having set up the page that I matched the donation myself.

Since then, a few more people have donated so now I'm going to publicise my fundraising efforts to my Facebook friends and my various email contacts. Hopefully the total will really take off soon.

If you're reading this blog, please feel free to donate too!