With only sixteen days left of this year’s ‘Give it up‘ campaign, we take a look at some of the most extreme challenges you have faced in the name of charideeee…
Sydney is giving up her LIFE for a week…
“I found out about ‘Give it up for One25′ through Ed Sheeran, as I am a big fan of his. I thought it would be a great opportunity to raise money for a great charity and get to see someone I really admire at a concert.
I decided to give up almost everything I own, my mobile phone, my laptop, my iPod, TV and also have no warm food or warm showers. I’m not giving up a lot really, but I didn’t want to just give up my phone, or my laptop, as it didn’t seem enough compared to what the women we are fundraising for go through everyday.
I am only 14 and I know that however much money I raise… could contribute to help change someone’s life.“
Paulios is giving up his FREEDOM for a week…
“I thought it might be funny to make things interesting, so I’m going to lock myself in a bathroom for 125 hours, only emerging to retrieve food…
I’ve been interested in doing something like this for a while, to see what creative things come to mind when I have absolutely no distractions and nothing else to do. Even if I don’t raise £125 I’ll still have raised a bit of money for the charity so I’ll be happy.”
Georgia is giving up eating any food that’s not orange for a week…
“Even the smallest amount of money could make a massive impact on someone who is alot less fortunate… No matter how small it WILL help!
I have given up all food other than orange food; this will mean hardly being able to eat anything! I am currently eating orange pasta, jelly, cheese puffs and lots of carrot cake! I am loving helping people less fortune that me.” ”
If this has inspired (or completely baffled) you, there’s still time to SIGN UP to take part. Here are 125 ideas of things you could give up; from chocolate to …. your life! If you can’t take part please share this with others who might.
This is the first of a new series of ‘Insight’ video blogs about One25 and how we support women trapped in street sex work in Bristol. This was filmed on Tuesday 14th Feb (Valentines Day) and offers you a chance to look through the key-hole and hear why our drop-in quite literally saves lives.
If you want to watch the full length video (8 minutes) please CLICK HERE
All the money raised through the ‘Give it up‘ campaign will be helping us to continue this vital work and enable women to change their lives for good. If you haven’t done so yet you can still SIGN UP and take part before 8th March. There may even be a ticket to our exclusive Ed Sheeran concert on 22nd May in it for you…!
Today we wanted to showcase a couple of home-made videos our ‘Give it uppers’ have produced as they appeal for sponsorship for their challenges. We’re so impressed with their creativity… but what do you reckon?
Impressed? Sponsor LAUREN or JOSIANE to show your support. We’d love to see more home-made videos so please get in touch if you’ve made one or decide to make one. Send the link to louise@one25.org.uk
As always, if you’re not yet taking part in the ‘Give it up‘ campaign it is NOT TOO LATE and you could be rewarded with a free ticket to see Ed Sheeran in our finale concert on 22nd May at the Fleece. SIGN UP today, you know it makes sense!
We will soon have more people signed up to ‘Give it up for One25′ than we have tickets available for the concert. Therefore, your ticket may NOT be guaranteed. However, if you raise over £125 you will immediately be placed on our Reserves list. On 8th March we will review the ticket availability and allocate any spares to our Reserves list, in the order of the first to have raised £125. We hope you will be happy to take part and raise money for this fantastic cause regardless of being guaranteed a ticket, but we do want to make sure you understand the situation before doing so.
We are DELIGHTED to be able to confirm that Ed Sheeran and his good pal Luke Concannon will be playing our ‘Give it up’ finale concert on Tuesday 22nd May at Bristol’s best independent venue, The Fleece.
This is an exclusive opportunity to see Ed play in Bristol, in an intimate setting, with his amazingly talented childhood hero, Luke.
The only way to guarantee your ticket to this unique event is by giving something up for 125 hours and raising over £125. You will then get the option of buying a plus one ticket for £25. Full details and sign up form can be foundHERE.
Get it in your diaries and sign up now! In the meantime we’ll leave you with some musical treats to whet your appetites for the big event…
Here’s one of our favourite live recordings of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Give me Love’:
And here’s Luke in action with former bandmate JP, singing ‘All my Life’:
Don’t miss out! SIGN UP to ‘Give it up for One25‘ today.
