Give as You Live

With the countdown to Christmas already underway, now is a great time to sign up to Give as You Live – an online service which generates donations to your favourite charity when you shop online – and it won’t cost you anything extra!

There are more than 4,000 major retailers involved in the scheme, including supermarkets and a range of large and small online shops. Donations are given to charities when purchases are made on their websites via Give as You Live.

It’s quick and easy to sign up, just click here. Spread the word to family and friends and you could earn an extra £5 donation to RLSS UK for every person who signs up!

 

Even better, if you work for a company who make business purchases online, they can also get involved by signing up to Give as You Live’s corporate scheme here.

 

 If you have any questions, or would like to find out more then please contact Nicky Sargent.

 

Every Penny Counts

GivePenny is a fantastic service for fundraisers, which allows anyone to raise funds as they go about their daily lives.

Working in conjunction with FitBit fitness devices, as well as many other fitness tracking apps, GivePenny allows you to set fundraising goals based on the activities you already do, such as the number of steps you take each day, how many times you go to the gym, or how many lengths you swim in your local pool.

Setting up a fundraising page is simple and easy to share – your supporters can then make pledges based on your goals.

Take a look at the website here or contact Nicky Sargent for further information.

 

Coming to a store near you?

We have lots of volunteering opportunities becoming available to support RLSS UK, thanks to securing a large number of charity collections at Tesco stores across the country.

This will be a fantastic opportunity for the charity, not just to raise funds, but to continue raising awareness of our drowning prevention work.

We are hoping that there will be many more similar opportunities to follow. If you would like to know how you might engage with local businesses, or if you might like to become a volunteer collector for the charity, please contact Nicky Sargent for further information.

 

Give a tin a home

If public collections are not your thing, how about ‘adopting’ one of our collecting tins, and finding it a good home in your favourite local shop, restaurant, pub or leisure centre?

We will provide everything you need to start fundraising in this way, including information about the rules and regulations you will need to be aware of.

If this is of interest, please get in touch with Nicky Sargent.

 

Other Fundraising News…

Congratulations to Luke Ford, who successfully completed his Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle this summer. Gaining matched funding from his employer, Luke has raised an incredible £3,000 for the Society – an amazing achievement all round.

Further kudos to Ross Templeman and his colleagues at Van Mildert Boat Club, who completed a 1,000,000- mile ergo rowing challenge – quite an undertaking! The team successfully completed the task, raising £890 for RLSS UK in the process. Well done, all!

Swimming in memory of her beloved son, Alex, who tragically lost his life in a drowning incident in 2014, Sue Mitchell rallied her friends and family to take part in the Great North Swim in June, where they all did Alex proud. Altogether, the team raised almost £10,000 in support of drowning prevention – thank you and very well done to each and every one of you.

The team from Speedo emulated the Channel challenge, by swimming the equivalent distance during Drowning Prevention Week. The team put in a fantastic effort both in and out of the pool, securing donations totalling £837 – thank you everyone!

Congratulations to Mark Scaife, who successfully completed the tough Thames Path Challenge on 10th & 11^thSeptember in memory of his son, Michael, who tragically drowned last year. The trek covered a distance of 100K between Putney Bridge and Henley on Thames, which Mark completed in 21 hours and 42mins.

So far, Mark and his supporters have raised an amazing £2,655 to help fund drowning prevention activity.

Further congratulations to everyone who participated in two very different open water swims in September. First up was the Brownsea Island Swim, where swimmers gathered in Poole to take up the now iconic challenge of swimming around this Dorset landmark.

Early indications show that almost £3,000 was raised from the event – many thanks to all who took part.

Next up, on Friday 9^th September, was the Pier to Pier Swim in Brighton, which unfortunately suffered a last–minute venue change due to hazardous tidal conditions.

Around 60 swimmers rerouted to the Weir Wood Reservoir, choosing to tackle a distance of 600, 1,000 or 2,000 metres of open water swimming. The event was run in conjunction with Southern Water and the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance service, and was designed to give swimmers the opportunity to try open water swimming whilst supported by RLSS UK trained lifeguards.

Feedback has been very positive, and we hope to run future events – so watch this space!