"My gardening skills are non existent but sit me down in front of Frozen and I'm sorted"

I put a leaflet through the doors round my street offering to baby sit, pet sit or house sit for a donation towards my gap year. 

As soon as I put the leaflet through the door I got a response! Susan asked how my gardening skills were, and as I said they were "okay..." she said that if I cleaned their garden up a bit, they would give me a donation. 

So today, I went up in my wellies to do some gardening! I cannot garden. It was a very difficult and stressful experience. Phrases like "is that a plant or a weed?" "why do leaves hurt so much?" "I'm pretty sure that's not a rake." "Is that cat urine or rain?" "I CAN'T REACH" were very common. But I managed! And after a very stressful three hours I managed! 

Another family asked if I would babysit for them. Much easier than gardening! Getting to watch Frozen was definitley a highlight and they went off to bed no problem. 

Thank you to Susan and Ian and to the Bloomers for your donations! 

Ladies Night!

This Saturday, the 21st, I'll be hosting a Ladies Night at my house as a fundraiser.  Tickets will be £5 and this will cover a complimentary cocktail or mocktail and either a manicure or a pedicure.  As well as this there will be a clothes rail.  For this, it would be great if you could bring along any clothes you no longer wear that are in good condition (they may even still have the tags on them!) and I can sell them.  You will get 50% of the money and I will keep the rest so it's a great way to make money out of things sitting in your wardrobe.  There will also be a bring and buy book table.  Here if you could just bring along any old books you no longer read or will never again and we can sell them to allow others to enjoy them!
There will be other surprises on the night, but, you won't find out unless you're there!
It would great if as many people as possible could come, so please get in touch if you would like to come along.

Thank You will never be enough.

When I first thought that I would go on a gap year I thought I would be doing it all by myself.  But before I booked to go on selection, I heard that one of my friends, Karl, was planning on going on a gap year as well.  I couldn't have been happier about this, for one, I wouldn't have to make my way to Oban by myself!

It was great knowing someone on the course, and although we argued all the time, it was amazing having him there.

When we finally got our letters, we discovered both our first choices were India!  That was some of the best news I've ever had because it would mean that even when I was on a different continent, miles from my family, I would still have a bit of home there.  Even though there would always be that chance that one of us would be kicked out of the country for attempted murder...

We had been fundraising for the whole school year, it was really hard work for the both of us to combine fundraising and exams, but we managed!  The school recognised this and at prize-giving, Karl and I were awarded the Young Enterprising Award.  That was absolutely amazing to win and for the two of us to win it together was even better!

Karl had organised a ceilidh for the 2nd May (the same day I got my placement confirmation).  It was a really good ceilidh and I really enjoyed it all.

However, at the ceilidh he announced that he would be dropping out of going away.  Although I kind of had a feeling for a few days that that might have happened, it was a shock, and it took me a while to fully get my head around it.

But, another surprise was yet to come.  My friend Shauni from school is going to Kenya to build schools and houses so she is also fundraising! After Karl announced that he was not going to be going away, he also said that he would be giving the money he raised that night to Shauni and I.

I think it's fair to say that I burst into tears.  As I said on the night and countless times after that, that was the loveliest thing anyone could have done!  I also think I confused my dad when I phoned him to tell him.  I was sobbing down the phone but also telling him I was having an amazing time and he didn't have to come and pick me up..

Karl split the money he raised from the ceilidh, and from the band night he also had, between Shauni and I which meant that we both got £400. (Well, £400.79).

I said thank you at the time, and many times after, but as there's no stronger way to say it, it'll still have to do.  Thank you so much Karl, and I wish you good luck to whatever you do next year, even though it's not arguing with me in India over what I did or did not say.    

Markapur, Andhra Pradesh, India

Yesterday, an email came through telling me of my placement! Although there is still a chance that this may change, it feels so good (and also nerve-racking) to know where I'm going and that I'm actually going away.

The project that I will be working at is called Assist.  I will be teaching English and helping with materials and programmes for school-going children in children’s homes.  This was such good news as this was pretty much what I was hoping to do.  I will be based in Markapur, which is a fairly small town and has a rural feel.  However seems to be easy enough to get into cities like Hyderabad and Vijayawada.

I might have to learn some Telugu before I head out because that would be really useful to converse with people and generally make it more enjoyable.

Here is the Google Map for Markapur if you would like to see exactly where I'm going.  I've already looked a good few times...

So this means I am more determined to go.  Although this is now really real, and quite scary, it's so exciting.  So, if anybody wishes to donate..?
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NiamhCampbell-India

Thank to everyone who has got me this far!

Last Days at School

Having my last day at school has meant that things are starting to look real for going away.  After exams are out the way that's when more fundraising starts!

I got back another smarite tubes from Mrs Mcfarlane so thank you!

I also got a donation/ceilidh ticket money from my mum's cousin Paul, thank you, that was was lovely!

In my last week at school, I had one final bake sale and also a raffle for two Easter Eggs.  I raised £169.55 from that so thank you to everyone who bought a cake and a raffle ticket.

And well done to Lauren who won one of the Easter Eggs and to the wee boy who won the other won, who I can't remember his name right now.. But he was pleased he won it!

