A third of the way there.......

Although things have been a bit quiet on the fundraising front, due to the school summer holidays, this week has been exciting because we quietly went past 18k, so we are officially one third of the way to our target!

Coming up in the next few days, we have Michael Cartwright's cycle to work and back. Don't forget this is a 120 mile round trip, with a day's work in the middle, which will be a massive task, so please sponsor him if you can. You can do that on his Justgiving page, which is www.Justgiving.com/michael-cartwright0, or text CART75 and the amount (up to £10), to 70070 (eg to sponsor Michael £10 text CART75 £10 to 70070).

Tomorrow Emma and friends (including Daniel and Lucy) are doing their sponsored dance-a-thon. We are all looking forward to that (while also being grateful that the weather has cooled down a little as it will be hot work!)

Finally, we now have our facebook page up and running, which is exciting. It can be found at www.facebook.com/helpdanielfindhisfeet. It is worth a look because this week we will be launching our auction of promises, and the details of the promises and how to bid will be published on the facebook page. There should be some really exciting promises, so well worth a look, and hopefully a bid! A massive thank you to Emily, Ben, David, Grace and others for all their hard work in getting the auction organised.

Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.....

Well OK, admittedly this post is really only about heads and toes, with not much in the way of shoulders or knees, but I liked the idea of that title.....

So, we have made it to the end of term at last, and everyone is exhausted but relieved to be on holiday (and of course the sun has come out at last, which is exciting). However, we did manage to squeeze in a last couple of fundraising events this week before school finished for the summer.

On Tuesday Leckhampton School had its Funny Feet Day. It was great fun, and there was some very interesting footwear on display! A magnificent £671 was raised - thank you so much to everyone for getting involved, and for your generosity.

On Wednesday, we had the much-awaited shaving of Fraser's head! Thank you to Bournside School for allowing Fraser to do this in his lunch hour. Fraser was extremely brave, and allowed his Mum and his Head of Year to attack his hair at the same time! Fraser was warmly supported by more than 50 members of Year 9 and 10, all of whom had made a donation to watch the event! Fraser raised a fantastic £173.40, and we are tremendously grateful to him.

Feeling a bit nervous?

Starting to think this was all a bad idea after all?

Looking a little patchy at this stage....

But a good end result!

Things are a little quieter over the next few weeks, with the schools off and many people away. However, Emma and her friends are doing their dance-a- thon, Jade is planning her sponsored silence, and of course Michael Cartwright is planning his bike ride to work and back. (See www.justgiving.com/Michael-Cartwright0).

There is also the online auction of promises, to be launched very soon. There should be some really interesting promises that you can bid for, so keep checking back here, and I will publish details soon).

If you suddenly feel a little bored over the summer, and are overtaken by the urge to do some fundraising, then there are some resources, such as flyers and a general sponsorship form on the 'Contact' page of Daniel's main site (www.helpdanielfindhisfeet.com). We are about a third of the way to our final target, but there's a long way to go, so we continue to search for new ways to raise funds, and would love to hear from anyone with ideas!!

Sweet things...........

Well, it's been another busy (and dare I say sugar - filled) week!

Broadlands Pre-School have been selling cups of sweets at the end of each session this week. Thank you so much to all the parents that sold on different days. Here are Sarah and Harry in action on Wednesday!

On Friday we had the cake sale at Leckhampton School. A massive thank you to everyone that baked, we had offers from across all age groups of the school. An incredible £231.82 was raised - that's a lot of cakes! Very well done and thank you to Alanah, Rhianna and Bonnie, as well as their siblings and friends, plus Laura and the other wonderful Mums, and Dad Vijay.

As well as cakes, they also sold lots more wristbands.....

Also selling lots of wristbands on Friday were the staff of Nursery Rhymes Nursery. It was their graduation ceremony for the pre-school leavers. The staff kindly told everyone all about Daniel (who went to Nursery Rhymes when he was younger) and then encouraged them to buy wristbands! Thank you everyone, we will miss you all when Lucy leaves nursery.

Then on Saturday the Thursday Mums Group were once again refusing to be beaten by the rain, and held their Table Top Sale. Thank you to the Exmouth Arms, for allowing them to use the pub garden for this event. A fabulous £184.38 was raised - extraordinary when you consider the pouring rain did not encourage very much passing trade! Thank you so much to Sonya, Leanne, Niki, Laurie and Lara for all their efforts.

Also, in the middle of the sale, along came Fraser, who is 12 years old and runs his own fudge-making business in Cheltenham. Fraser usually gives 10% of his profits from any event to charity.  However, he was sufficiently touched by Daniel's story that he generously donated £50 on the spot to help, which was wonderful. Fraser's fudge looks amazing; have a look at his website, which is
www.frasersfudj.com

We are all staggering towards the end of term now, but we have a couple more events to enjoy this week before the schools break up. On Tuesday, Leckhampton Primary have their 'Funny Feet' day, where pupils can wear any sort of silly footwear with their school uniform, while making a donation to Daniel's fund.
Also, on Wednesday, Fraser Hopkins is shaving his head for Daniel! Good luck Fraser!

