The Longest Day 2011 (Which Charity ?)

[GOG 007]

Ladies & Gents, TLD 2010 is sorted and is fast approaching Riders and Pillions are still registering (74 riders to date, thats good going, we could hit 100 by June), ferries are sorted, decals/t-shirts are sorted, accomodation is sorted, so apart from actually doing the run in June, everything is done. Do we now need to start sorting out next years run, so that we are well prepared, so first things first which Charity ? It is easy to say, lets get 2010 out of the way first, but this thing is developing and we need to improve each year, so it's not to early to start thinking about 2011 now ! Is it ?

[StumpyFingers]

Ladies & Gents, TLD 2010 is sorted and is fast approaching Riders and Pillions are still registering (74 riders to date, thats good going, we could hit 100 by June), ferries are sorted, decals/t-shirts are sorted, accomodation is sorted, so apart from actually doing the run in June, everything is done. Do we now need to start sorting out next years run, so that we are well prepared, so first things first which Charity ? It is easy to say, lets get 2010 out of the way first, but this thing is developing and we need to improve each year, so it's not to early to start thinking about 2011 now ! Is it ?

2011 I have not even got used to 2010 yet.

[Snaphappy]

To make this an annual event it needs the 7 Ps

a route should also be discussed something challenging but without the nausea of ferries
some that stuck in my mind
A bridge too far (UK biggest highest longest bestest)
Twin Towers Blackpool to London Tower or vicky verky
(Blackpool to Eifel but that means bloody ferries or trains and tickets)

the JOGLE again (without the basil faulty welcome)

I'm sure loads of other suggestions will come

[StumpyFingers]

To make this an annual event it needs the 7 Ps

a route should also be discussed something challenging but without the nausea of ferries
some that stuck in my mind
A bridge too far (UK biggest highest longest bestest)
Twin Towers Blackpool to London Tower or vicky verky
(Blackpool to Eifel but that means bloody ferries or trains and tickets)

the JOGLE again (without the basil faulty welcome)

I'm sure loads of other suggestions will come

The JOGLE always has a challenging factor that everyone recognises,
A member at work does this every year for his local charity and gets a lot of support.

[winxp-master]

Rather than JOGLE why not LEJOG, the service at JOG was 500 times better than LE.

[btbloke]

the same bloke owns the hotels both ends.
He charged me 36 quid for a double room for 2 1/2 hours because he said I couldn't just have a nap in the bar or mudwiz could not bivi out in the carpark.

[Sharribee]

OK I wasn't going to post in this thread mainly because TLD 2010 is so busy even thinking about 2011 gives me a headache, but I've been thinking quite a bit about charities that are close to my heart.

We've raised money for big charities and without a doubt national charities provide the draw for big money.

Last year I loved the make a wish foundation mainly because at the end of it we knew that our money would directly benefit these poor children and we would finance as a result of our efforts 5 wishes for children. 5 wishes is not a great deal but to these kids it's the world

MacMillan the year before I felt strongly about because the Vaders had gained great comfort from a cancer hospice when a loved one died. But in truth Macmillan is a massive charity and what we raised in the grand scheme of things wasn't huge, the same could be said for this years. Now all of these are excellent causes but huge charities rarely stuggle to raise funds, unlike some smaller struggling charities

Where am I going with this you may ask (more likely Sharrie get to the bloody point I'm bored now )

OK my point, this year in Wales I have seen one small cancer charity go out of business, I shared an office with one of their nurses who was made redundant. I listened to her comforting distressed dying patients and their families whilst telling them that after that phone call they would have no support from a cancer nurse and would have to wait to see their oncologist in clinic to get questions answered. That's barbaric and I found it extremely distressing.

Now I have another specialist cancer nurse, she works in Pancreatic Cancer and has funding for another 2 years, after this time she's looking for work. I'd quite like to see us raise money to be able to fund her for another year. Something tangable, and something that we can sit back and say we directly did that.

It doesn't have to be this particular charity, maybe someone has something else close to their heart. I'd also like to see us raise money for my mountain rescue team, we desperately need a new control ambulance but because we are a tiny charity only manage to raise about £15,000 per year, most of this is from team member donations and this only just manages to keep our vehicles on the road, fuelled and our base in a good state of repair. I cannot describe what £20,000 would mean to us, we could buy a new ambulance rather than the 10 year old vehicle we have now.

I'd like to see something small, personal, and tangable. I'd prefer a cancer charity, and directly funding a specialist nurse but something that is going to make a difference to a small charity.

OK I'm going to open another beer now.

Off my soap box.

[stuart]

Too small a charity may be too selective, what about "friends of chernobil children", small, desperate for cash and all over Brittan, the £500 that each rider raises on average will take a seriously iradated child out of the danger area for a month, the point is that your(our) fund raising is just the start, once the kids are in the UK people look after them for free, we just need to help get them here and back and some poor kid in the fallout area comes to the UK pale, grey and undernurished and goes home a month later rosey cheeked, full of life and with a far greater life expectancy, got to be worth considering
( sorry to rant but this one's close to my heart )

[stuart]

Rather than JOGLE why not LEJOG, the service at JOG was 500 times better than LE.

This route sounds good to me

[alpslapper]

Sharrie said .. etc etc and blah blah then -
Now I have another specialist cancer nurse, she works in Pancreatic Cancer and has funding for another 2 years, after this time she's looking for work. I'd quite like to see us raise money to be able to fund her for another year. Something tangable, and something that we can sit back and say we directly did that.

It doesn't have to be this particular charity, maybe someone has something else close to their heart. I'd also like to see us raise money for my mountain rescue team, we desperately need a new control ambulance but because we are a tiny charity only manage to raise about £15,000 per year, most of this is from team member donations and this only just manages to keep our vehicles on the road, fuelled and our base in a good state of repair. I cannot describe what £20,000 would mean to us, we could buy a new ambulance rather than the 10 year old vehicle we have now. then more blah blah blah

Actually, I'm in full agreement for what it's worth.

I think the Longest Day needs to find a niche - otherwise we are just the same as every other charity/fundraising event out there.. and there are millions of them.

I absolutely loved the first two charities we raised money for - one in four is affected by cancer one way or another and Make A Wish do something totally unique.

Im reminded what Whealie said after last years ride - something to the effect that Make a Wish ticked all the boxes because it was non political, was not something a governmental department should be doing anyhow, provided a service that no one else was going to provide, and the only criteria for support was you had to be a child with a life threatening illness.

The upshot of our efforts over the last two years is that people and families affected with cancer have been succored and 5 children, who are possibly no longer with us, have had their dying wish come true.

We made that happen.

I am totally and wholeheartedly in favour of supporting smaller charities. Perhaps that should be our niche....

A few grand to a charity such as Sharries or the nurse she works with will literally, directly, save lives.

And without that few grand the service will cease to exist and people suffering from cancer, or people lost on the mountains in minus 14 dressed in a miniskirt and high heels and the bloke in nylon shirt and lofers (Coz they is from Dagenham innit and heard about this mountain thinky innit) will die... or at the very least be a lot worse off !!!!!

There were argumenets against parochial, smaller charities last year, and they are valid and not easy to overcome, but they can be overcome with imagination and cunning advertising and marketing strategies.

Maybe some though should be given now to the purpose of TLD seeing as we are now running in our third sucessful year.

Make as much money as possible for humungus charities.. who have millions upon millions in the bank ...

.. or make a monumental difference to smaller struggling charities whose hands on work directly impacts on those receiving the service of the charity and who are almost wholly staffed by volunteers and without our input they would cease to exist....

... just some thoughts......