On 27th March, my birthday, the school had a Neds vs Neons disco for the fifth and sixth years.  It's a great night and involved more foundation than I've ever worn in my whole life put together.  But from that night, as a donation from the school, sixth years and Mr McClure, I got £30! Thank you to everyone who was there!

Everything's adding up

After the ceilidh, my fundraising's just been going along nice and slowly, but I'm going to have to have another big fundraiser soon!

Just after the ceilidh, I got another cheque for £100 from another charitable trust so thank you very much!

I also got quite a few donations from people who sadly couldn't make the ceilidh so thank you to Maggie, Susan and Ian, Elizabeth and Pat!

The smartie tubes are still coming in and if anyone still has one could I possibly get it back as soon as possible please! So thank you to the Lindsay house and friends for handing in three smartie tubes, Linda, Kerry, Mrs Roy, Jenna and Ashleigh.  And a big thank you to Shannon because she lost her smartie tube but she gave £10.  Overall, the smartie tubes have raised £260.28 which is absolutely amazing so thank you to everyone who has returned one.

I'm currently sitting at just over £3,900. And that is absolutely amazing and I did not expect to have this much so far.  I still cannot thank everyone enough for helping me out with everything.

But I'm still looking for help so if anyone has anything that could be used as a raffle prize I would be more than happy.  Any skills that could be bid on at an auction or any other kind of help with anything would be fantastic! Thank you.

CEILIDH!

First of all I would just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who came to the ceilidh! I really hope you all enjoyed yourselves because I thought it was a really good night and I loved it all. 

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who made food for the night, Vanessa, Jude and Karen and especially my mum and grandma.  Also thank you to my mum, Grandma and my Auntie Diane for helping out so much in the kitchen. 

Thank you to my wee sister Morna for helping sell raffle tickets with her friend, Isla, and also count the money for the 50/50. She was a gem, and sorry Morna if that meant you didn't get many dances!  Also thank you to my friends Catherine and Lois who also helped with this and whatever ever else they could, they were all fantastic.

Thank you to the people at the Devonvale Hall for allowing me to use the hall last night.  It is a beautiful hall and makes for a really a good ceilidh. And also a massive thank you to the bar staff as well who were amazing! However, you can’t have a good ceilidh without a good ceilidh band so I would also like to say a huge thank you to the North Shore Ceilidh Band, they were absolutely amazing.

I completely sold out of tickets as well, which was incredible! Although I hated having to turn people away, I preferred that to having to beg people to come!  It was a great turnout on Friday which made for a really good atmosphere with a good mix of people who all seemed to enjoy themselves.  It was absolutely amazing to hear that people loved it and I'm just so glad you all had a good time!

The raffle was a really big success with lots of prizes.  Thank you to my mum, Lois, Catherine and Emma for helping with that.  I would also like to apologise for shouting through the microphone for my dad. He just wasn’t listening!  Thank you to everyone who donated a prize and an especially big thank you to Falkirk golf club and Braehead golf club and also to Thanks-a-Bunch in Tullibody for the prizes, that was amazing!  And I hope everyone really liked the prizes they won.  I would really like to say thank you to Calder and Jack from my school as although they won three prizes between them, two chocolate board games and Pointless, they gave them away to three of the wee kids at the ceilidh and I know they really appreciated them so thank you guys!  Overall, the raffle raised £360!

 We also did a 50/50 with the tables where people had the chance to win half of all the money put in.  After some confusion over how to play it, most tables put something in their envelope and handed it in.  Morna added up all the money and the winner was going to get £144.55.  Even though he was the last to put in his envelope, Tony won! But I have to say a massive, massive thank you to him because he donated the money back again! Which was absolutely unbelievable! Thank you so much to Tony.  I did ask him to dance afterwards but it turned out it was a progressive one so we didn’t really get much dancing done…  So that meant that the 50/50 raised £289.10!

During the buffet we had the coin toss where adults had to slide pound coins towards a bottle of whisky and kids could slide 20ps towards a box of sweets.  Even though Katie tried really hard, she just couldn’t beat Finlay who won the box of sweets! None of us can remember who won the whisky, but whoever it was I really hope you enjoy it! Both coin tosses raised £55.60! So thank you very much to everyone who played.

The effort some people went to to get to the ceilidh was unbelievable, it really felt amazing to have people there who were so nice that they put aside what was easiest for themselves.  Kirsty from my dad's work had to take a conference call at half eight but she still turned up at around quarter past ten! She also brought me a present of a diary for next year so that was even more lovely.  Mary, also from my dad’s work, arrived at the ceilidh not knowing anybody at all there but she left knowing a table full!  The Gibsons came and enjoyed the ceilidh even though the basement of their house was flooded and they could have been at home but instead they came to support me at the ceilidh. And Jane only arrived in from Cairo about 4 hours earlier! It was little things like that that made the whole night even better, it really meant a lot to me.

 Overall, the night raised an amazing £1911.60 (nett!!)  I could not be happier with how much was raised.  Thank you to everyone for the support and the effort some people went to to get to the ceilidh as well.  It really means a lot and I cannot say thank you enough.  It was lovely to hear how everyone enjoyed themselves and it just makes fundraising that wee bit easier when people are happy to help and enjoy it as well!

I would also like to say thank you to Cameron for taking loads of great pictures!

 Now that I’m half way there, it just makes me more determined to go. Just some more fundraising and that’ll be me there and ready to go!