fundraising – Page 21 – The NEN

PoLHA raises £500 for Comic Relief

Lucky for some – residents raise some dough on Friday the 13th!

Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA) has raised £500 for Comic Relief. The residents from its Jameson Place sheltered housing development donned red noses and t-shirts and had a home baking sale last Friday (13 March).

Maureen Tait, PoLHA’s Sheltered Housing Services Manager, said: “We are delighted so many people came along and bought delicious home-made goodies. The residents really enjoy supporting charity initiatives and getting in their kitchens to come up with a range of treats to sell. We’re delighted to have raised £500 for Comic Relief.”

Get involved in GYC’s Big Obstacle

I am getting in touch to tell you about ‘The Big Obstacle’, an event being organised by three young people from Granton Youth Centre.

‘The Big Obstacle’ is a 5k fun run with obstacles. It will be held on Sunday 29 March 10am-1.30pm at Cramond Promenade.

This event is being planned and organised by 3 young people from North Edinburgh, who have worked hard to secure funding from Starbucks for their event.

The aim of the fun run is to give local youth organisations a platform to fundraise, raise the profile of the great youth work that goes on in North Edinburgh and also to encourage local young people to participate in physical activity.

There will be two races on the day, one for 11-17 year olds and one for 18+. We will also have a fun day event at the same time, where we would like youth organisations to have a stall to promote their work.

We are looking for young people and adults to enter our fun run and organisations entering the run will get a free stall at the fun day.

All participants signed up to the run will have the opportunity to take part in a 4 week running club in preparation for the event. Places are limited and will be on a first come basis.

If you would like to find out more about the event and how you can get involved please get in touch at thebigobstacle@grantonyouth.com.

I will look forward to hearing from you!

Kerry Shand
Youth Volunteer Coordinator
Granton Youth Centre
3-11 West Granton Road
Edinburgh
EH5 1HG
0131 467 5854

Last stop – but happy memories at the end of the road

Lothian Buses’ year working with The Yard has comes to an end – but the company has raised a record breaking amount for its Charity of the year, The Yard.

The charity’s bus has become well known and much loved throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians and the company’s employees taking the charity to their hearts by raising an fantastic amount of money for them.

The Yard provides care, support and fun for children with disabilities and their families and work closely with special need schools in Edinburgh

Over the year Lothian Buses, their employees and customers have raised over £20,000 for the charity from events such as charity football matches, raffles, the Christmas Grotto Bus and the company’s staff awards night, plus customers and employees donated their foreign coins and change to collections tins at our Travelshops. The charity also received a year’s free adverting on the outside and inside of buses with a value of over £196,000.

Jenny McDonald, Fundraising Manager, The Yard said: “It has been a great privilege to be Lothian Buses Charity of The Year and to see the commitment from all the staff and customers who have done an incredible job raising £20,000 towards our work.

“Special thanks to Keith and all the team at Marine Depot who organised the Hibs Legends Vs Lothian Buses Allstars Football Match, creating great memories for our children involved. Seeing the smiling faces of Cissie and Amy on our Yard bus still makes us all smile and it has been invaluable in raising awareness of what we do – thank you!’

Thinking caps on for LifeCare Quiz

We are holding another Pub Quiz as the last one was so much fun! We are very fortunate to have Robert the Bruce quizmaster at the helm again.

It’s on Friday 27 February from 8:30 – 11.30pm

(18+ only) here at LifeCare.

Tickets cost £5 each. Lots of fabulous prizes to be won. Bar and snacks.

Get your friends together and make a team!

Funds raised will help LifeCare with their work with the frail elderly and people without dementia throughout Edinburgh

Lazarowicz: Fast-track benefits for terminally ill

‘long delays risk leaving terminally ill people destitute in the last months of their life’ – Mark Lazarowicz MP

Mark Lazarowicz MP is backing Gordon Aikman’s MND campaign and has called on the Government to fast track benefits for people like Gordon with terminal conditions.

Speaking in a debate in Parliament yesterday, the Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith called on the Government to fast track benefit claims from people with terminal conditions like Motor Neurone Disease and intervened to tell the Minister that the prolonged delays, in some cases of up to 18 months, could mean the outcome comes too late for some people with limited life expectancy.

He said later: “I strongly support Gordon Aikman’s campaign to fast track benefit claims from people with terminal conditions like MND: people are waiting 6 months and in some cases 3 times that just to have an assessment.

“Claims can be fast tracked where someone is not expected to live longer than 6 months but where does that leave someone with MND where the average life expectancy after diagnosis is 14 months?

