Newsletter 20

Everything we achieve is made possible by you

Hearing that you love the newsletters (yay, go moi) but there aren’t enough of them and they need to be more regular.  Fully agree… and a backlog to work through over coming weeks, so don’t despair, DD’s on the case xx

Massive things happening out there in O2e-land and a big night coming soon to celebrate all the great things achieved by many people throughout the year, all the eventers, the planners, the supporters, the fund raisers, people like those highlighted below in this newsletter!!  The O2e end of year party is your chance to celebrate all these efforts with the charities who ensure that your donations are put to excellent use in improving the lives of terminally ill and disabled children.  It will be great to see you all there and enjoy a terrific evening in the wonderful surroundings of the Paris Grill. 

Please contact Slatts to snap up your tickets now as time is short.  We are looking for auction items and more raffle prizes to add to an already excellent line up, so if any of you have a sexy pad in a warm location that is vacant for the summer…. Or those VIP tickets to a pop concert that seemed a good idea at the time…. Then we’d love to hear from you.  Dress code is smart casual (cocktail dresses for the ladies and trousers and shirt for the men).  No jeans or t-shirts please. 
The cost includes all food, beer and wine and soft drinks. Spirits, cocktails etc will need to be paid for and there will be card payment facilities available on the night. 

Wadhurst Blue Tits fund raising tips

One of our two big goals this year is to raise enough money to donate £142k at the end of the year and to take us beyond £2.5m raised since the inception of the charity was born.  Every penny counts in this, our very own run chase.  So it is so refreshing amongst all the heroic activities and fund raising out there to also celebrate the smaller amounts being raised in creative ways and which help to keep the scoreboard ticking over.  One example was the sweep for the six nations earlier in the year and the winnings generously ploughed back into donations by Nick John and Margaret Turner, which raised £200.  Then there was Sue Smith’s competition to guess the number of Easter eggs in the jar, which raised another £60.  And here we have further examples of generous peeps giving their time and energies to raise much needed funds:

All The Ticket: thank you Judy Fishel for donating two event tickets that you couldn’t use in return for a donation……. and thank you Jenny Harvey for popping £50 in the O2e coffers

Rags to Riches: cheers to Caroline Thomson for turning her unwanted dresses into cash by selling them online and clicking the ‘donate to charity’ button. O2ebay – it’s so easy!

Where There’s Muck There’s Brass: when Lady and the Truck owner Ella Woods sees something that’s too good to go to the tip, mum Cheryll pops it on Gumtree and gives the money to O2e. Now that’s what I call teamwork…

Bananacaketastic: Our very own Avril auctioned off her spare cake at the end of the Welsh posse weekend in Monmouthshire to raise a further £40 and some very happy munching for the journey home

Fantastic efforts all round.  Is there anything you could do like the examples above to raise modest sums for O2e?

Alex Green Marathon a Month (12/12) update

Our very own Forest Gump has been quietly getting on with his challenge of running 12 marathons in 2019, one in every month of the year.  July 7th saw Al pounding the streets of Tenby; August 18th he was pounding the streets of Bath with Budrunner Michael Murie (see below), September 8th he was doing his stuff in the New Forest, October 6th he was pounding the streets of Bournemouth, November 3rd he was out in all that rain in Cornwall and on 21st December our very own Beardy Al will be running the 12th of his 12 marathons in 2019 for O2e.  A spectacular achievement and more to come on this in coming newsletters.  Al has been generous in his praise for his omnipresent supporters, including Big sister Sarah Baker, “significant other” and photographer Lauren Mooney, plus his parents to name but a few.  Big Al’s contagious and charming exuberance for this challenge has been a joy to behold.  And he has flown past £3,000 raised on his Just Giving site; well done!   https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/als12in12

David Plews Sort of Ironman update

Inspirational athlete David Plews is continuing to clock up the miles in the pool, in the saddle and out pounding the streets in his brilliant Sort of Ironman (SOIM) challenge.  In July he completed 3.04 miles swimming (target 2.4m), 113.07 miles cycling (target = 112m) and 28.86 miles running (target = 26.22m).  He had a “desperate scramble” to get the miles on the bike done on the last day of the month, but achieved it with a tiny 1.07 miles buffer. And his efforts have continued through August, September and October, despite health checks.
Click here to support David with a donation please please please and let’s get his total up for this year-round challenge.

Cath Brazier – Filthy at 40 challenge

Cath has continued to throw herself enthusiastically into messy monthly challenges. In July she attended the Colour Rush 5k at Aintree Racecourse with friends Tiffany Broome and Jo Clarke. “So much fun and a different kind of filthy being covered in coloured powder rather than mud!” 

In August Cath completed her hardest challenge to date – the Tough Mudder Classic over 10 miles at Badminton with friends Purdey and David Wildey and El Gardner and her “amazing” 70 year old Dad Philip Brazier. A warm, dry day made for an easier course and they all completed it, no problem.  Cath completed a 10k Tough Mudder in October and no doubt there will be similar shennannigans in Nov and Dec.   Fantastic effort Cath, just 2 more to go!!

ome amazing stuff going on out there in O2e-land you lovely peeps…keep doing these wonderful things, keep sending me your stuff, let’s keep the momentum going into autumn and winter.
Lots of loveChairman DD Big Cheese xx
07764682332
dd@O2e.org.uk