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Fundraising@GETSuk.org
FIREWALK
– transform your life and at the same time
fundraise
for GETSuk & The Gambia
GETSuk
have been offered a place to 'firewalk’ as a fundraiser with www.soul-fire.net at
the end of May (one place)
Alternatively
the next public event will be towards the end of the year, maybe November
(minimum sponsorship £150). Or,
a ‘biggie firewalk’ for GETSuk could be arranged at the end of the
year or early 2009, if we can find enough people to fundraise for us.
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Kevin
Hodder walks from John O'Groats to Land's End
&
raises £1900 for Gambia Education & Teaching Support
Kevin
started his journey on Saturday 4th August and in his first week he walked
more than 200 miles. With just half a day's rest he walked through the
Scottish Highlands, taking in some breath taking views including walking
the heights of Ben Nevis and along the banks of Loch Ness– but no
sighting of "NESSIE".
After
walking two weeks Kevin crossed the Scottish border into England.
The UK at this time was experiencing dramatic weather conditions
with floods being shown on international news bulletins. En-route Kevin picked up donations, pints of beer and the
walker's nightmare – BLISTERS.
After
30 days Kevin had covered 640 miles. He had camped in village playing
fields amongst the swings & roundabouts and taken refuge in a room in
a pub from the dramatic rains. He had negotiated 1500' high
hills in wind and rain, and slept in a chicken coup in the middle of
nowhere. By
Day 36 he had walked 777 miles and his knees were hurting.
Day
43 - Saturday 15th September - His
parents met Kevin at Land's End with a large banner and a group of
tourists clapped him home whilst his Dad sprayed him with champagne.
Well
done is an understatement for such a tremendous achievement -
923 miles in six weeks!
Kevin - From
us all at GETSuk
a big thank you
for supporting our efforts in The Gambia.
You
can read the day by day diary of his journey at
http://hornetsreview.co.uk/Charity_walk_update.htm
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Easter
egg raffle
The Stag Public
House, Ongar, Essex raised £86 from their Easter egg raffle, which was
drawn on Easter Sunday. The money raised will go towards prognosis and
treatment for four year old twin, Sanna Camara, who is suspected of having
rickets. The twin's mother died when they were six months old. They now
live with their uncle in Bwiam.
Information
on Sanna can be found on www.getsuk.org/sponsoring/students/SaineyCamara.htm
or by contacting fundraising@GETSuk.org
should you wish to undertake a fundraise.
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Theo's Fund
From the Southern Daily Echo -
"CLASSMATES of
a Southampton schoolboy killed in a hit-and-run crash are raising money in
his memory to help their counterparts in Africa.
Friends of Theo
Hixon-Denton, 11, are helping to fund a new classroom at a school in The
Gambia. The Woolston School Language College pupils want to raise
thousands of pounds so the much-needed facility can be built in their
pal's memory.
Teacher Ruth
Westerling, who is organising the fundraising effort, said it was a
fitting way to pay tribute to Theo. Miss Westerling said parents and
pupils were being encouraged to buy bricks for the Essau Community Nursery
School, which currently has just two classrooms between 250 children.
She said:
"Theo loved school. He always wanted to get involved and enjoyed
learning."
"He enjoyed
school as do all children in The Gambia so we felt that it would be a
great honour for the classroom to be a memorial to him. Theo's friends are
really, really keen to help out."
Meridian TV
News clip - Theo's fund helps Gambia kids
http://www.itvlocal.com:80/meridian/news/?void=150843
Anyone
wanting to make a contribution to Theo's memorial please
e
mail info@woolston.southampton.sch.uk
or fundraising@GETSuk.org
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A
BIG THANK YOU TO
WOOLSTON SCHOOL LANGUAGE COLLEGE, SOUTHAMPTON.
Ruth Westerling, a teacher at Woolston School Language College
Southampton, visited The Gambia during the spring of 2007. Since September
she has been working through assemblies, and organised a non-uniform day,
to raise awareness of The Gambia amongst her students, and they have
raised £565.55.
A further £265.23 was raised at the Students' Annual Awards Evening.
Three cheers for Woolston Language College who we understand will close at
the end of July. Best wishes
to Ruth, staff and students in your new schools and careers.
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SLOUGH
GRAMMAR SCHOOL
Students, particularly
Kimme, Natalie, Gagan & Kiran, as part of their assignment, recently
organised and ran a talent show raising the sum of £651.67p for a student
attending Secondary School in Brikama, The Gambia. The Slough students
worked through their assignment after finding our website - after reading
through our Gambian projects, they downloaded the sponsorship documents.
