Swim Fanatics triple their fundraising target!

Training and fundraising takes off

We called ourselves Swim Fanatics and set up our Virgin Money Giving page.

The team began training. Quick progression is possible in swimming and they found they were able to regularly increase their distances. This helped team morale, attitude and confidence-building for the event.  This confidence also encouraged them to put more effort into looking for sponsorship. After a slow start the £2000 target was looking possible after all!

Leading up to the day team members were able to finalise their distances and give a rough idea of expected time. The children in the team would be swimming between 500-1,000 metres.

A very successful event

I made final arrangements for the day, including confirming numbers at a nearby restaurant for a post-swim celebration. This was more important than it sounds as the swimmers would all be ravenous after the swim! The swimmers all made their choice of meal in advance so that the food would be ready when we walked in to the restaurant. That worked out well.

Advice to other fundraisers

It’s a great event to organise. Choose a sport with which you are familiar, that way you don’t have to worry too much about your own training, and you can concentrate on the organisation of the event.

Start with modest plans until you know how interested people will be. It’s amazing how much people want to be involved and in our case we had put a cap on numbers because of all the interest!

What’s next? Well, a few people on the night suggested that a bike event would be fun. Watch this space!

Thank you Philip and the Swim Fanatics for all your efforts and fantastic fundraising.

(April 2013)