Phew. Next time I'm doing something this crazy, please remind me that certain heights can be actually scary. Especially when you're hanging on a rope good 50 meters above a road and cars and people that look like little dots. At least I think so. I only looked down briefly maybe once or twice and when I started to realise where I am and how high it is, I began freaking out and never looked down again. The wooden board from which I had to lean over the edge was super wobbly and I'm not joking when I say I wanted pack it up and go home far away from that scary thing ASAP. But I didn't. So thanks to the very supporting words from all the BAC instructors, Mrs Drennan and Erin abseiling just beside me I found the courage and let my feet leave the wobbly board. Gotta admit, the first half was incredibly scary, but the lower I got, the more fun it was. I was releasing the rope faster and began enjoying this crazy experience. When I got down, my hands were shaking so bad I couldn't text my mum, and it took me a good while to calm down. But it was definitely worth it! And in how did it go in terms of fundraising? I managed to raise £100 within 3 days! Great, right? I'm thankful for every single donation and every word of support I received. It means a lot to me. Also thanks to Mrs D who organised the event, Erin and Sasha abseiling with us and all the people who came to cheer on us. It may have been scary, but we did it! So well done everyone :) -M.
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Many of you may wonder how much I actually ended up with. As I mentioned before, I got promised some more money from people who were not able to stop by for a cup of coffee...
So before today's morning and evening services at the church I received some more donations. And what's the final result then? FANTASTIC £811!!! For one event! How great is that? Which means that I already have £2,348 out of my £4,000 goal, and I only started fundraising in April! Now I have 9 months to raise the remaining £1,652. It is still a long way to go, but with such amazing support I have been getting over the past 5 months, I believe it is perfectly achievable. Thank you and well done everyone! 27th August 2016. My first coffee morning ever and believe me that I was super scared two weeks in advance. If I knew it was going to such a great success I wouldn't have worried so much.
A week ago I had it announced on Saturday youth night and Sunday morning and evening services in our church, Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle. Then a day before the event we spent hours and hours baking pies and cakes to make sure they were as fresh as possible. So on Saturday morning, me, my friend Romana and my little brother brought everything down to the Well Cafe and started preparations. Cutting and serving the pies, getting coffee machine ready, etc. A bunch of people showed up, we had a nice chat about my expedition while drinking freshly made coffee, mmmmm. I had this little donation box on the counter as refreshments weren't charged for, it was only donation based. We didn't eat everything, so some cakes were left for the youth night where I received further donations. I was surprised to find out that somebody called George had left me an envelope with a hundred pounds. Wow! Then another hundred from a family friend who came by as we got home. After adding it all up, we raised £561 plus a lady from the church promised to donate another £200. I am absolutely stunned and incredibly grateful for such generosity. It is thanks to kindness of these people I will be able to go volunteer to Cambodia. In the name of all the people who helped me achieve this goal. I would like to personally thank the youth leader Michael for announcing this event and making sure the café was open as soon as I arrived. Next Julie, Katie and Chris who brought in cupcakes and the amazing white chocolate cake. Graham, who got me some teabags, sugar, buns and milk. My mum and Romana for helping me with baking and serving. Cherith for reassuring me the flood from coffee machine wasn't because I broke it. My manager Kris in Ground Espresso Bars who forwarded my email to the office and got me coffee beans and some yummy tray bakes as their donation to my coffee morning. Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle for letting me use this nice and cozy venue. And last, but not least, everybody who came along or just sent us their prayers. Thanks to all of these people I was able to raise such an amazing amount of money so quickly and take a big step forward towards my expedition. I would have never been able to manage this all by myself. Thank you everybody. Hello everybody!
I've got some great, great news and I'm super excited. As in reeeeeally excited. At the beginning of the month I talked to the youth worker in my church (hi Michael! :D) and he agreed to let me do a coffee morning in the café that belongs to the church on Saturday 27th August. Which is awesome as I used to work in that café, the environment is super friendly and nice. So today I finally sat down, made a poster for the event, contacted the church if they could kindly announce it on Sunday morning and evening services and now I'm here blogging about it. It makes me incredibly happy that I have the opportunity to hold this event there. After the silence day, jewellery sales, school bun sales, getting another job, receiving some donations from my awesome family and friends and working away the entire summer, this is another step closer to my goal. Another step closer to volunteering in Cambodia next year. It is extremely important for me as I'm doing everything I can to achieve this, but it wouldn't be possible without all the help I got so far. So I would like to thank you all who contributed to making this crazy dream come true. I couldn't have done it this far without you. If all goes well, by the end of summer I should have 50% of the expedition cost raised. I only started fundraising in April and I still have 9 full months to raise the rest after the summer. Not bad, right? ;) So if you're free on 27th, come and see me in The Well Cafe on Shore Road and enjoy the last Saturday morning of the summer holidays with a cup of tea or coffee and some buns, and help me raise some money for this amazing cause. Also if you would like to help out with serving, contact me on Facebook or on [email protected]. Thanks and see you there! As I've been a huge Pokémon fan since I got my first VHS (with only 3 episodes and you bet your socks I know them word by word), of course I joined the Pokémon GO madness - and it's super cool! So many people are out getting fit, walking and talking to fellow Pokémon trainers instead of sitting at home. How fab is that?
