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Child fundraiser of the year
Howard Lake | 24 May 2013 | Blogs
The Child Fundraiser of the Year award is for an individual or a group of children, aged 16 or under, who by their hard work, dedication and example have made a difference to the charity or charities for whom they have worked.
The shortlisted entries are:
- Bethany Hare
- Jonjo Heuerman
- QES Charity Team
Bethany Hare
After reading a book called ‘The Place to Be’ about Martin House Children’s Hospice, Bethany started fundraising for the hospice when she was just 10 years old. She discovered it cost about £11,000 a day to run the hospice and set herself a target of raising enough money to run Martin House and all its services for half a day. She loves to sing and decided to dress up as Charlie Chaplin and make a video of herself singing ‘Smile’.
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She hired a local museum for a couple of hours to make a really professional video, and just two weeks after posting it on her JustGiving site, the film had gone viral and raised an amazing £8,400. She then organised a community event ‘The Walk of Smiles’, a 10k sponsored walk, where she dressed as Charlie Chaplin and asked others to dress in clothes that would make people smile. She persuaded the Harry Potter actor Matthew Lewis to attend and the event raised over £10,000.
Two more Walk of Smiles later, she has now raised £34,000. From this around £27,000 has been donated to Martin House and the rest to a charity she has set up herself, Bethany’s Smile, to help children with life-limiting illnesses. Her current goal is to raise £300,000 to build a ‘Smile Cottage’ on the coast for such children and their families. She has already won a plethora of awards, but none of it has gone to her head. She is an inspiration to all.
Jonjo Heuerman
Jonjo is 11 and has been fundraising for three years in memory of his Nanny and Bobby Moore, both of whom died from bowel cancer.
To date he has raised £105,000 and his campaign has generated over £1 million in awareness/advertising for The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research. In 2011 and 2012 he completed a three-day 30 mile walk from Wembley Stadium to West Ham Utd. He wears a special t-shirt and invites others who have lost loved ones to submit names to add to it. On the last day of the walk he holds a memorial service and reads out all the names.
In February 2013 he completed a 66 mile walk. His story has reached as far as Australia where followers of his story organisation a walk to take place simultaneously. People have travelled from Norway, Australia, Ukraine, Italy, Ireland and Sweden to walk with him.
QES Charity Team
When the young son of two maths teachers at Queen Elizabeth School, Kirby Lonsdale was left severely brain-damaged after a series of negligent errors following a minor operation, their pupils immediately formed an action plan to raise the money for his continuous treatment and care.
The QES Charity Team was formed by pupils aged between 14 and 16, and as a direct result of their actions a local charity, A Breath for Life, providing hyperbaric oxygen treatment for the boy, has been able to prosper in a poor economic climate where many small charities have foundered. Their imaginative ideas know no bounds, from talent shows to sponsored events within the local community.
They have raised over £20,000 and inspired younger pupils within the school to become volunteers and raise funds for a variety of worthy causes.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.