By Tom Winnifrith | Wednesday 15 May 2019
Woodlarks is an amazing but incredibly unfashionable charity. If you give £10,000 to an organisation like Guide Dogs for the Blind or the RSPCA it makes no difference. Give £100 to Woodlarks and it will help change a life. And that is why, in EIGHT days time I shall be walking the 33 miles from Horse Hill to the Woodlarks camp site.
Last year four of us started the walk and three (myself, Lucian Miers and Brokerman Dan) completed it. This year we have twelve walkers, eleven for the whole march through the Surrey countryside and one (Darren Atwater) for the last ten miles.
Last year we raised £26,000 (£32,000 with gift aid) for the Woodlarks Camp. It is an amazing charity which managed to get buy last year with total costs of just £115,000. But that meant NOT doing things it really should be doing. Our walk helped a lot but we want to help more.
I first got involved with the folks at Woodlarks more than 15 years ago thanks to an amazing man called Jamie. He had severe Cerebral Palsy, had been let down by his local council so we helped raise money to get him equipment allowing him to communicate. Jamie is sadly no longer with us but he loved Woodlarks. I will never forget playing chess with him there. Woodlarks provides a unique facility allowing severely handicapped folks a really special holiday they would otherwise go without.
It is not a fashionable charity but that is all the more reason to support it.
So far this year we have raised 53% of our target which is £40,000. But we have a number of pledges to collect which would leave us at more than £27,000 raised. And I will not stop pestering you until we hit that £40,000 mark. So please:
Make a donation to the rogue bloggers for Woodlarks Charity walk today HERE
In advance I thank you
Tom Winnifrith
PS The photo article of my rather unsuccessful most recent training walk along the River Dee is HERE
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