Meet the RAFTers: Laura

There is no such thing as an average day at RAFT - that’s why I love coming into work!  As a Community Fundraiser I am responsible for helping anyone who wishes to raise funds for our important research.  This makes my job so varied and interesting, with different supporters doing such a broad range of activtities to help us. For example, I may be presenting RAFT’s work to a Community Group or inviting people to our own events.

I love my job! 

If you want to organise an event or do some fundraising for RAFT (and you can find a whole range of ideas on our website http://www.raft.ac.uk/fundraising/fundraising-ideas.html), then get in touch with Laura for help.  All you need to do is call her on 01923 844017 or via email ripley@raft.ac.uk  She will either talk through your ideas or provide you with some of ours. 

At RAFT we are dedicated to helping anyone who wants to help RAFT raise funds and/or awareness.  We will stay in regular contact before, during and after your event.

Charity Disco in aid of RAFT

Members of Social Buddies had a great evening at their recent charity disco to raise funds for RAFT.  The disco was held at The White Bear in Ruislip and Soul Selection kindly provided the music for free.  Over 100 people attended and a brilliant time was had by all socialising and dancing the night away until 1am.

Through our fundraising at the disco and the five-a-side football tournament a couple of weeks ago we have already raised £700 for RAFT’s research and have other ideas in the pipeline to continue to support the vital work they do - including a fancy dress sponsored walk!

Su Gregory - Event Organiser at Social Buddies

Footie Funds for RAFT

The members of local group Social Buddies are going great guns to help raise funds for RAFT.

This weekend saw Eamon and John, members of the group, arrange a charity 5-a-side football tournament at Goals in Watford.

Four teams of 5 from the Social Buddies group took part in the event on Sunday, and after a fun, but competitive afternoon which was enjoyed by all (despite one of the team dislocating his shoulder and having to go to hospital) there was a prize giving and buffet.

A huge thanks to Eamon and John, all those who took part and those who came along as supporters - their fantastic fundraising efforts raised £200 for RAFT’s research.

This brilliant amount will be added to the fundraising efforts of their forthcoming Charity Disco event scheduled for 28^th April at the White Bear pub in Ruislip. RAFT would like to wish them all the best of luck for a very successful event.

Eamon is now even thinking about organising a fancy dress charity walk in order to raise even more funds for RAFT. What a superb idea!

Belinda’s Quiz Night in aid of RAFT

My Quiz night on Tuesday 22^nd March was a big success!

Held at the Frog Pub in Clapham Old Town.

Johnny Zuccarelli the pub Manager was very generous  with drink vouchers, raffle prize donations and helping out on the night.

Everyone said it was so much fun and we really had a great turn out.

The Quiz Master Peter Williamson was fantastically entertaining and kept the night running along.

The Raffle Prizes were a big hit too, with such attractive prizes, this brought in over half of the money raised.

Total raised : £690 on the night for RAFT!

This really helped top up my Virgin Money Giving page as I am sure you can see I am now over my promised Marathon target for RAFT

Belinda Aloisio J

‘Bambi on Ice’ - RAFT Runner Matt Hicks explains…

Hi, my name is Matthew Hicks and I am delighted to say that I will be representing RAFT at the 2012 Virgin London Marathon, raising funds on their behalf.

The training has been going well and I have worked myself up to 15 miles, with just over 6 weeks to go to the big day. I seem to be running about 4 to 5 times a week so I hope that all this effort is going to pay off. One of my friends is also running the marathon (also for RAFT) so we have been running together which is certainly better than running on my own. It also makes the run a bit more interesting! The cold spell which we had in February certainly made training a bit tricky - I was doing well not to fall over! Bambi on ice seems to come to mind!

The fundraising is going well and currently have raised about £500 to date. The Just Giving Site makes it really easy to donate and my friends and colleagues have found this really useful. Some people still prefer the good old fashioned paper form so I have also been circulating that round.

