Corporate blog – Our corporate fundraising heroes!
April 24, 2020
Community Blog – Spicing-Up GWAAC With Heli-penos.
May 7, 2020
Along with the rest of the charity world, GWAAC has had to diversify its event fundraising in the current lockdown situation. Unable to run traditional events, we have instead branched out into ‘virtual events’, with participants completing various challenges from the safety of their own homes. Over the last few weeks the amazing GWAAC community has come behind two such events; GWAAC’s very own Flights For Flights, and the nationwide 2.6 Challenge campaign.
Flights For Flights saw participants committing to climbing flights of stairs, with different levels of difficulty relating to the number of missions GWAAC carried out in 2019. At time of writing, we have collectively climbed an incredible 8672 flights of stairs, which is over three times the height of Everest! This really was a challenge of perseverance and dedication, with our top climber averaging over 67 flights a day for 30 days!
With the London Marathon postponed until later this year, the organisers were aware of a large gap in many charity income streams due to the fundraising that usually comes in; it is the largest fundraising event of its type in the world. To try and fill this hole, they launched The 2.6 Challenge. The aim being for fundraisers to carry out activities relating to the numbers two and six on the 26th April, the day the marathon should have run. Team GWAAC really pulled out the stops, and we had over 70 people take part. Some of the highlights included:
- A flock of hens eating 26 grapes in 2.6 minutes.
- Two supporters cycling 26 miles in their garden.
- Two supporters walking 2.6 miles in fancy dress (see the main photo!).
- A supporter spending 26 minutes non-stop on a swing-set (I’m assured he still feels nauseous now, 5 days later!).
- A supporter walking 126,000 steps over the days building up the 26th April, amounting to over 60 miles!
One of our volunteers Phil walked 126,000 steps in one week!
The incredible efforts of the Flights for Flights climbers, and The 2.6 Challengers resulted in us raising over £3000 across the two campaigns. This work, combined with your staying at home, is helping keep our crew safe and able to do their jobs. Whilst you’ve been doing your bit at home, they are still out their saving lives. They can’t do it without you.
On Sunday 10th May we are part of another event ‘first’ for GWAAC when, along with three other Bristol-based charities, we are part of Belly Laughs At Home. This online comedy show promises to be a brilliant night, as we have comedians such as Russell Howard, Jon Richardson, Jayde Adams, and Joe Wilkinson (with many more exciting names to be confirmed!) all doing their bit to support local causes.
You can read more about the event here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/belly-laughs-at-home
I want to round this off by saying thank you! The support for GWAAC through this month’s events has been incredible, we feel very grateful to have such fantastic supporters. If you have any ideas for exciting events we could put on in the future, please get in touch.
Tom