My name is Lu and I am the Fundraiser at One25 responsible for the ‘Give it up’ campaign. It’s my pleasure to write today’s post and tell the story of how this local charity has come to be hosting an intimate concert with the leading star of the 2012 Brit Awards…
Back in the summer of 2011, a beautiful and incredibly poignant song hit the airwaves that had us all humming along merrily before slowly awakening to its dark and uncomfortable content. A voice we’d never heard before was singing with painful accuracy, the song of the lives of most of the women we support at One25, and we wondered… Who is this guy? And how does he have such insight into this world…? We are of course talking about Ed Sheeran and his debut single ‘The A Team’.
It wasn’t long before I was talking most days about this fresh new talent, bending the ears of everyone at One25 asking, “Have you heard the song? Do you like it??” Then the daydreaming began.. ‘I wonder if we could approach Ed, tell him about the support we give to women trapped in street sex-work in Bristol and ask him if he’d sing a fundraising gig for us…’
Ploughing through the back catalogue of Ed’s music on Youtube and stealing the chance to see him live in an intimate setting at ‘Barn on the Farm’ festival, I soon became convinced that should this daydream become reality, this could be a serious coup for the charity and have a huge impact on the women we support! But how to get his attention amongst the rapidly expanding crowd of devotees!!!?
A stroke of luck, or divine intervention came upon speaking to another fine musician, Luke Concannon, who I was already in contact with (through years of following his brilliant music as part of duo, Nizlopi). Amongst his many talents and passions, Luke is a fierce fighter for social justice and jumped at the chance to support One25 when I told him about the charity. Not only was he keen to play a gig for us, but he also said he would be glad to ask Ed if he’s like to share the bill with him, having known Ed for years. It seems Ed had toured with Nizlopi as a guitar tech, learnt a lot about writing and performing music from them and even opened up a few of their shows. Here’s Ed talking about this in an interview I grabbed with him last October:
And so it was, Luke asked Ed if he’d play the gig for us, Ed generously agreed and the rest is history! Two of my favourite artists sharing the bill for a concert in aid of my favourite charity… needless to say I am a little chuffed! Of course Ed has come a long way since last summer, with three Top Ten singles, nearly 1 million album sales, 1.2million Twitter followers and not least having just been nominated for four Brits!! He’s certainly been busy!
Ed’s manager is working hard to confirm the date of the concert, with a small matter of juggling international tours around it! We will of course make the date announcement as soon as we know, but in the meantime this is how you can make sure you’ll be one of the lucky ones to come along;
Anyone who takes part in our ‘Give it up’ campaign and raises over £125 will be rewarded with a free ticket to the gig (subject to availability). This is the best way to guarantee your place. Once you have reached this fundraising milestone you will also be invited to purchase a guest ticket for £25. Under 16′s must be accompanied by an adult (one to every eight) so do bear this in mind.
This is going to be an awesome ending to an exciting campaign for an incredibly worthy charity. Are you up for it???
For full info about taking part in ‘Give it up‘ please CLICK HERE and to sign up today CLICK HERE.
Remember Tariq, our video game fanatic who has been finding other ways to spend his days during his 125 day challenge for ‘Give it up’? (See original ‘Game Over for Tariq’ post here.)
Well, as promised, Tariq has been documenting his challenge daily on Facebook and has been providing a fair bit of entertainment whilst doing a fantastic job of raising awareness and funds for One25. Perhaps all this free time has unleashed the creative genius in you Tariq?
Here’s a small collection of some of our favourite updates. Sit back and enjoy…
Day 63: REBOOT! The mid-level checkpoint seems like as great time to remind everyone why I took up this herculean task in the first place:
Day 42: I saw this car. I did NOT steal it, mow down pedestrians and evade the cops whilst listening to kitsch eighties music.
Day 47: I was in this church. I did not shoot the place up, or drop a bomb on it. I did not steal anything, or uncover a dastardly plot. I did not gain XP by becoming a cleric, or fight ghouls in the crypt. I just sung some carols, ok?
Day 31: This is Alex. He is a Kid. He does NOT does come preloaded on the Sega Master system II.
Day 68: It’s the Only Connect Missing Vowels round*. Oh yeah!
*I’ve taken the some well known games, removed the vowels from the titles, and jiggled the spaces around.
Day 69:I saw this bike. I did NOT ride it around the island, collecting flags, and burning calories, all from the comfort of my living room. Oh no. I just photographed it. Whilst eating a pie.