If anyone would like donate, then you can do so via my Just Giving site here

Northwood Area Women’s Club – a multinational women’s club

Over 50 years ago a small group of American women who had accompanied their husbands on an overseas posting got together over coffee and cake. They continued to meet regularly to provide support to each other and share interests. In gratitude for the hospitality they received from the host country they undertook fundraising for a local charity. Today, women from all corners of the world meet at the Northwood Area Women’s Club for friendship, fun and fundraising. Each year, members nominate and vote to select a locally based charity to support. This season the club is delighted to be supporting RAFT.

Fundraising is incidental to the wonderful varied programme of meetings, outings, events and interest groups and takes many forms. Raffles, take place at the monthly general meetings. As do the biannual pre read book sales and the occasional tombola or auction. Speakers who promote books or other products are asked to donate a percentage of their sales or goods to our fundraising. The Bunco evenings and the shopping group donate a fixed proportion of the money collected. Specific fundraising events e.g Guided walks are arranged and the payment of outings and visits is rounded up to boost our fundraising.

Xana Conceicao our fundraising coordinator who is from Portugal says that it is both a delight and a privilege to work in partnership with RAFT “It is not hard work at all. The membership is so supportive donating gifts, suggesting ideas and readily participating in the fundraising activities. Everyone is really enjoying it”

Xana Conceicao, Fund raising coordinator

Christine Tyler, Vice President

A ‘typical’ week for a Community Fundraiser

Since taking up the position of Community Fundraiser back in 2010 (having worked at RAFT for three year prior as a Secretary/PA), I didn’t quite realise what a varied and exciting role this would be for me.

No two days at RAFT are the same, there’s no such thing as a typical week, and that’s what makes getting up for work each day so easy.

Take just this week for example…. on Monday evening I went and presented locally to Harefield Tenant’s and Resident’s Association’s AGM meeting. Having lived in Harefield for five years (only having recently moved to Buckinghamshire), not only did I enjoy presenting to those present about RAFT, but I also found their AGM meeting very interesting and informative about the various going’s on in the local area.

At this meeting I was the guest speaker and was kindly invited to make a 15 minute talk about the research work at RAFT, which was well received by all, including two community support officers who were in attendance… that was a new one for me, having never presented to our police force.

Tuesday saw the deadline for applications for the position of Fundraiser – Maternity Cover (yes I am going on maternity leave at the end of June, but will be returning to RAFT next year). Time was spent looking through the various applications and creating a short list with my colleague on candidates to interview.

My day also included speaking at length to Kate at our new PR company, Wavelength about a post press release for our wonderful team at Parachute IT who finally managed to complete their skydives in aid of RAFT about having to cancel the event three times due to bad weather.

Mid week saw me involved in a meeting regarding our website and the various ideas that we have around updating it. I am responsible for making most of the updates to our website and so this meeting was most productive.

Last night I was delighted to have the opportunity to present to another local group, this time the Rotary Club of Elthorne-Hillingdon at Uxbridge Cricket Club.

I had a most enjoyable time, starting with a drinks reception (only Lemonade for me at the moment though!) and then a dinner with all the members of this Rotary group. A 40 minute presentation about RAFT then followed with the use of visual aids from my PowerPoint presentation.

I was thrilled at the response, with lots of questions being asked and lots of interest being shown to our work. Many are as a result keen to attend our Open Evening in May to learn even more from our scientists.

I was overwhelmed at the end of the evening to be presented with a cheque for £2,000 from the various fundraising efforts the Rotary club had been involved with which they had highlighted to be spent on RAFT’s research.

Thursday (today) is a day of catching up on emails, making funding applications and brainstorming some ideas around how we encourage younger people to get involved with RAFT.

I do know my plans for tomorrow; I’m off to visit the Just Giving offices in Paddington to help them with user testing on the charity account. RAFT is kindly being provided with a cash incentive to help them and I was only too pleased to oblige.

