Ladies and Gents!

(let me start here by saying, skip to the bottom of this post for your chance to win up to £1000)

As I've posted before, I am collecting donations for the Alzheimers Society as part of a group project at work, with a target of £10,000 by the end of August (though we hope to surpass that). There were some awesome suggestions on here about what we can do to raise that cash, some of which I'm working on, and some of which I have had shot down by our legal team (I can't do a raffle because of legal issues around lotteries and insurance ).

With that in mind, I'd first like to shamelessly shake the proverbial money box and ask anyone who has any spare pennies to donate to what is a good cause. You can read up on the work that the Alzheimers Society does here: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
you may have seen them in the news recently about needing more funding rather urgently to train carers and maintain a decent standard of living for people suffering from Dementia - hopefully the money we raise can go some way towards helping that cause.

Here's how donations can be used to help dementia sufferers and those that care for them:

Quote:

£5 could pay for one person to attend a half hour session at a monthly Dementia Café, providing information and support for people with dementia and their carers.

£20 could pay for 100 copies of Understanding and respecting the person with dementia - one of the Society's most requested factsheets.

£50 could fund a PhD researcher for one day to continue vital research into understanding the causes of dementia, how it can be treated and, ultimately, to find a cure.

£120 could pay to run Talking Point for one day - the Society's 24/7 online community for all people affected by dementia.

Obviously I'm not asking you to donate that much, and I absolutely don't want to pressure anyone into donating - Unfortunately I'm guilty myself of often ignoring pledges like this
But anyone who does want to donate can do so by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/memento and donating either online or by text. You will also find out what company I work for on that page, but hopefully that doesn't cause too many of you to wish me ill health

I think a couple people on here have already donated through my signature, so big thank you to whoever those people were!

Your chance to win £1000:

As a group, we do have a fund raising event under way as well which some of you might be keen to join in on... And it includes the chance to win up to £1000 prize money, which you could put towards paying for your insurance, your local library membership, a generous mothers' day gift, or some other safe and responsible pursuit (I definitely wouldn't promote putting it towards your booze fund or anything fun like that )

We will be running two object-trading games for ten weeks, with the first starting on March 15th (I think). The idea is that you make a £2 donation, and receive a small, low value object (like a pen or a keyring). Over the ten weeks players are to trade, without exchanging for cash at any point, that object and subsequent items they receive for items of greater value. In theory, after the ten weeks, you should hopefully end up with something worth more than the original object, and you can then sell that, put the money into the charity account linked above or in my signature, and whoever raises the most through this process wins 5% of all the money raised up to £1000, as well as a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne. I know a lot of you are pretty well connected, so this might be a good way for some of you to flex your "wheeler dealer" muscles

If it sounds like a crazy idea, read the following news article about a Canadian bloke who successfully traded his way from a single paperclip up to an entire house: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5167388.stm

If it sounds like something you might be interested in, (or perhaps a family member or friend) send an email to james.lock@lloydstsb.co.uk providing your name, email address and postal address (if posting of starter item required). Then pay your donation fee of minimum £2 into our charity account at: http://www.justgiving.com/memento (when you pay the donation fee, please ensure you quote ‘Bigger & Better’ in the reference, and if it's possible, please donate extra to cover P&P costs)

You can also get more information by emailing the above address, or by asking me here. I do have a powerpoint presentation I'm supposed to use to give info but obviously I can't post that here



Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my spiel, and thanks in advance for any donations or support

Geoff Geoff
2007 Defender 90


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