Give it up for One25

If you support One25 and enjoy live music, you’re going to love this. We have three exciting concerts to tell you about, all happening in Bristol next month in aid of One25. We cant wait!

On Saturday 4th May:

This concert is being organised by One25 supporter, Gemma Clark.

Click here to  buy your tickets for 4th May.

On Saturday 11th May:

This concert is in celebration of the incredible success of this year’s ‘Give it up’ campaign. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Click here to buy your tickets for 11th May.

On Sunday 26th May:

This concert is being organised by One25 supporter, Melanie Leger. We think it’s the perfect way to spend your bank holiday Sunday. Tickets are available on the door.

A massive thank you to all the incredibly talented artists who are giving their time to support these concerts. Thanks also to Mel, Gem and all those ‘behind the scenes’ who are volunteering their time to make this happen.

Please celebrate with us by coming to one or more of these concerts. And hit the share buttons below to tell your friends the exciting news. Thank you x

Buy tickets for Leddra Chapman and more (4th May).

Buy tickets for Lewis Watson and more (11th May).

Happy New Year everybody! This is our first blog post of 2013 and we are thrilled to introduce you to another of our Musical Ambassadors, Natalie Holmes.

Natalie is a 19 year old singer-songwriter from Bristol. With nearly one million YouTube hits and two self-produced albums to her bow, she’s very excited to be releasing her new EP The Simplest Things in five days time (13th January 2013). Natalie’s also a keen supporter of One25; so much so that she’s prepared to take on the mother of all challenges to raise money and awareness for the charity.

Natalie filmed this interview back in October 2012, explaining what that challenge is and why she advocates taking part in ‘Give it up’. We also find out what inspires Natalie creatively and why she believes “making the most of what you’ve got” is the all important key to success.

Natalie will be amongst an exciting line-up of artists who will play in our ‘Give it up’ finale concert in May 2013. You can join her and take part in ‘Give it up’ anytime before 8th March. Choose something to give up for 125 hours and SIGN UP today. Not only is it a great cause, but if you raise over £125 in your challenge you’ll also be rewarded with a free ticket to the show.

Natalie’s links:

http://www.youtube.com/NattyHolmesMooosic

http://www.youtube.com/booitsnatalie

http://www.natalieholmes.bandcamp.com

http://www.twitter.com/NattyHolmes

This week we are calling for more 125 hour pledges in time for Christmas because it takes the ‘Give it up’ 125 hour challenge (5 days) to a whole new level of difficulty! We’ve come up with a little competition to encourage you to help us get the word out.

WHAT’S UP FOR GRABS?

Your choice of a signed Ed Sheeran CD

or a fabulous cushion; designed and hand-made by women in our drop-in.

HOW DO YOU TAKE PART?

Watch our Christmas ‘Give it up’ video below and tell us which classic Christmas films were used for each of the 8 featured ideas. Email your answers to louise@one25.org.uk by midday this Friday (21st December), listing the films in order. You’ll also need to share this blog post on your Facebook and/or Twitter page and let us know your username so we can check.

The winner will be drawn at random on Friday afternoon from among those who emailed the 8 correct answers. So here’s the video, get watching and sharing… Good luck!

And please join the ‘Give it up’ campaign by signing up today! Simply pick one thing you will sorely miss this Christmas and ask people to sponsor your pledge, donate your savings and/or fine yourself every time you slip up.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ONE25 x

We are delighted to announce that our favourite folk legend, Luke Concannon, is joining us once again this year for a ‘Give it up’ concert finale we will not forget. In the meantime he is taking part in the 125 day challenge himself by giving up Youtube, Twitter and Facebook (outside of his work commitments). Oooooh, good luck with this one!

We caught up with Luke back in October just before it all began (when he was still deciding what to pledge)… Watch this interview to find out why Luke supports One25, what inspires him creatively and why he believes “we’re all in this together and if we’ve something to give (we all do) we should give it all!”

Many of you will remember Luke from last year’s ‘Give it up’ concert with Ed Sheeran, where he captivated us with an intimate performance of several of his hit songs- joined by his biggest fan… Ed. Here’s some footage for you to relive or enjoy for the first time:

You can join Luke and take part in ‘Give it up’ anytime before 8th March. Choose something to give up for 125 hours and SIGN UP today. Good luck and thank you x

We are the YouTube generation. There’s nothing quite like a video to bring a message to life is there. That’s why we have been delighted to see many of you getting creative behind a camera to share what you’re doing for ‘Give it up for One25′.

Here are some of the Vlogs we’ve enjoyed watching so far…

So if you’re taking part in ‘Give it up‘ this year, why not join in and get Vlogging? Send it to us at louise@one25.org.uk and we’ll share it and help to spread the word.

