Tag Archives: fundraising

A Day with Few Results

11 Replies

After a day which produced very little in the way of results, I prepared the soup pan, set it going and sat down to read blogs before writing. I had just come to the end of the reading when the alarm went off. Time to do combat now – just me, a pan of mushrooms and a hand blender. I will be back later to write the rest of the post.

Back now. The soup was more watery than usual, which was actually good, as it is usually too thick. I added a sprinkle of dried Italian herbs tonight, which added to the flavour, and all was good. We then finished off the mixed fruit crumble Julia had made at the weekend with the last of the cream (it had lasted for three meals, which is quite good).

Northamptonshire Red Cross fundraising flag. Quite dull, as it has the same thing on both sides.

During the day I gave Julia a lift to the dentist, went to visit a couple of friends in their shop and, I confess, did very little until it was time to make soup. Julia is much the same. We are blaming it on our slow recovery from Covid. Next week we are hoping to be more active. But next Wednesday I have a blood test, a Shingles vaccination and a day at work. It is going to be more active whether I like it or not.

I’m already starting to think about my display for the Numismatic Society next month. The photos are some that I have taken to illustrate the display.

The one below is a better example – no rust on the pin, for one thing, plus it has a date and a location on it. In a collecting area which is bereft of reference material, this is important stuff.

Reverse

Obverse

A Mind Runs Riot…

22 Replies

After looking at the website about the burger in space yesterday, I had a conversation in the shop today and experienced one of those moments when everything becomes clear.

One of the customers was telling us about his planned cycle ride to Skegness and back next weekend. It’s about 180 miles.

That was when I asked if he’d like to do it to help Julia raise funds for the polytunnel cover. I thought if he’d do a ride for her I could organise the fund-raising and we could raise a good portion of the money. I thought it was a good idea. He didn’t. But it got me thinking.

One of my thoughts is that he can kiss goodbye to any thought of future discounts…

My next thought is that we could try for sponsorship for sending a novelty carrot into space. Fundraising is a dog eat dog world and you need to go out there with a big idea. I’ve just looked at an internet guide to sending a balloon into space.

After looking at the cost of cameras and satnavs, I’ve decided not to pursue this. For one thing, you need to buy decent ones if they are going to be useful, and for another, when I tried out the flight path planning software the results weren’t encouraging. It depends on the weather, but if I’m going to spend £300 on electrical gear I’d rather not dump it in the North Sea.

If we set it going, for instance, from the Peak District at 9.30 on Monday morning, it will cross the country, burst at 80,000 feet over the North Sea and drift back by parachute to land just inland from Donna Nook, where we go to see the seals. It’s a bit close for comfort.

At that point I started thinking of rockets. I can’t think of a way of  raising money with rockets, but it looks good fun.

I found a link that offers rocket assisted ash scattering, but haven’t found one that has fund-raising possibilities. Yet.

No pictures – I have to take Number Two Son to work.

See you tomorrow.

 

We count the cash…

6 Replies

We raised nearly £500 for the centre on Saturday, so it was a worthwhile day. The kitchen and tombola staff are all due a big vote of thanks.

It’s not a huge amount compared to the teens of thousands of pounds you hear about when people get grants, but  if you don’t qualify for a grant £500 takes a lot of earning. Last time I helped raise money for a project we packed bags at supermarket checkouts. On average we earned about £200 for a day’s effort.

Despite my support for the reuse of carrier bags I can’t help feeling that this has played a part in the downturn in fundraising – once people started using significant numbers of their own bags they started to be keener on doing it for themselves. Down goes plastic bag use, down goes charity funding, up goes food poisoning (if scientists can be believed) and up (I suspect) go sales of plastic bin liners. Yes, didn’t think about that did they – politicians either already buying new bags for that or having their housekeepers do it for them. (Actually, when I checked up on this it seems sales of bags to line bins don’t go up that much. However, my opinions on politicians remain unchanged.)

That was bad, compared to the money we used to be able to earn from packing bags, but I suspect it would be worse these days as so many of the kids you see doing it spend most of their time standing round looking at their various electrical devices.

Before this becomes a “things aren’t what they used to be” post I will change subject.

We’ve been given the left-overs from the local school Christmas fair. These include jig-saws, giant dominoes and a version of Twister.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

At the moment we’re testing everything out. As you can see from the picture (if you can see anything from it at all – sorry about the lack of composition) we have some work to do, but it’s proving to be useful for stretching and exercise. It’s also been revealing to see who has a nasty competitive streak in their character.

 

Teddy bears, but it’s no picnic

Leave a Reply

Another day and another marathon wrapping session.

Twenty pencils wrapped alluringly so they look like good value when you win one in the 50p bran tub – no rubbish mind, they are Christmas pencils with Santa and snowflakes.

Then fifty presents wrapped and ready for Santa, looking slightly less alluring. You could mistake a wrapped pencil for a stick of rock but many of Santa’s gifts are unmistakably books, and not necessarily welcome to a child of the 21st century.

Thank goodness for remaindered bookshops and pound shops, which both allow you to buy a present for between 25p and £1 that looks like it might be worth close to the £2 we’re charging for Santa. Some of the books are marked at £3.99 so that’s a good start.

Last year we didn’t get much of a turnout and Santa’s takings didn’t even pay for the cost of the suit. We did save money by having me do it, thus avoiding the cost of extra padding (as they kept pointing out) but with 11 kids (two of whom were scared of Santa) we were always going to struggle.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Hopefully the advertising will pay off. Only two more days until, we find out!

Julia is busily making decorations for the barn and we’re both fighting off suggestions tat what we need is an exhibition of wood-turning techniques. If you have just set out a display of handmade crafts the last thing you want to hear is a lathe starting up shortly before producing a shower of dust and dendrological debris over your handiwork.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Wood turning