I’ll be back in the office in the afternoon to discuss brainstorming ideas with other staff members about the engagement of young people with RAFT and also to see one of our lovely volunteers Enora, who is kindly coming to RAFT to help envelope up our latest newsletter which will be sent out next week to our supporters.

As for next week……. I know already that one of our marathon runner’s is holding a quiz night to raise funds for us; I’ll be attending an awards ceremony with the hope that RAFT wins the National Council for Work Experience Awards 2012 and I will be on the interview panel for the Fundraiser vacancy.

Another busy week in the life of a Fundraiser!

Marathon in Memory

These two ladies truly are an inspiration and a real credit to their late mother and Auntie Laila - fantastic work girls, we are all so grateful for your ongoing support to RAFT.

Do hope you will all consider sponsoring them here to help them reach their £2,500 target.

118 Wigs help raise funds for RAFT!

Fundraiser at North Leeds Cricket Club

What an absolutely fantastic turn out we had on Saturday night, we sold 119 tickets on the door, so the club was indeed full and very warm! Especially for Lucy and I as we were wearing 118 wigs for our fancy dress outfits, along with moustaches that were very itchy and made it difficult to drink our beers!

So we started the night with a Question & Answers open to everyone, with around 20 teams. As the microphone wasn’t working I had to shout out all 35 questions, but people seemed to be able to hear me! That went down really well and everyone got involved and the competition was high!

Following this we then had lots of lovely finger food that was done by a friend of the family which was all yummy.

We then hosted a Question of Sport game with two teams of 3. Both panels got really involved and again got rather heated as each round went by, both quizzes and games ended with tie-breaks so we had to decide winners by asking questions like “Nearest answer to Paula Radcliffe’s birthday?”!

We then auctioned off a signed cricket top by Anthony McGrath, a pair of ‘design your own Nike ID trainers’! The raffle prizes were all greatly appreciated and people were very pleased with the choice they had when their number was called.

We had our friends helping us throughout the night who were all wearing Paula Radcliffe masks, selling around 300 raffle tickets, getting people to pay on the door and encouraging people to get involved which they certainly did. 

The last question on the quiz was what does RAFT stand for? Many didn’t know, but now do! So the message has definitely been spread about the charity and the research work that you do at RAFT.

So, after one too many Sambuca and Tequila shots towards the end of the night, the remaining party animals left at around 3am, and the night was all over…

And before I leave you hanging anymore….. with the kind hearts, generosity and massive support from everyone who attended we managed to raise an AMAZING £1112! I am very pleased to be able to tell you that we reached over a grand as I think it is a brilliant effort from all!

A lot of organisation, preparation and slightly stressful moments paid off and I know every single penny of it will be spent well on the things you do at RAFT!

Sarah Bull & Lucy Mason

An honour & a privilege to run for RAFT

Hello my name is Michael Huke, I have the honour and privilege of representing RAFT and raising funds on their behalf by running the 2012 Virgin London Marathon.

Running for RAFT has a particular pertinence to me and my family. 10 years ago, my daughter was badly scalded when she was 3 - this resulted in skin grafts and some wonderful care from the staff at Frenchay Hospital near Bristol. So an opportunity to raise funds for the wonderful work RAFT undertake could not be turned down!

My training started the week after Christmas and has usefully coincided with my New Year’s Resolution to lose weight – to date I have lost a stone, so signs are good! I am running 3 times a week, with a long run on a Sunday morning – this is a useful hangover cure! On my Sunday runs I am accompanied by my Springer spaniel called Molly – she is great company and never gets tired, so a good coach to improve my speed!! My weekday runs are to and from work, so a good way to wake up on the way to work, or de-stress on the way home.

My fundraising is going really well, with over £600 raised in three weeks - colleagues and friends have been really generous, which is fantastic as we are just post Christmas and the cost of living is impacting many. The Just Giving Site has been a great way to get a message out to many quickly and saves the hassle of getting sponsorship forms completed and money collected at a later date.

If anybody takes pity, or wants to sponsor me my just giving site is http://www.justgiving.com/michael-huke