A THANK YOU MESSAGE

Paul and I are SO grateful to you all. You have been so generous in supporting us in fundraising for 'Simon on the Streets' at an especially difficult time for a lot of people - we all feel the extra strain on our wallets around Christmas time!

We hope we have helped raise awareness of such a fantastic charity, maybe some of you didnt know about it before you got hit by a barrage of emails from us asking you to donate.... you do now though! We met many homeless people, had a chat with them, gave them a coffee and doughnut and found out a lot about the work of the charity through Hayley, a full time support worker. We were in the Yorkshire Evening Post on Thursday 23 December 2010, a good article which will no doubt have brought much needed publicity to the event. 

Paul and I wish to continue helping the charity, volunteering on soup runs etc, if you want to know more, just email me at janine48@btopenworld.com. 

THANKS AGAIN - YOUR DONATION HELPED US REACH OUR £500 TARGET X

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Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Paul and I are taking part in a sponsored event in the lead up to Christmas to raise some funds and awareness of the plight of homeless people. 

We will be on the streets of Leeds on 22 December to help publicise the fantastic work of ‘Simon on the Streets' Charity.

The 48 hour Christmas Presence on the Streets is an attempt to have a constant presence on the streets (of Leeds) for the 48 hours leading up to midday on Christmas Eve.  We’re hoping to use this event to show that the work of 'Simon on the Streets' has to be a long-term constant approach to effectively support the people they work with. 

We are really pleased to be involved in this and hope to raise LOTS of money for this worthwhile cause. 

This is a true story, just a couple of nights ago (29 November), Me, Paul and Niamh & Ceara (our daughters) were having dinner as usual and catching up. I said to them all how I would like to help the homeless around Christmas time by helping with a soup run or spending a couple of hours on Christmas morning, Paul agreed it would be a great thing to do - Niamh and Ceara were not amused - you need to be with us on Christmas day.......what about us mum & dad....anyway - it led to a great conversation about how important it is to help others and how fortunate our children are, Niamh and Ceara agreed that they were incredibly lucky girls!

Paul and I said - "right we need to do something, let’s look into it!"  Life got in the way and we did not look into it but two days later, Paul received an email from Clive, the director of the charity asking if he would like to be involved in the 48 hour presence.......well to us, it’s FATE! We immediately signed up and here I am on Friday night writing our JUST GIVING page. Please sponsor us - all the money will go straight to the charity and it will be invaluable to the charity – every penny really does count.

Please have a go at this empathy exercise:

http://www.simononthestreets.co.uk/empathy-exercise-homeless-support-charity.html

I had a go and it made me realise just how difficult it is for the homeless and the lack of choices they have. Have a go yourself!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Thank you so much, Janine and Paul