Justyn Time Fundraising Extravaganza

Sometimes bobbing along in the ocean of life you just have to ride the wave’s that come along.  This week I rode a huge wave which turned out to be a great blast and a fantastic drive for my fundraising.

A couple months back I mentioned to my boss (Steve) how I was wondering if I could set my bike up on the turbo trainer in the courtyard at work together with my Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance banner and ride my bike down there for a few hours over a lunchtime.

There is a lot of foot traffic through the courtyard and I figured I could talk to people as they came past, share my story and would give good publicity about my fundraising and hopefully generate a few more sponsors.

Steve enthusiastically suggested I should be down there all day!  We should get another stationary bike set up and we make it a challenge to see if volunteers from the office can “beat Justyn” and go further than me in a day!!!

I quickly pointed out that it would be very easy for the combined volunteers to beat my distance as everyone else could just sprint for a short period whilst I would be doing the whole day so would be pacing myself so we abandoned this idea. 

However my boss was now enthused to hold some kind of sporting challenge at the office to boost my fundraising and a colleague (Matthew) who had come in whilst Steve and I were discussing it was really positive about what we could do and was subsequently tasked to see what could be arranged.

Without going into the huge amount of preparation that went into the day Matthew took the bull by the horns and having engaged with the relevant area’s at work and roped Val, Toni, Charlie & Debbie into helping in addition to Steve enlisting the support of everyone in my team we held the “Justyn time charity challenge” at the office on Wednesday 23^rd August.

The day revolved around a sporting challenge for people to put teams together and cover as much distance they could across a running, cycling and rowing machine with the team covering the most distance across the three machines in their 15 minute slot being the winners.  We charged an entry donation of £5 per person with no limit on the number of people the teams could consist of.

In addition Matthew, Val & Charlie managed to get a load of donations for a raffle which included a nights stay at a Devere Hotel, 2 childs bikes from Halfords a £40 Evans cycles vouchers and much more.

We held a “Bake off” challenge inviting people to enter cakes with the donation then being used for a bake sale.  Matthew also managed to blag a load of cupcakes from the hummingbird bakery which has just opened in Guildford.

To make it all a fun event we also had an ice cream van for the day with the company funding staff to have free ice creams whilst inviting donations and the courtyard was decked out with bunting and we had a PA system providing music next to the sports equipment.

In addition we got permission to make it a dress down day at the office with people to donate a £1 if they wanted to dress casual / sportswear. 

   

The day was a phenomenal success.  The sports challenge was a positive hive of activity all day with healthy competition and friendly support and banter ever present.  Everyone gave it their all and I witnessed some fantastic athletic performances.  It was a very close result with the winning team (Kurtis, Olive, Rich & Alan) covering 20.64km and the 2^nd and 3^rd places covering 20.6km and 20km respectively.

There were some fantastic bake entries but slightly awkward for me Joy’s peanut butter chip cookies won (she also entered a lemon and poppy seed cake as well as Tiramisu cupcakes) and Val, Toni and Debbie manned the cake sale also selling raffle tickets all day.

My team went round the office collecting dress down money and selling raffle tickets at the same time as well as entering onto the sports challenge.

The day was a resounding success with huge amounts of generosity displayed left right and centre showing huge support for the charity.  We raised a whopping £1730.96 on the day and got positive feedback both during and after the event.

The event puts my current running fundraising total at £3030.95 for Kent Surrey & Sussex Air Ambulance, surpassing my £2500 target and has had me riding a euphoric wave of happiness and positivity ever since.

Huge thanks to everyone who took part, contributed and assisted in making the day what it was with extra special mention having to go to Matthew without whose dedicated drive, positivity and ability to smile, ask for things and get them, it would never have come off.