keep on walking and keep on supporting
I haven't done a blog in around a week and oh my what a week it has been. I have done eight mapped walks since my last blog and what a journey they have taken me on. When I reflect on them there are some funny occurrences along with some others that were surprising and some that required determination.
Many of the walks have occurred straight after I have finished a full days work as a Learning Support Advisor at East Riding college, obviously others have been done during the weekends.
One in which required determination was last week. I decided to walk through the town along the cliff tops to a local village and back through the town along the sea front. The weather was absolutely crazy that day. In the time that I had been out I had walked in gleaming sunshine and three snow storms. I made it though. What was particularly lovely was as I walked along the sea front I heard my name being called out. I realised it was the hi vis jacket which had been mentioned in the local papers, and someone had recognised this. I had a conversation with a lady I hadn't seen in quite a long time. This lady wished me well. As I walked a little further my phone pinged, she had donated.
A walk which was actually a mixture of surprise, anxiety and humour was a walk I had gone on with my husband. We had set off late at 8pm because we had both had very busy day at work but also family circumstances meant we couldn't set off earlier. I in my great wisdom thought we could walk to the local village; through the village and back again passing a local pub onto the main road. Now what I hadn't realised would be the path would slowly disappear and the street lights did not exist. After walking a distance incredibly slowly with my mobile phones flash light aimed at the ground beneath me we decided to turn back and head back towards the light. When we returned home I had managed to gain a blister.
An walk which had its moments of being funny was the one my mum joined me on. As we walked through the town my mum decided that she needed to use the public toilets. For a few moments an elderly person kept glancing at me. Eventually as she got to the toilets she said please council worker don't shut the toilets just yet. I realised my hi vis jacket had given her this impression. I soon reassured her. A bit further on our walk as we approached the historic old town two men were walking down the street. One of the men panicked and asked me if we were covid Marshalls. I explained we were walking for charity. This man asked me for what charity and continued to ask me what the Helena Kennedy Foundation do.
He went on to explain to me that he was happy people like us were walking to help people who had hard lives. He said that has had really difficult times with his mental health and still finds days really hard. His friend then told me that he came from care and was always told he wouldn't be anything at school. He spent some of his adult life in prison. They both said that they understood hard work was what turned lives around. One of the men gave me a donation of £5. He thanked me and said that giving that donation had made him feel better about himself.
Now lets discuss my side hustle and all the amazing people who have enabled this to happen. I had decided a while ago if I could involve local business I would hopefully be able to get vouchers or other items and raffle those off raising more funds.
Natural Beauty with Kymm is a business of one of my friends who I work with at East Riding College. This lovely lady created a Body Shop hamper and raffled this off on her own business page. This raised £50 for the Helena Kennedy Foundation. I made sure I thanked her and all those who joined in.
I have mentioned before that Bee Sweet Bridlington had donated a 3kg bucket of sweets for me to donate. I took it into work and within an hour my 20 Disney character scratch card had been filled. I delivered the sweets to the winner who then gave me the bucket of sweets back. He told me he had joined in originally because it was for charity but he wasn't a big sweets fan. He asked me to raffle the bucket of sweets off again which I did. This very generous offer of kindness meant that I raised twice as much. The sweets then went to a lady who has three children.
My friend Roxanne who is the owner of Craftee Monkee contacted me while I was on one of my walks. She wanted to ask members of my ' Sponsored walk for Helena Kennedy Foundation' group on Facebook if they would prefer a raffle for a personalised thumb ring or necklace. This message really came at the right time. I was walking alone and was suffering with my back I had forgotten my pain killers before leaving.
Roxanne did do a raffle and contributed to the fundraising total.
I received a email from the Bridlington Spa Theatre. I had previously asked them if they would be prepared to donate an afternoon tea. It was fantastic to receive an email with an letter offering a winner a afternoon tea for two. I thanked them immediately. I have to say there is quite a lot of excitement surrounding this lot which I will be raffling off tomorrow.
I bet you are thinking that there can not be possibly more, well there is. I have been donated two family swim passes from the local Leisure centre. And I have been donated a hand made candle from a colleague who's wife has a business doing this.
Some great plans have come out of the colleges offices two of those are a sponsored leg wax and a sponsored car wash. No plans for these have yet been finalised but I do hope that they come to fruition.
I can not begin to tell you how much I appreciate the support. I have definitely discovered just what a big challenge I have set myself walking 50 days in a row covering two hours after a full day at work. That's part of it though it is an immense challenge. I hope people do donate towards a bursary for an award winner of the future. For a person who will have overcome significant adversity. Just as a bit of a reminder those challenges could be
being homeless
Living in care
leaving care
mental health illness
significant health needs
fleeing violence
single parents
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