Hats off to you Tariq, we think you’re doing great. If the day job ever fails, there’s always a space for you on stage in a Comedy Club!
Please show some appreciation for Tariq’s determination to make the most of the challenge… (and to make us laugh). Please insert your coins to Tariq’s JustGiving page HERE. Thank you!
Have you ever felt so passionate about something you’d be willing to make a stand for what you believe in- literally? Leanne is a volunteer at One25 and has been so inspired by the cause that she pledged to stand up for us… for 125 hours!!! Well, kind of…
As part of ‘Give it up for One25′, Leanne decided to ‘give up sitting down’ for 125 hours between 11pm Saturday 17th December and 5am Friday 22nd December. This was to include dinner times, travelling by car/ bus/ train, restaurants, nights out… the lot! For just over 5 days, Leanne was ready to stand up (and stand out) for what she believes in.
Having successfully completed her challenge, here’s some photo evidence of Leanne adapting her meal times and car journeys for 125 hours:
Very creative Leanne! But why put yourself through it all???
Leanne says, “I knew that I had to do something that would show howpassionate I was about the One25 campaign and encourage people tosupport me. It was a lot more difficult than I expected, I gained anumber of bruises on my knees and I never knew putting socks onstanding up was so difficult!!
If you think Leanne deserves a thumbs up and would like to sponsor her, please visit her Just Giving page and remember every penny will come directly to One25, supporting vulnerable women in Bristol.
If you’d like to give something up for 125 hours, you can still take part in this exciting campaign until 8th March and your support would be hugely appreciated. SIGN UP HERE.
Our final ‘through the keyhole’ post looks at pledges made from One25 staff members, Josie and Katie.
Josie is ‘Head of Fundraising and Communications’ at One25. Those of you who follow our blog closely will remember Josie’s pledge from our ‘Christmas = gifts + turkey. No?‘ post. This is because Josie gave up her Christmas gifts in favour of raising money for the women she knows will be without such privileges this year.
Josie says, “A Christmas gift such as a tea-pot or a new CD would have been nice for me and a great addition to my life (especially as I have just bought a new home and need things to decorate it), but a £10 donation to One25 instead would feed four women over the Christmas week. I’ve seen how much they need our help and I’ll just know this Christmas that it went to a better cause.“
Katie is the ‘Services Assistant’ at One25 and has chosen to join Hazel (see previous post) in choosing to give up swearing. Like Hazel, she has been fining herself for any slip-ups and asking her nearest and dearest to sponsor her.
Katie is softly spoken and incredibly well-mannered, so it is much to our surprise that she is totting up a fair amount already for the cause!! Her swear-box money will join any donations made to her Just Giving page at the end of the campaign in March 2012.
Katie says, “I wanted to choose a challenge for myself to prove how worthy One25 is of receiving your money”.
Well done Katie for reaching over £250 already!
So that’s it for the ‘through the keyhole’ series for now. We’ve looked at One25′s Gill, Hazel, Lydia, Lu, Pippa, Kate, Josie and Katie to see what our staff have been pledging for the ‘Give it up‘ campaign and why. Other pledges from the team that we’ve not had time to cover include Sophie giving up being a couch potato, Sue giving up savings, Amy giving up takeaway’s and Rachel giving up caffeine. Lots going on here!
We hope you’ll join us and help raise money for the vulnerable women in Bristol supported by One25; please SIGN UP today. Thank you.
We would LOVE more people to sign up to the ‘Give it up’ 125 hour challenge before the campaign ends on 8th March. If you can help us by persuading your friends to get involved, you could be the lucky winner of a dinner for two at ‘The Living Room’ restaurant in Bristol. Yummy…
So here’s the deal: The competition will run until 8th Feb. Anyone who SIGNS UP for ‘Give it up‘ before then will be asked to name the person who referred them. If your name appears more times than anyone else, you will win the slap up meal. Simple as that.
The question is, who would take with you…?
If you’d like a supply of ’Give it up‘ posters and flyers to help you on your way, please email louise@one25.org.uk with the quantity you require and your address.
All the money raised through ‘Give it up for One25′ is helping vulnerable women in Bristol to turn their lives around. Please help us to tell the world about it!
“Even the smallest amount of money could make a massive impact on someone who is alot less fortunate… No matter how small it WILL help! 