Anyway, I googled this article about legendary Pokémon locations and apparently MEW IS IN CAMBODIA WHERE TOMB RAIDER WAS FILMED? (side note: I love the game too, a lot XD) I really hope it is true! I'd be so happy if I actually managed to catch a Mew c: However there's only one way to find out and that's me going to Cambodia to find out myself ;) So if you would like to support my expedition, helping people, developing poor communities abroad and find out the truth behind these locations connected to legendary Pokémon, please drop me few pennies on my GoFundMe campaign: www.gofundme.com/mgoes2cambodia Thank you! x P.S. sorry for the red filter, it's an app for my screen I use to reduce blue light :) You may ask why did I choose these guys to go with. It's not the cheapest and the easiest; quite the opposite. It takes a lot of effort, sweat and creativity. So here are some words from Camps Int. themselves as they know best what they're doing. At Camps we are exceptionally proud of our ongoing, unique approach to supporting some of the most vulnerable people in rural villages where poverty levels are high, and there is virtually no form of income beyond small-scale farming. So I guess that explains a lot. If you would like to support me on my journey towards changing lives in Cambodia with these amazing people, please please please visit my GoFundMe page and drop me some pennies.
www.gofundme.com/mgoes2cambodia Thanks millions! Today was aboslutely brilliant! I got to meet another members of our expedition group: Daniel, Ciaran (then there's me) and Hanna - see first picture. They're a bunch of cool guys and it was amazing to share our fundraising stories, ideas and our feelings overall so far. We got to do a group challenge in Boulder World, Belfast, during which we got to know each other a bit and we also decided to set up an expedition Facebook page so that our entire large group can contact other members, help each other out or even become friends so that we are not complete strangers once we get on the plane.
It was a really good experience and I can't wait for future events and meeting other team members :) Thanks everyone involved, especially Tommy who organised the event. See you soon! Okay so the weather was awful. Firstly windy so I had to go in the very corner so that I'm not picking all the earrings up every 30 seconds. In the corner nobody saw me so I had to jump around and greet literally everybody in hundred meter radius. But I'm not complaining. The guys working around the church let me in for free which I am super grateful for. I managed to sell jewellery worth £24 and I got £17.60 in donations for my abseil in September! It was honestly amazing.
Then it started raining like crazy, everybody left and now I'm sitting inside with my brother, waiting for the rain to pass so that we can go home. One of the church guys is giving us a lift soon as it is still heavily raining. But all in all, today was honestly fantastic, can't wait for next week! Make sure you come and see me ;) Hello dear readers,
I mentioned before setting up a Crowdfunding donation page... however due to a bug on the JustGiving website it wasn't possible. Sooo, instead of long and boring wait for their reply, I set up a new one: a GoFundMe one c: Fabulous! So there you go guys, a brand new shiny fresh link to an actually working page, yayyy :3 https://www.gofundme.com/mgoes2cambodia Peace ♥ Hello there :)
It's finally after my exams and in between all the car boot sales, work shifts, baking, jewellery making and very little social life I finally got myself to create an actual website. I'm still working on my Crowdfunding page as there is a bug and it does not allow me to set it up and publish it. Though I emailed their technical staff so I'm hoping it will get resolved quickly so it's ready to go. But overall I'm super excited! I have my CAMPS t-shirt, lots of ideas and plans and a great summer waiting! I got a second job on the top in Ground Café of the one I already have in Belfast Cookery School. Both places are amazing and I love it there. It sure is super hard work, I don't get to sit for 5 minutes, but I know it will be worth it. Along with my handmade jewellery sale in school, savings and donations from my amazing family and friends I already managed to pay £1,113 (30%) out of the final £3,710. Cool, uh? So that's it for now, stay tuned for more news :) P.S. The Store section will be updated soon, I'm thinking of offering a space on the website and my t-shirt that I'll wear to various fundraisers. Also some hand painted t-shirts my fabulous mum makes and my handmade jewellery. So so so many ideas! So yeah, as I said, stay tuned! |
AuthorMartina Smichová, a crazy traveller, student, coffee lover and a cat person. Archives |