From Newcastle to Peru – three partners’ journey of a lifetime
In July 2011 two store managers, and a barista from Newcastle decided they were going to raise even more money for a local charity by taking part in a trek of Machu Picchu in Peru. These dedicated partners are Laura Haigh, Becca Haigh and Stephen Langley.
Here's their story:
The local charity is St Oswald’s, which is a hospice that for the last 25 years has been providing specialist care for local adults, young people and children with life threatening illnesses. We have worked alongside the charity for several years and are always looking for new ways to raise money for such a fantastic cause. Living in the Northeast, we all know someone who has benefited from the hospice. When St Oswald’s approached us about the trek there was no hesitation… we were going to do it! We leave in September this year. Overall we will be in Peru for 10 days, taking part in a 2 day community project, and a 4 day trek of Machu Picchu. The money we raise will be split between St Oswald’s, and the community we will be helping in Peru. Our target is £9000! In order to meet this high target, all of the stores in our district have pulled together and have organized joint charity days as well as solo projects. We began our ‘in store’ fundraising with a Starbucks Beach Party. Since then, we have taken part in bag packs, coffee mornings, swap shops, and car boot sales to try and reach our target.
We applied to Partner Fund last July to ask for funding towards both equipment for the trek and some Spanish lessons. Learning Spanish will not only help us communicate with the locals, but also some of our International customers here in the UK. We got together and wrote our application and had great fun shooting our video. We were then invited to the Support Centre to meet the panel and answer further questions about our cause. Thankfully Partner Fund said yes to our application and we were fortunate enough to be given all the funding we asked for. THANK YOU STARBUCKS!
We always try to keep our fundraising ideas fresh, which is why in October we took part in a three day camp in Eldon Square, a shopping centre in Newcastle. We began on the Friday and didn’t leave the centre until Sunday evening. It was certainly an experience, and it gave the three of us a chance to see if we could spend so much time together. A local paper featured our story and we were able to speak to so many people about the trek and hear lots of stories about how the charity has helped so many people. Now it’s a new year and we have parties, bike rides, bag packs, fancy dress days, sponsored silences (to name a few) planned for the year. Starbucks have been really supportive, helping us with our efforts, and without Partner Fund we wouldn’t be able to say…
Fondo de pareja tiene realmente hizo que nuestro viaje a Perú mas fácil, gracias Starbucks.
From the beginning we knew it was important to get the word out about our trek and what activities we’re taking part in, so Laura has been writing a blog. If you want to read more visit: www.laura-becca-stephen.blogspot.com and if you want to help us reach our target by donating please visit www.justgiving.co.uk/laura-becca-stephen.
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