Location, location, location

So I am trying to organise a charity night to raise money for my trip to Brazil. First step was getting a venue. After that everything should fall in to place, however it is almost impossible to find a venue!

Everywhere is either too big, too small, to expensive or too far out of town.

2 weeks ago I went into Glasgow with my older sister, Eileen, armed with paper work, determination and a dream. I came home with no venue, £25 worth of Primark clothes and more makeup than I could afford (really, Eileen had to lend me £3).

Today I met up with my younger sister, Sarah. I had no paperwork, no determination and the full intention of booking the first venue we went to. I came home with free henna on my hand, fashion specs, 2 for 1 teeshirts (score!) and again no venue.

I want to hold this even on June 19th and I am rapidly running out of time. I cant book bands or acts until I have a venue. I cant start printing or selling tickets until I know what's going to happen on the night. I think I might just stick a gazebo up in the field out the back of the house and go for a farmer theme. Perhaps have a rodeo and sheep wrestling.....

That would work, right?

I'm going to Brazil!

My name is Jennifer and in October I will be going to Brazil for a 10 day charity trip. The main aim of the trip is to help repair a school in a small village and to raise funds for a mobile health unit.

The trip has been organised through my employer, Santander UK, and Cancer Research.

I will be joined by 39 of my collegues on the trip and we each have to raise £4000. The money we raise will cover our food, accomodation and fares to get to and from Brazil, as well as a donation for Cancer Research.

So far I have managed to raise £448, before Gift Aid, through a raffle, two bakes sales (everyone loves a bake sale!) and through donations from family. I still have a long way to go to reach my target and have many ideas on how to do this. I am trying to go for interesting ways. I am not the type of person to sit in a bath of baked beans for money, nor am I wanting to rely on the simple generosity of others. I think a bit of value for donation is the best idea. Currently I am running a 'Guess how many sweeties are in the jar' contest in work. I have another bake sale planned for the gannets, erm, I mean my colleagues and have managed to arrange a collection at the front door in work.

In the pipelines I have a carnival/Mardi Gras themed night. It'll be held in a pub function room (one I manage to find a decent one!) and I am hoping to have live music and a decent raffle. My mum and I are trying to work out the logistics of a tea party/spa day/garden party type event.

I am hoping to keep this blog up to date, and get some pictures up of all the wee bits and bobs leading up to Brazil. It would be nice if you follow along on my journey and feel free to comment!

If you would like to sponsor me my sponsor page is http://myprojects.cancerresearchuk.org/group-giving/jennifers-project-brazil

Any donations, no matter how small, are greatly appreciated.