Well I’m officially following my marathon training schedule now. I’ve brushed off my running shoes, stopped buying wine and started pounding the streets.
Yes – I’m hoping to run the London Marathon on 22nd April 2012. I have a place and I have an organisation to support. I am, of course, running to raise sponsorship for the wonderful Sound It Out Community Music who are in my opinion one of the best arts organisations in the West Midlands. Shame the Arts Council didn’t see it like that when they did their review of National Portfolio Organisations – but I have followed the work of the team since they were told they would lose their regular funding – and I have to say I’m impressed.
Matt and the team have pulled out all the fundraising stops and brought in new money from place like The Big Lottery Reaching Communities Programme.
I have a particular soft spot for the personal crusade of Nicola Briggs who took it upon herself to set up the Tamperine project. She is getting famous people to support Sound It Out by signing and ‘tampering’ with a tambourine which will be auctioned off to support the work of Sound It Out. She’s had quite some success so far with names like Ricky Gervais, Judy Dench, Kylie Minogue and Bill Bailey (where are all the famous Brummies I ask myself?).
If you know someone famous – or fancy paying lots of money for a Tamperine – look here to see how you can get involved!
So, in my small way running the London Marathon is my way to not just raise some money – but also make some noise about this wonderful organisation that changes people’s lives with its projects.
I’m not doing very well on the sponsorship front – I need to see those pounds go up so I can be motivated to shed a few pounds of another kind and keep the training going…. So *anything* you can spare however small would be great.
Clare Edwards 