24 Hour Piano Marathon Progress

     Things  are definitely moving on, I have started fundraising and have already got over £300 worth of pledges, many thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far! Now with under just over a week left I'd better get practising...

     The piano marathon also marks a significant time regarding the trip as 5th June is exactly one month until the group departs and also is the day after the Queen's Diamond Jubilee I hope you'll keep in mind my comparatively modest feat of endurance. The plan is to stream the piano marathon online (probably just audio) but unfortunately the only way that seems to work is through my desktop, so hopefully between now and then we will have got it working, fingers crossed! Either way I'm sure it's going to be exciting and memorable, for te right reasons hopefully....More updates soon!

24 Hour Piano Marathon

      As you may remember last April I successfully completed my 12 hour piano marathon from my home through a web cam link to this blog. I would just like to thank everyone again who helped me then for making it such a success! It was a really challenge and I was glad to have finished it. But this year from 12:00 on 5th June to 12:00 on 6th June I will be attempting to not only keep my concentration for 24 hours (something we teenagers are not particularity well known for) whilst also staying awake (something perhaps teenagers are more infamous for). That is...a 24 hour piano marathon! The location this time will be at Tesco in Evesham, hopefully it will be streamed online again but I'm not sure how logistics would work at the moment. Arrangements have changed so much in the last two months and with just under two months to go I'm hoping that they won't change much from now but if they do, I'll keep you posted!
      Things are moving very quickly at the moment with exams, preparations for the trip and other time consuming things life no doubt will bring up. This doesn't leave me with much time between now and the Piano Marathon so wish me luck!.........

Rotary Club Presentation Sucess

     Last Thursday, 23rd February, I attended a meeting of Southam 2000 Rotary Club to give them a presentation about what I am going to be doing in Tanzania this July. I learned a lot from them about their charitable efforts such as their recent drive to eradicate polio with vaccinations in India. I hope they leaned a lot about my plans for the trip, the questions asked by the Rotarians were thought provoking and engaging. 
      On the subject of vaccinations I had my last two yesterday. The trip does seem to be well and truly closing in, as too does the fundraising. With the kind donation from the Rotary club I now have raised almost £2,000 since I started almost exactly a year ago. Not that much further to go, and with my upcoming Piano Marathon II, hopefully running for 24 hours, I will be able to make another large step towards my final payment. The arrangements for this piano marathon are being finalised at the moment and I will post updates as this develops.

     Many thanks to Southam 2000 Rotary Club once again, I'll now have to ensure I bring back enough memories and photos to show how their kind donation has gone towards this trip.

Upcoming Rotary Club Presenation

     To start the new fund-raising year off I will be presenting the trip and it's objectives to the Rotary Club of Southam 2000 and hopefully generating much needed find-raising. This will be on 23rd February, so exactly one month away! Here is a link to their website's programme of events. At school there is a pre-expedition meeting tomorrow too where I can get some more up-to-date information of the projects and what we will be doing there. Things are moving along quite quickly now, especially as the blog's title now matches the year...

Anyway I must get back to my revision now, GCSE exam tomorrow!  

I'll keep you posted...

Christmas Cracker 10k

     Well I did it, braving sub-zero temperatures and dodging icy puddles for a time of 52:16, on the left you can see me just after I finished wearing the Camps International t-shirt. It was a challenge but successful hour of endurance. Thanks to all who have donated through this event.

     Another, related, fund-raising event recently was selling programmes of the ESAA cross-country competition at my school last weekend. Hopefully that's another £30!

     There probably won't be another post before Christmas, so I wish you a merry one!

Bag Packing Sucess

     Today I along with 8 other members of the tour party went to Sainsbury's near Rugby to do bag packing! We were there from 10:30-14:30 and managed to raise over £400, meaning over £50 each! Every little helps, wait: that's Tesco... Thanks to everyone who came along.

     Things have been moving on at school, the bags2schools collection was yesterday. Seeing all the blue bags packed onto the buses was both amusing and encouraging! We'll soon be getting the results from the company as to how much it has raised.

     Now it's not long 'till the 10k on 10th December, can't wait! This time I'm being prepared and have been training for the last 2 weeks, 48 minutes. The real challenge will come if this unseasonable weather shifts (last year it snowed 11cm)! Still the idea is for it to be a challenge, and I'm sure it will be fun and rewarding. 

     As ever I will keep you updated as things progress....     

New Fundraising Plans

     Since I've been back at school things have moved on quite a bit. We were given a talk by a representative from Camps International and now the group is updated about all the projects happening in Tanzania. Projects include the home building project for those unable to build houses themselves and the water capture scheme on the local school. I am encouraged by all the photos too which have been put up, you can see them and many more on their Flickr page.
     I've been offered the opportunity to go bag-packing at Sainsbury's next month. This should prove to be a great fundraising experience as I found when I went bag-packing previously in aid of my scout group. Also at school we've organised the collection of old cloths, rags and textiles for recycling and reuse through the company 'bags2schools'. Collections are on 16th November and the greater the mass the more the cash for the trip.
     Finally, today I registered for the Moreton Morrell Christmas Cracker 2011 10K Race, taking place in mid December. I hope this will be as enjoyable and worthwhile as the Regency Run last April. I hope to beat my time of 55 minutes, and am keeping my fingers crossed for no snow, wish me luck!