“The Government should offer financial support to people suffering as a result of the delays caused by its own incompetence but first and foremost it should make sure that their claims are fast tracked.

“The Minister’s response in the debate was not acceptable: it’s shameful that people who are so ill should spend the last months or year of their life in financial hardship having to fight so hard for the benefits they are entitled to.”

He was speaking in a debate on the introduction of the new Personal Independence Payment (PIP), the disability benefit that is replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) which is designed to help seriously ill or disabled people with the extra costs their condition entails.

It was announced on Thursday that responsibility for PIP is to be devolved in future and Mark has called for the roll-out of the new benefit to existing DLA claimants to be stopped until it is because of the huge backlog of assessments.

That was also the conclusion of the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee: it reported last March that even where someone did have their claim fast tracked because they were not expected to live more than 6 months, the time taken to process their claim had increased from typically 8 days with DLA to 8 weeks with PIP.

Mark Lazarowicz says the Government has moved the goalposts: its original target was for the whole process from claim to decision to be completed within 16 weeks, now it is that all assessments should be completed within that time and it is even failing that target.

Gordon Aikman’s story

I’m dying. And fast.

That – in short – was what my doctor told me just a few weeks ago when I was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

It’s not the news you expect when you are 29 years old.

MND is a rare, progressive and debilitating disease that attacks the brain and spinal cord. It leads to weakness and muscle wasting and will affect how I walk, talk, eat, drink and breathe.

There is no cure.

That’s why I am doing all I can to raise money for MND Scotland – a great charity that funds and promotes research into the disease and provides support to people affected by Motor Neurone Disease.

It’ll be too late for me, but we must find a cure for the next generation.

With your help I can turn a negative into a positive. Please dig deep and donate what you can today.

100% of the money you donate will be spent on trying to find a cure.

Thank you

Gordon

P.S. Please visit www.gordonsfightback.com to tell your your MP and MSPs to back my campaign to double MND research funding.

To date Gordon has raised £216,683.88 of his £250,000.00 target. 3,690 individual donations have been made.

https://www.justgiving.com/gordonaikman/

Citizenship in action

Bag Packing at Morrison’s (Ferry Road) 8 November
Muirhouse Community Centre’s Boys & Girls Clubs

Additional funds were needed to insure the best possible experiences throughout the year for both the Centre’s Clubs (writes JAMES McGINTY). Morrison’s graciously allowed our boys and girls to bag pack at the check outs – and a very generous donation from Scottish Gas of £250 gave the clubs a flying start!

Fifteen boys and girls – along with Paul, Chris, Donna, Stephanie, Peter & Allan who acted as supervisors – got down to their tasks with great zest and enthusiasm.

The boys were first up, being transported by MYDG transport ( Many thanks to Muirhouse Youth Development Group) working from 2 – 4pm, then the girls from 4 – 6pm.

The total raised on the day (including Scottish Gas’ generous donation) was £612.76p. The whole exercise fitted perfectly with the citizenship taught in the clubs on a weekly basis. Thank you to everyone involved!

James McGinty

Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre

Broughton students to stage Human Rights Day ceilidh

On Friday 12 December (6 – 9pm), Broughton High School’s Amnesty International Youth Group are holding a ceilidh to raise awareness of Human Rights Day. Put on your dancing shoes and come along to the school’s assembly hall for an evening of ceilidh dancing accompanied by a live ceilidh band and highland dancers!

There will also be the opportunity to buy a selection of delicious home baking and win some great prizes in the raffle. The ceilidh will focus on ‘Write for Rights’, Amnesty’s annual global letter writing marathon. Throughout the night, people will have the opportunity to write letters in order to raise awareness and take action for John Jeanette, a transgender woman denied legal gender recognition in Norway.

All ages are welcome, although primary school children must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets will be available to purchase on the night, but will also be on sale in the school – £3 for a concession and £5 for an adult.

All the money raised will go towards helping Amnesty International carry out their vitally important work protecting human rights worldwide.

Katherine Wright, Broughton High School student

Royal High table sale and coffee morning this Saturday

The Royal High School PSA Table Sale and Coffee Morning

Saturday 1 November 10am-12.30pm

Please join us at the Royal High School on Sat 1 Nov 10am-12.30pm and support this exciting new PSA fundraising venture.

Combine your morning tea or coffee with browsing a host of enterprising stalls which will be selling crafts, bric a brac, books, cards, clothes, jewellery, as-new school uniform and sports kit, secondhand bikes and home-baking.

