Throughout the year our lovely Ambassadors are busy planning a range of interesting events to raise money for Children on the Edge. Last month their fundraising took the form of a cricket match at Westbourne House. Euan, our Children on the Edge Ambassador, provided us with the inside scoop from the day and told us all about what everyone got up to: “On the 21st May the annual match between Westbourne House took place on a beautiful, sunny evening. The battle commenced under the wonderful and impartial eyes of the Headmaster of Westbourne House and the ex Headmaster of Dorset House. The standard of cricket never quite lived up to the quality of banter and camaraderie of the individuals at this encounter. An unexpurgated version of this brief report is available for additional COTE contribution!" We would like to say a special thank you to Anna, Charlotte, Alex, Simon and Johnny for all their hard work organising and hosting the match. Also not forgetting Euan who regularly helps with Ambassadors events and keeps all the guests updated about our international projects. We are always so impressed by the dedication our Ambassador’s put into their fundraising and their innovative ways to support us. The cricket match was a great event combining an evening of friendly sport with raising awareness about our vital work. All together the match raised the incredible amount of £1500! A huge thank you to everyone who attended and donated. If you have any fundraising ideas we would love to hear from you, please do get in touch! You may remember an intrepid group of walkers last year organising three stunningly scenic, circular walks in Dorset to raise money for our projects.
The event was organised by one of our ambassadors, and this year the ‘Maxse’ group are back with another five gorgeous routes covering the Dorset Coast and Hardy’s Hills between the 25th and 29th March. The good news is not only that they’re raising money for us, but that the event is open to everyone, human and canine alike. If you’re a keen walker, then you can go the whole hog and complete all five days, or for those with time (and energy!) constraints you can just pick out a day, or join the group for a morning. It’s a very flexible programme, just have a look through the schedule, and then sign up to what you’d like to do. Highlights include unspoiled valleys and hills, a visit to Mapperton Manor gardens or Kingscombe Meadows Nature reserve, spectacular views of Chesil Beach, the renowned gardens of Littlebredy and Nettlecomb Tout (featured in Tess of the D’Urbervilles). Routes also give views of the Blackmore Vale, Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door and the fabulous coast path past the Old Harry Rocks. To charge up walkers for the challenge there will be options of pub lunches or picnics depending on your preference. Dogs can join in the trek for a small charge and 100% of the money goes to both our work and the work of The Institute for Cancer Research. We wish the walkers all the best for a wonderfully fresh-aired and rosy-cheeked time. For any questions about the event please e-mail Sally Marien. Our wonderful and inspirational ambassadors have been at it again… This time they have organised a Children on the Edge tennis tournament for the third year running. A huge thank you needs to go to Charlotte for hosting and organising the event alongside Anna, Tracey and Alex who continue to work tirelessly to raise awareness of our work (see photo of organisers below). Thank you to all four ladies for working hard to ensure that it all went ahead smoothly and also to Euan, our Children on the Edge Ambassador who went along to tell all the competitors everything there is to know about us and all of our projects around the world. A special thank you also to Nikki and her sister Jane for the donation of £500 from the Albert Van den Bergh Charitable Trust. We are regularly bowled over by the generous acts of kindness by our supporters and the innovative and inventive ways they find of raising money, some more unusual than others! The tennis tournament is a great way of bringing together a group of friends who all had a lot of competitive fun and spent an enjoyable day in the sunshine, whilst at the same time raising an enormous £1625 for Children on the Edge. At Children on theEdge HQ, we are all about play and having fun, not just for the children we work with but here in the office too. It’s fantastic to hear that our supporters are having fun whilst raising awareness and some much needed funds for the children, families and communities with which we work. If anyone can come up with some more fun, exciting and different ways of raising money for us please do get in touch! Horse racing is a common fixture in the British sporting diary but a very special type of horse racing event happened at Fittleworth Village Hall on the evening of Thursday 27th February. The hall became, as if by magic, an elaborate flat race course, complete with Tote, steward’s offices and licensed bar, all wonderfully co-ordinated by Nick Rowley from Moonlight Events. Chris Taylor, one of our Children on the Edge Ambassadors, organised a night to remember with a novel set of horse races to keep the punters entertained. The packed programme comprised six sponsored races, each having six imaginatively-named horses; a surprise double-jockey relay race, and a grand final. The chosen jockeys, all sporting ‘full safety equipment’ (amounting to little more than a flimsy cap), mounted their saddles (village hall chairs) and, upon a shrill blast of the steward’s whistle, began frantically to wind-in their wooden steeds using just a short length of broom handle and string. The jockeys were facing in the same direction as the horses which meant that they didn’t have a clue who’d won, until the steward blew his whistle again. As you can imagine, this was a very serious business – as was the betting. After all, who can resist a small flutter on a fine filly? After a short gastronomic break, of fish & chips, the final race, the Douglas & Gordon Derby, was won by Anna McMorran on Albert, holding off a stern challenge from a jockey too shy to be mentioned. Her prize was a huge silver cup (exquisitely crafted from cardboard and tin foil) and a bottle of champagne – which looked surprisingly real. It proved to be a most enjoyable evening for all those who attended and what’s more, a staggering £1400 was raised for Children on the Edge - almost without the race-goers noticing! Children on the Edge would like to thank Chris and his team as well as all the race-goers who made this such a huge success. Thanks also go to Martin and Chris who provided this write-up. If you have some kind of imaginative plan to raise money for our work, just get in touch! A charity football tournament organised as part of Atkins graduate corporate responsibility initiative raised over £670 for our projects supporting refugee children from Burma in Bangladesh, Thailand and on the borders of Burma itself. The Charity Super Cup football tournament took place at the Jebel Ali Shooting Club, Centre of Excellence in Dubai. With a great atmosphere and more than 80 players playing 21 matches, a good time was had by all and all the players took a real interest in the cause. Seven of the participating teams were from Atkins, with others coming from Buro Happold, IBM and Petrofac. The Super Cup and gold medal winner was the ‘Chamakh My Pitch Up’ team, with the silver medal being picked up by ‘Atkins Regulars’ and the bronze medal going to ‘Waylanders’ from IBM. “We tried to get as many teams as we could to participate in order to raise as much money as possible for the cause,” says organiser Elie Choufani. “With the risk of an entire generation of children in refugee camps growing up unable to read or write, providing education becomes as essential as providing nutrition. As an engineer, I felt that our efforts to provide sustainable design through our work could also extend to providing social sustainability through charity work, by helping the less fortunate to learn and develop.” On receiving the funds, John Littleton, our Asia Regional Manager said: “This money raised can cover the cost of a full class of 25 pupils for a year's education in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh. Every dirham counts.” We’d like to say a huge thank you to Atkins and especially Elie for organising this brilliant event. We’d also like to thank all the volunteers and players involved. Find out more about our work with refugee children from Burma and if you think your workplace would be interested in raising money for our projects, please do get in touch. |
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