And if you’re not taking part yet… well you know what to do. SIGN UP HERE

I like music. In fact I LOVE it. And I’m guessing you do too…

Music is powerful, inspiring, poignant, mysterious, soulful, memorable, moving and just downright FUN! Last year our ‘Give it up‘ finale concert with Ed Sheeran proved this to be true and quite frankly (I’m sure you will agree if you were there) it was a night many of us will never forget.

So with music firmly at the heart of this campaign we thought it would be fun to provide some musical entertainment for you as you soldier on in your challenges. We’ve teamed up with the lovely folk at Bristol Couch to capture some intimate performances from some of our musical friends at characteristic locations around the city of Bristol. Here to launch the ‘Give it up‘ acoustic series is our very own campaign organiser, Lu Willott (yes that would be me then). Hope you enjoy!

For more of Lu Willott’s music, follow these links to Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Stay tuned right here for more exclusive ‘Give it up‘ music videos throughout the campaign. And in the meantime please help us spread the word, spread the love and spread the music, by sharing this with your world! Because…

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” (Plato)

Please join the movement; SIGN UP for the 125 hour challenge any time before 8th March.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lift-off! Our 125 day challenge started on Sunday and there was a frantic flurry of last minute pledges rolling in all weekend. Much to our joy and amazement we reached an unbelievable 140 sign-ups by the end of Day 1. That’s more than double the number we started with last year!!

So let’s have a look at what you’re all giving up for 125 days or 125 hours:

What you’ve given up

As you can see, the front-runner by far is chocolate and all things sweet, with a whopping 30 of you (23%) going without your sugar fix for 125 days or hours. Just think how happy your dentists will be!!

This is followed by coffee/tea or caffeine, with 14 of you going without a cuppa to warm you through this winter. Some of you have even extended that to ‘all hot drinks’ so no mulled wine this Christmas for you either

That leads us on nicely to alcohol which takes third place on the pledge count, with 12 of you (9%) committed to having a dry Christmas and New Year. Infact, many of you have birthdays and other special occasions to face before 8th March so we’re planning to post a ‘Top Ten Non-Alcoholic Tipples’ guide just for you (stay tuned).

Also making it to the leader board; smoking, cutlery, fast food, favourite snacks,  shopping, Facebook/ Twitter, all beverages other than water (!!), swearing and fizzy drinks.

Then comes the truly unique and original selection of pledges; the ones that make us laugh out loud when they come in. You know who you are (17% of you). Here are some of our favourites…

Constance is giving up hoarding (read all about it here)

Josh, Alice and Sofie are giving up ‘controlled light’ (read here for further explanation!)

A puzzled Dave with knitting needles

Nat, Dave and Andy are giving up ‘not knitting’ – so they will be setting aside 10 minutes a day to knit together (with no previous knitting experience). They’re asking for sponsorship but will also try to produce something to raffle/auction at the end of it all. Watch this space…

Teenager Georgia has given up her social life, by vowing to read a book a day for the 125 days! Each book must be at least 100 pages long so this is no mean feat. We caught up with Georgia yesterday (Day 2) and she said, “I read Mockingjay, one of the Hunger Games books which is well over 100 pages, it’s close to 400! I’m reading a book called Once today, it quite hard to fit in the reading but I’m managing!”

Inspired? We are!

You can sponsor them here: CONSTANCE, JOSHUA, NAT, GEORGIA

Or it’s not too late to sign up to the ‘Give it up‘ challenge yourself, for 125 hours any time before 8th March. Go on, join in! In the words of a tweet we spotted from@BristolGinger;

“125 day Campaign from @One25Charity is one of the best fund/awareness raining ideas for a long time”

Why thank you Get involved!

With just FOUR days to go until the 125 day challenge begins, here’s a plea from Ed and Luke for you to sign up and get involved…

As always, please share this around, rally the troops!!! And SIGN UP yourself. Thank you x

One week ago we posted our brand new ‘Give it up’ promo video. We promised to give away a signed copy of Ed Sheeran’s ‘+’ album once the video had reached 1,250 views or more. And with a little help from the man himself (yes ED  TWEETED it!!), you’ve already smashed that target! Please keep sharing it, let’s see if we can get it to 12,500 views by the last day of the challenge (8th March)…

So, true to our word we are going to give away a signed CD. To enter the comp, you’ll need to tweet and/or facebook us a photo of yourself in your ‘Give it up’ t-shirt, demonstrating what you will be giving up for One25. Here are the details:

1. Make sure you’ve signed up to take part in ‘Give it up’

2. Set up your Virgin Money Giving page to collect sponsorship online

3. Be wearing a campaign t-shirt in the photo (buy yours here)

4. Follow us on Twitter (@one25charity) and/or Facebook (facebook.com/one25charity)

5. Tweet and/or post to our Facebook page the following message;

#giveitup125 (insert your photo) Sponsor my challenge here: (insert link to your VMG page) to help women build new lives.

Send us this message by 30th November. We’ll then pick the best photo (by holding a voting poll on here) to determine our WINNER!!!!! Good luck everybody