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Many
older students are in need of sponsorship to continue their
education in The Gambia. A student’s education can come to an
abrupt halt, particularly when either one of the parents is
taken ill, or dies. The
money Slough raised will be used to see the student through
his education and provide him with the resources that he needs for
his studies and also buy him a new suit for any interviews. The
student from Brikama School will no-doubt continue to
communicate with the students who organised the fundraising. |
| We find it very
rewarding that the GETSuk website is seen by school students and
their teachers. Francis wrote to the School: 'Maybe if your idea
is a success other students will adopt the cause and run a similar
event next year. GTS & GETSuk are very keen to increase
awareness of developing country problems and each year has several
Gap students visiting to help in one way or another.' |
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The students have made
enquiries about the GETSuk Gap Year – so who knows, they may well help
the Brikama student with his homework! It was a HUGE success—Thank
you!
GETSuk
CELEBRITY NAOMI
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Being
offered the use of a camcorder to do some recording of sights and
sounds whilst on Easter holidays in The Gambia, and organising a
mufti day at school enabled Naomi to make a presentation on her
return.
From
this presentation Naomi collected £500 for the feeding programme
at Bakoteh Nursery School. Good
coverage on Gambia radio and television meant our GETSuk member
became a bit of a celebrity, and she's not taken her GCSE’s yet!
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All
of us at GETSuk are proud of your great accomplishment – well
done!
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CATHERINE’S
SLIM-A-THON FOR A GAMBIAN NURSERY!!
| "Fantastic,
brilliant, best ever!" that is how ‘Catherine’s
Slim’ from April to September 2007 all began. Catherine
had returned from The Gambia with a lot of enthusiasm for
the youth and children
after visiting The Gambia for the first time.
It
was no big decision, action had to be taken to raise money
for the GTS/GETSuk nursery at Bakoteh. Firstly, Catherine
gave support to the charity’s individual sponsorship
scheme to offer support to individual children and also
teacher’s salaries.
But
there was something else on Catherine’s mind. She wanted
to lose weight for health reasons, but she thought, why
not kill two bird’s with one stone by raising some money
from slimming and giving this money to help the nursery?
Catherine pondered the best way to approach the
usual struggles with slimming and joined ‘Slimming
World.’ The local newspaper ran a feature story, and she
was off!
We
are pleased to have received from Catherine a cheque for
£250.00.
Thank you from us all, well done Catherine. |
Catherine
at Kachikally crocodile pool,Bakau,
with Charlie the crocodile
We
will be thrilled to hear from anyone
wanting to undertake a ‘sponsored slim’
to help education in The Gambia.
Fundraising will give you as much support
and help as possible together with local
news coverage if you wish.
Fundraising@GETSuk.org
01277366165 |
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Dawn and Ruth
setting out their stall at one of the many boot sales they
visited.
Many people were interested
to read the board at the front giving information about GETSuk -
and some of them kindly gave an small extra donation to help swell
the funds.
They made over £1000 pounds
from boot sales and raffles.
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Ongar
Comprehensive School Reunion
1979-1983
Shirley
Britton, GETSuk Fundraising Secretary, organised
this reunion where past friends were reunited after
twenty-eightyears to help raise funds for GETSuk.
Entry to the event was the cost of buying a brick
for the Classroom Appeal, plus a signed gift-aid form, if
appropriate.
The sum raised is expected to exceed £1000, an amazing sum for
one event. |
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Bob Aston (a
sponsor) and Julie Limbrick completing their fundraising bike
ride to France - a great day out!
Julie
raised £450 to be used
towards teachers salaries.
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Nick
Plaister writes:
‘I
had been looking for an opportunity to raise some money
for GETSuk and had also decided that I really needed to take a bit more
exercise.
A chance conversation in the lunch queue found a group of 6 guys
volunteering to run the “Grunty Fen Half Marathon” and Team Plus was
formed. We all chose our own charity; luckily Mike also decided to back
GETSuk.
The Domino UK
charity committee, kindly sponsored each of us for £250 and Marketing came
up with some eye-catching T- Shirts. For the next 3 months, the only topic
of conversation in the departments was ‘how is the training coming, what
time did you run, how are the injuries?’.
Finally the day arrived, but
unfortunately with clear blue skies and forecast temperatures of 26C. If
anybody tells you it’s easy to run 13.2 miles, believe me, they are less
than truthful!
We all managed to finish and hope this encourages others to attempt
something similar!’
Mike
and Nick raised around £1000
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