Coming up in the next few weeks (if it ever stops raining) is Michael Cartwright's sponsored bike ride to work and back. Michael lives in Cheltenham and works in Newbury, so that will be no mean achievement, especially fitting a day's work in the middle! You can see more detail and sponsor Michael on his Justgiving page.
www.justgiving.com/Michael-Cartwright0

Some more sponsored walk photos.........

Many, many thanks to Matt Davis Photography for these wonderful pictures of the afternoon sponsored walk last Sunday.

 

 

My personal favourite (below)- it's not often Daniel has the chance to put on a burst of speed like this, and have his friends running to catch up!  He couldn't stop giggling........................

 

Rain, rain, go away..........

Well, we have had a tremendously busy few days, and amazingly all our events managed to go ahead, despite the poor weather forecast, and intermittent downpours.

Firstly, the CLC staff raffle was drawn on Friday. Well done to the winners, and a brilliant £262.71 was raised. Particular thanks to Isabella Mech, who organised the raffle.

Yesterday was the Leckhampton School Summer Fair. We had a stall selling our 'Help Daniel Find His Feet' wristbands, and sold more than 100. If anyone would like a wristband, they are very stylish, the perfect addition to any outfit, and you are helping to advertise our cause at the same time! They cost £2 each and are available in red, white or blue, saying 'Help Daniel Find His Feet' on them. They also come in 3 sizes - small (for fairly small children), medium (for older children or women with slim wrists) or large (for most adults). You can buy direct from me when you see me, or put £2 on the Justgiving page (but don't gift aid it), and add a comment that it's for a wristband, then email me your address if I don't already have it, and I will send it to you.

Also at the fair was Oscar's Toy Stall. The toy sale was completely Oscar's own idea, as a good way to raise money for Daniel, and he had roped in lots of his friends from Year 5 to help, as well as his poor Mum! Many families from the school (as well as others) had been incredibly kind in donating second hand toys, and the result was pretty impressive! Oscar and his friends sold hard all afternoon (in fact I think a couple of them are ripe for The Apprentice in about 10 years time), and raised an amazing £302.90. Well done Oscar!

Yesterday was also Sue and Noel's Charity Garden Party. This was in aid of both Daniel's Fund and Help for Heroes. It was a very successful event, and raised £265.90 for Daniel (and a similar amount for the other charity). A huge thank you to Sue and Noel for all their hard work.

Today was sponsored walk day! A massive thank you to Linda and Andy for organising this. Two separate walks - mainly comprising Year 1 pupils and their families - set off up Leckhampton Hill. Due to a clash with another activity one set of children did the walk this morning, and the main walk then took place this afternoon. A couple of families are also planning to do the walk another day. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even though the heavens opened just as the afternoon walkers were finishing, so everyone went home soaked! We managed to take Daniel to meet the walkers at strategic points, and share some ice lollies with his friends.

Very well done to Betsy, Frankie, Oscar, Rocky, Rosie, Joel, Luca, Bella, Joe, Ben, Danny, William, Benji, Charis, Nathalie, Isaac, Abi, Catherine, Percy, Matthew, Isabella, Maddie, Lucy E, Henry, Eliza, Alfie, Billy, Daisy D, Ieesha, James E, Erin M, Sophie, Lily, Katie, Emilia and Alicia! It was wonderful to see so many of you supporting Daniel. "Get well soon" to the 3 other children who wanted to do the walk but were poorly on the day.

There are a few snaps below, but lots of lovely photos were taken by other people, so I will add more later.

Morning walk.............

Afternoon walk.....

This coming Friday (13 July) we have a cake sale at Leckhampton School. Any contributions of baked creations would be gratefully received, and please bring your money!!

Lots happening....

We've had several events in the last couple of weeks. The Thursday Mums Group and their children completed their sponsored walk on Friday 22 June, despite the rather wild weather! Thank you to you all. The children seemed to have a great time and looked like they still had plenty of energy at the end!

Thank you also to the children and Year 1 teachers at Leckhampton Primary, who donated the proceeds (£64.80) of their Open Garden on 22 June.

Susan's table top sale took place yesterday. A huge thank you to Susan, Karl and Yvonne for all their baking, including the fabulous feet biscuits (picture on the 'News' page).

Finally, news just in! Isabella has completed her sponsored bike ride today, after being thwarted previously by our awful weather! She managed to get round 15 Cheltenham parks, and have a little play in each one. Well done Izzi! There is one photo below, but there are lots more on Izzi's own blog page.
isabellasbikeride.blogspot.co.uk

The next couple of weeks are looking busy too, I'm pleased to say. I'll keep you informed.....

Fire station visit!

Yesterday, Dan and Lucy also had the treat of going round the new Cheltenham East Fire Station, which has only been operational for a month. They not only got a full tour of the station (and were its very first visitors), but were also allowed a go with the hose!! See the look of excitement on Daniel's face, as he drenched one poor fireman! Thanks so much to all the guys down there, who made it such a special afternoon, and who are also giving us some publicity amongst the wider Fire Service!