My kung fu club is this week going to do a major charity event in Islington (north east central London). We start at 14.00 very near Angel tube station this Saturday the 26th. Our aim is to walk like lizards on our bare knuckles from Angel tube station to Highbury corner. In other words, we're going to do the whole Upper Street in relay which is about 1 mile (1,600 metres).
The charity that we're supporting is called the Claremont Project which is a centre for old people in Islington where they can participate in activities such as dancing, drawing and t'ai chi. Since this year, the local government has drastically reduced the budget for places like the Claremont Project. The reason our club (led by David Courtney Jones
) do this particular charity is that we know them well because we train at the Claremont Project building in the evening on White Lion street. (more about that here)
All kung fu students collect sponsorship money for their part in the knuckle walk. If you feel that you want to help out, you can of course sponsor me. All you have to do is to email me your amount (£5, £10 or more) your home address and then post either the cash to me or even better, make out a cheque to the Claremont Project. If you're interested in doing this, email me and we can work out the details.
UPDATE The Claremont Project charity event is over and we had lots of fun, got a lot of attention on the street and collected more than £3,000 for the Claremont Project. Here are the photos to prove it
UPDATE 2
Here's a copy of an email sent from Paul who's heading the Claremonth Project:
What can I say except a HUGE thank you to you and everyone involved! I have just written to our Board to tell them about this and also spoke to the Gazette a little earlier.
I know that there are many charities and causes out there, many of them very worthy indeed and deserving of attention and support, so it feels very special that you folks continue to focus on us. There's something there for me about local community and about being active or participating with what's going on one's own doorstep. And £3-4k is a significant amount of money for us at this stage. For example, it will pay for an entire year's worth of psychotherapy services (the therapists are volunteers but we need paid independent clinical supervision services, insurance, etc). Or it buys our art classes and choir for older people for the whole year. These kinds of services can literally provide life lines for those using them.
As you may know our new outreach services are aiming to bring in many new people, previously very isolated people, and your fundraising makes it possible for us to introduce additional services. I think it is most likely that we will now be able to have a music therapist here for half a day a week, rather than just for the two hours we had previously planned.
So, very many thanks to you all. It's wonderful that you are so much a part of what we're all doing here. And please feel free to pass this on to all concerned!
With many thanks and best wishes, Paul
Comments
Be carefull, they will throw you all in jail for behaving funny near a tube station!