In this cost of living crisis, charities, like us all, are struggling to keep their funds topped up. Every day there are adverts on the telly requesting donations and requests for sponsorship on social media as people do their best to raise much needed cash.
We like to help where we can, but it never seems enough. Being in our vintage years, running a marathon is no longer an option so we give our support in other ways.
Last week it seemed we were needed in abundance.
Having personally used their services, Macmillan Cancer Support is our most favoured charity. We have the privilege of knowing some amazing people who work tirelessly to raise money all year round. When they asked us to assist run their refreshment stall at Hastings Half Marathon, there was no hesitation.
At 8am it was an early start for a Sunday morning, especially after attending a party to celebrate a friends wedding the night before. But we were there. The marquee had already been professionally erected, so it was a case of setting up tables and placing the delicious wares out on display.
Situated in a public garden, there were no electricity facilities to heat water to make teas and coffees, but a hotel across the road kindly allows the group to heat two large urns in their utility room. As the younger members of the group 😳, we were the runners going back and forth to the hotel filling flasks of water to make hot beverages for supporters and runners alike.
It was a miserable, drizzly day which unfortunately meant we weren’t as busy as they usually are. A shame for fundraising, but for us it meant that in between water carrying we could watch the start of the race, see our Gt Nephews cross the line in the kids mini race and at different intervals see our Godson, Friends and Sister in Law cross the line after 13 hilly miles.
The rain hardly let up all morning and the front of our stall was a muddy quagmire, but people kept coming to enjoy a hot drink, savoury treats and delicious cakes 🍰.
As the last remaining runners were crossing the finish line, we started packing up. There seemed to be a lot of food left over so we were keeping our fingers crossed that we’d raised some much needed funds.
Later in the afternoon we got the welcome news we’d raised £714. Not as much as usual, but considering the inclement weather we were very pleased.
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However the day was still young and we were attending a quiz night, helping to raise money for the Kipling County Carriage Driving School, who are hoping to purchase a new carriage.
When we agreed to attend, we hadn’t realised it was a music quiz 🎶 . Not really our forte. We enjoy listening to music and going to music events, but ask us the song title, who sang it or the name of an album, you are likely to get a blank expression in response.
But hey it was for charity and if we came last we may even pick up some new wooden spoons 🤣. There was a huge turnout, with 24 teams of 6 competing for the top spot.
The rounds included music from our childhoods in the 60’s through to the music of the noughties that our Grandkids enjoy. There were snippets of music from movies too. So all in all we knew more than we had anticipated and ended mid table after the final round.
Pretty average, but it had been a fun packed evening and taken us on a stroll down memory lane. We even won a prize in the raffle 🍾 Most importantly though the event raised £773.
Brilliant 🤩
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The week just continued to give. Another charity and another quiz night raising funds for, cancer support charity, the Sara Lee Trust.
Our Sister in Law had already raised £350 for the same charity by running two local half marathons 👏👏👏👏.
She was unavailable for our quiz team, but my brother and the Besties joined us to see if we could better our performance of earlier in the week.
An all round general knowledge quiz we did better in some categories than others, but stayed within the top three throughout the evening. But we hadn’t realised the last round was worth double points and several teams played their jokers on that round 🙄. It was the dreaded music round 😬, but we did ok and our final position was joint 4th. Pats on the back all round.
It was an excellent evening full of head scratching and laughter but the £400 raised makes it worthwhile.
A fabulous week doing things we love, with people we love and helping to raise money some much needed pennies in the process.