How and Why I Fundraise For HemiHelp, by Catherine Snashall

Have you ever decided to organise something and think ‘oh, it’s ages away’? Well, I booked a date for a Fundraising Ladies Night for Friday18th November 2011 over two years in advance and thought “I’ve got ages to plan it.” And all of a sudden I realised: “Oh my goodness, the night is less than three months away and I’ve done absolutely nothing, help! Should I cancel or postpone? Or just get on with it?”

I decided to carry on and with the help of a lovely lady I met at an event, our contacts, word of mouth and Facebook, I suddenly had a long list of traders, which led to booking forms and cheques. “My night” was definitely on!I spoke to a friend who is a brilliant graphic designer and within a few hours I had a beautiful salmon pink, elegant “lace effect” edged poster, which totally blew me away - another tick off my list.

It’s amazing how when you put your mind to something it evolves like a miracle. Bumping into the local Undertaker at the weekend I suggested that his wife might enjoy an evening out. I passed him the details and he told me that I should contact him about expenses.

Monday morning came and I made my phone call. They agreed to cover the biggest expense – Hall hire! So I called my friend to ask her to add P&S Gallagher to the poster. “I beg your pardon, what as in the Undertaker?” That, in itself was a great talking point.

I put posters up everywhere: in the back of cars, on fences (private ones of people I knew, and some I didn’t...these can’t be removed by the Council!), on notice boards, shop windows, etc. Another useful tool was postcard size cards – everyone got one. I emailed the local radio and it was added to their Events Guide. I also contacted the local paper and did an article before and after the event for their ‘What’s On’ section.

Next was prizes for my “brown bag raffle” (each prize is placed in a brown paper bag and until it’s chosen and opened, you have no idea what you’ve won). I asked everyone ‘selling’ to provide a prize, and wrote to a variety of organisations, friends and local traders asking if they would be willing to donate. By the event we had over 65 prizes.

What else? Drinks and nibbles to be bought, people to serve them, as well as people to help to set up, sell raffle tickets, sell tickets on the door, etc. Fortunately, I have a lovely group of friends who were all willing to help and help they did!Selling tickets in advance is great, so everywhere I went I took a box with tickets - £5 a ticket, including complimentary glass of wine. By the event I was relieved to have sold over 60 tickets.

The first people to arrive were not people I knew. They told me that they listened to the local radio’s Events Guide and decided to come along to the HemiHelp Ladies Night. That was a truly encouraging start to the evening and we welcomed around 140 people through the door, sold plenty of bottles of wine and a whole bin full of raffle tickets.

During the evening, stallholders were asking to book again for next year! I asked myself: “Wow, do I really want to do this again?” Of course, but not until 2013 - It is already booked, Friday, 22nd November!!!

The evening for me ended with a head and shoulder massage, lots of ‘thank yous’, hugs and congratulations from friends, stallholders and people I hardly knew.I went home with a pot of money and started counting. My aspiration was to raise £1,000 which would beat my previous event. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would raise as much as £1,500, plus the donations that followed.

So, what’s my event for 2012? Well, I wrote to the Christmas Tree Festival Committee at Church and asked if they would consider HemiHelp as the beneficiary of the 2012 Festival, and they said yes!! Have you ever seen a church with 73 individually lit and decorated Christmas trees? This is done by local groups and is the most amazing sight.

Having read this, you may wonder why I decided to hold a fundraising event. The answer is easy, my son has left sided hemiplegia and HemiHelp has given us so much support and information and we have attended some really good events.

I wanted to give something back as it is close to my heart and something that I enjoy doing. Finding time amongst working as a full-time childminder, running two Brownie Units, being a Sunday School leader, in addition to running round after my two children, takes some juggling, but the end result is well worth it!!

If you would like to organise an event like I did, but are not sure if you can, give it a go, it seems stressful, but it really is worth it and if I can be of any help, please let me know.