There are still some tables available – let loose your inner entrepreneur! Or enter our cake-baking competition and win a prize! To book a table (£10 or £5 for pupils) or for details of the cake competition, email Tina Woolnough at tina@kristina.org.uk

If you wish to sell uniform, sports kit or a bike, all in good condition, please bring them into school at 9.30am, clearly labelled with your name, asking price and telephone number.

Collect unsold items or your cash, less 10% handling fee for the PSA, at 12.30pm. Unsold bikes which are not picked up at 12.30pm will be donated to the Bike Station.

STV Appeal raises over £2.6m for children in poverty

This year’s STV Appeal has raised an incredible £2,610,427 for children living in poverty in Scotland. Popular presenter Lorraine Kelly revealed the fantastic total live on STV tonight.

The big finale of this year’s STV Appeal, STV Appeal 2014 – The Big Live, brought together celebrities and fundraisers who have made the STV Appeal 2014 an overwhelming success.

Hosted by Lorraine Kelly from STV’s Pacific Quay studios in Glasgow, the programme was packed with live entertainment including music from Nicholas McDonald, celebrity appearances by Des Clarke and Team Scotland, and inspiring fundraising stories from across the country.

Co-presenter Michelle McManus and Fred MacAuley joined Lorraine in Glasgow, with Sean Batty from RBS Gogarburn in Edinburgh, links to Andrea Brymer at Codonas in Aberdeen, and Nicola McAlley in Inverness.

Lorraine also made a surprise appearance on stage at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow during Still Gamewhere Jack and Victor got the audience on their feet to text the STV Appeal, raising over £10,000.

Cheques from a range of fantastic STV Appeal fundraising challenges, including freshnlo Pedal for Scotland, Lorraine Kelly’s Shimmy across Scotland and Sean Batty’s Highland Fling, were presented across the country with Lorraine bringing the evening to a close by revealing the total sum raised for this year’s STV Appeal.

The STV Appeal raises money for children and young people affected by poverty in Scotland.

Lorraine Kelly, presenter and STV Appeal trustee, said: “It has been a fantastic evening here at STV and the perfect way to celebrate the fundraising efforts of this year’s STV Appeal. The incredible amount of money raised tonight and throughout the campaign will make a real difference to the lives of children and young people affected by poverty in Scotland. A huge thanks to everyone who has given generously to this hugely important cause. There is still time to donate for the STV Appeal, so please keep giving!”

Sir Tom Hunter, STV Appeal trustee, said: “Central to the referendum debate was the issue of social justice and poverty. Once again Scots have backed the STV Appeal brilliantly in the full knowledge that every penny raised up to the first one million pounds is doubled by the Scottish Government and then channelled to support young people challenged by poverty and social justice. Not one penny goes to administration; every last penny goes to helping those most in need. Congratulations to everyone who supported the STV Appeal it’s a fantastic effort from all across Scotland and makes me hugely proud to have co-founded the Appeal.”

Garreth Wood, Trustee of The Wood Foundation, said: “The hard work, commitment and generosity from individuals, communities and businesses means that this fantastic total will go a long way towards helping tackle the poverty crisis facing too many of Scotland’s children. To think that one in five children in Scotland today are living in poverty, families struggling to meet their basic needs, is a particularly difficult statistic to accept and one that, together, we can work to change.

“Over the last year, since The Wood Foundation first became involved with the STV Appeal, it has been a privilege to be involved in events and cheque presentations across Scotland. To witness first-hand the difference these donations are making is overwhelming and to meet some of the inspirational young people who have been affected by child poverty really highlights the key role that local charities play in supporting young people and their families. The Wood Foundation hopes that our continued involvement and contribution to the STV Appeal will make a clear difference to the lives of Scotland’s most vulnerable children.”

Rob Woodward, chief executive of STV, said: “2014 has been an incredible year for the STV Appeal and we have seen some fantastic support from fundraisers all over the country, with everything from charity concerts and quiz nights to bag packing and bake sales taking place to raise money and awareness for children affected by poverty in Scotland.

“The STV Appeal is committed to investing in projects that will make a real difference in their lives and the amazing total of £2,610,427 will go a long way to achieving this. We could not have done this without the support of local communities, corporate fundraisers and STV viewers and we would like to thank everyone who has donated so generously to this year’s STV Appeal.”

Cheque-out Sainsbury’s support for MYDG!

Today Sainsburys Blackhall presented a cheque for £2351.30 to their Local Charity Partner, Muirhouse Youth Development Group.

Checkout Manager Louisa Higgins, (pictured centre) would like to thank colleagues and customers for their help in raising the money.

Pictured (l-r) Gail Wilson, Dean Shanks, Louisa Higgins, Katie Tuff and Megan McGowan.