Happy New Year to all you Etappers out there, I hope you've kick started those training plans as we enter, what I hope is a memorable year for all of us!
I have take it upon myself to become the official sponsorship organiser for our L'Etape event as one of the goals I set myself at the start of the year was to raise at least double what Clive and I did when we entered back in 2008. For your information it was £3,426.50 so £7k would be a tremendous effort and I genuinely think this is achievable as there are 10 of us going which equates to £700 each or £100 per person, per month....come on you know we can do it!
I will be looking to organise a few events before our trip such as a charity bike ride, quiz night, sponsored leg wax, plus any other ideas you guys want to throw at me, so get your thinking caps on. In my experience the organised events tend to raise the most amount of money so I want to get the 1st one planned fairly soon.
Which brings me to the final point of the post, which is we never agreed on a charity to raise money for so here is my suggestion of how we organise this in a fair manner:
If you wish to put a charity into the "voting pool" then please post the name of your charity along with the reason why you've picked it, by no later than Friday 13th January. If you don't have a preference then please post a nil return or if I haven't heard from you by the deadline I will also take that as a nil return. I will then get Clive to summarise the selections on the blog and everyone will then have one voting right to pick the charity of their choice. The charity with the most votes is the winner and if we have a tie we will split the money according to how many charities shared the most votes.
I hope everyone's happy with the rules but any suggestions or improvements, let me know ASAP!
Brian Camembert / Brett "Geldof" Green
My vote for the betting pool would be Acorns Childrens Hospice
ReplyDeleteCyclists Fighting Cancer works for me (and their kits not too shabby either)
ReplyDeleteNot sure if this comment will come through or not...but here we go.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are a few possible charities we can consider. Firstly, as I'm sure most of us and most of the people we will ask to sponsor us will know someone who has suffered from cancer, a cancer charity would be good, as people like to give to charities they can relate to. One obvious choice for this is CFC or Cyclists Fighting Cancer to give it it's full name. This would be good for a couple of reasons, as it brings together both cancer and cycling. For those of you haven't heard about the charity, it's based in Stratford, but helps children with cancer nationally, trying to help them to overcome their cancer, by keeping them active. Brett knows the founder Mike (or Gris) to his mates, so we have a link to the charity. Another one would be the Shakespear hospice, who organise the annual Shakespeare Ride. The only slight drawback here is that it's a local charity, so maybe not ideal given that we're not all based in Stratford, but again, we have links to the charity through NFUM.
There are also a couple of other options, I can think of. As we are all males, we could consider either a prostate cancer charity or tesicular cancer. Might be a slight drawback as girls might not be as inclined to sponsor us, but I might be making wrong assumptions here. Just thought I'd put those ideas out there, but I do think a cancer charity would be best.
On a slightly negative side, with me doing Lands End to John O'Groats in May, asking my friends to sponsor me for the Etape might be a problem. I have to raise £2,600 for LEJOG, but I plan to pay £1,000 of that myself, so will be trying to raise an additional £1,600 from friends. Many of these people will have sponsored me for my London to Paris in 2011, so I don't want to hassle them really for a third big event in a year. Having said that, you have my full support with helping to organise fund raising events etc. I know a lot of people in the area who I should be able to encourage to attend. I also know lots of people who would happily inflict pain on my by waxing my legs. If it comes to it, I'd even volunteer to lose the hair on my head if we thought it would raise extra funds....and I've had this same haircut since 1993!!!
Anyway, enough of my waffling. Let me know your thoughts.
Shabba - whilst I loved reading your post, you still never made a decision; you just gave a list of endless options! I know it might be hard but you do need to pick one otherwise you will lose the option.
ReplyDeleteI think Marcus is in the US this week so he has emailed me with Cyclists Fighting Cancer as his choice of charity.
For completeness, and to save embarrassment after my comments to Mr Lover, I have made a decision that my charity will also be CFC due to my links with the founder (Mike Grisenthwaite)and the fact it is local to me and combines cancer and cycling - a perfect match :-) For those of you who are interested in finding out any more about this charity here is the link
ReplyDeletehttp://cyclistsfc.org.uk/
Brett "Feed the World" Green
I'm happy to 'go with the flow' on this one, which would mean CFC. It appears to be a worthy cause and as Brett has links with the founder it would seem ideal. Besides, I can't see me getting many votes for the charities down here :-). Not sure how much I can raise though as I've exhausted most of my potential prospects in past events! The main route I feel is sponsorship on the cycling shirts, any potential business could contribute maybe £50, or £100 with a shirt thrown in??
ReplyDeleteGood thinking Filippo, businesses is a good avenue and I will certainly be looking to exploit this with my own company and any others we have contacts with n the local area. The sponsored leg wax, pub quiz etc. should also drum up a bit of support as people feel they are getting something for their money! Thanks for your post :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late reply guys, had exams all week! My charity choice would be Spinal Research, a UK charity, funding medical research around the world into developing a cure/treatment for paralyis. My friend got knocked off his bike by a car last year and lost the feeling in one of his legs for quite a while, luckily he recovered by many don't.
DeleteHaving said that, I'm happy to go along with the general consensus of CFC, although I may struggle to raise a large amount given most of my friends are students!