In August 2010 I [Leona Hinds] will be going to South America for a whole year to teach English to children in a rural boarding school in the south of Chile. I have been given this wonderful life-changing opportunity by the charity Project Trust. I have to fundraise £4850 to cover the costs of my accomodation, food, flights, insurance, training and living expenses for the year. Because Project Trust is a charity, all the money I raise gets spent on me, and it doesn't pay anybody's wages.

If you would like to make a donation towards my fundraising to go to Chile, please do not hesitate to click the 'Donate Now' button. Alternatively, you can email me on coolleona2004@hotmail.com and I will let you know of any upcoming fundraising events.

LATEST UPDATE [05/07/2010]

So today I took another trip to the bank, with all the money that I had raised last week. I had £206 from Krispy Kreme donuts in total, £130 from the Quiz Night, a further £96 from the car boot I did yesterday, a £20 donation from Sean Mcerlean and I put £150 from my two Avon campaigns into my fundraising too, so I came out of the bank with a nice cheque for £600.

This takes my total to £4458.55, which means I'm 91.9% of the way to reaching my target. Now I think it's a waiting game, waiting for the £200+ donation from The Lord Mayor's charity, the £50 from MusicMagpie, and £50 from Zenith. Also I've got another Avon campaign, which will be another £50+ that I could put in.

So I haven't got far to go now, and I'd like to thank everyone who's helped me on the way, friends, family, charities, strangers, anyone who's either donated money, bought glowsticks, sponsored my swim and everything else I've been doing in between.

Hopefully, in my next update I'll be 95% of the way!

UPDATE [02/07/2010]

What a busy week I've had! First on Sunday I had the Krispy Kreme donuts, I ordered 70 dozen, and we [thankfully] only have 4 boxes left in the freezer if you're interested. The donuts have been good, but now I'm a bit sick of the smell of them. Aswell as selling them at the Fun Run, a team of Krispy Kreme enthusiasts have been selling them at schools in Coventry, a Rugby club, the hospital, I think the firefighters had some too, and of course all the neighbours. So lots of people have been enjoying Krispy Kremes, and so far I've raised £192 from selling donuts,

A massive thanks to all my Krispy Kreme helpers, Sophie Williams, ALL the Gleed family - Karen, Tim, Liz and Sam, Zac Griffiths, my Dad - Stephen Hinds, Laura Ott.

Then, on Tuesday I opened my massive tin, I've been collecting pennies, pounds and even some notes! in this tin since December, and all my taxi-ing money has gone into this tin. I was expecting £50 in the tin, but I opened it and out of it came a whopping £138. So I was really pleased with that.

Last night I held a Quiz Night at The Litten Tree, there was a good turn-out with 10 teams participating, a mixture of people coming. I raised £130 from the quiz, which included a raffle. In the raffle all the prizes seemed to keep going to one table, but it wasn't a fix! The Quiz was won by "Soldiers and Students", even though there was a tie-breaker between them and "forget-me-nots"

So a big thankyou to everyone who came, congrats to the winners and I'd like to say a massive thanks to Zac GriffithsThe Litten Tree for being my co-host and also to for their free venue hire, and for being very supportive with everything.

Which brings my total to £4178, I'm so glad I've finally passed that £4000 mark. Everyone's been so supportive.

On Sunday, I'm doing hopefully my final car boot sale at Tile Hill Old Coventrians rugby club, if you want to come down and see what bargains you can find that would be brilliant. I'm aiming to get rid of all my stuff, AND to raise around £80/ £90

Also, the Lord Mayor's charity should be donating £200, Zenith should be donating £50, I should be getting £50 from my MusicMagpie collection, which is another £300 to add to my total.

UPDATE [28/06/2010]

Sorry I haven't updated the page in so long, I've been busy doig my exams, andcrossing things off my neverending to-do list! Now I've sent off my forms for my visa, and my crb checks so I'm up-to-date with all the paperwork.

Yesterday, we ran a Krispy Kreme donut stall, selling 70 dozen donuts at the Fun Run, unfortuneatly due to the England game, the event died down really quickly and we were left with still dozens of donuts. I sold some down Pinley RFC, and I also went and canvassed the neighbours to buy some more donuts. Sicne we still have probably over 20 boxes left, we've decided to freeze the majority of them for another event/ day when I could sell the donuts.

So, a big thankyou to Sam, Sophie, Laura, Pinley RFC, and my glamourous delivery assistant Zac.

Also, on Thursday 1st July I have my Chile Quiz Night, which is at The Litten Tree in the city centre, between 7.30 - 9.30pm. It costs £10 to enter a team of between 4 - 6 people, and the winners will get a cash prize. There will be all the normal quiz rounds, along with a couple of other surprise/ mystery rounds.

And if you're unlucky enough not to win the quiz, there will be a raffle too, where no knowledge is required, just a bit of luck! I hope to raise £100 from the Quiz Night.

UPDATE [06/06/2010]

So, I've had 3 days of fundraising in a row, starting with my Glowing Away Party, which unfortuneatly didn't go to plan! Only a handful of my friends came, and we raised £80. Some people bought tickets, and didn't come, others just didn't come. But, there's no point getting upset over it, cos I still raised £80, which is better than making none, or a loss!

I'd like to thank all the people who came to my party, especially Luke Monaghan =). I would also like to thank The Golden Cross for letting me have the venue for free, for donating 3 bottles of shots and being really helpful. All the staff were great, and really supportive, with advertising the party, and with helping out on the night.

Then on Friday, we had a cake sale at my Dad's house wth 3 types of fairy cakes, 2 types of rice krispy cakes and a loaf of banana bread. It turned out to be a lovely sunny day, and we raised £30 from selling the cakes for 30p each.... which if you do the maths means I sold 100 cakes. I didn't sell 100 cakes, some people donated more money cos the cakes were so nice, and a few neighbours donated £5 for only a couple of cakes. So altogether the cake sale was brilliant, and the cakes we had left over didn't last for long! We ate them all.

I'd like to thank Laura, Gemma, Dad, Natalie and Malachy for helping make the cakes and selling them.

Then on Saturday I went to my first car boot sale, I managed to fit boxes of baby toys, books, games, crockery and allsorts into my car, however not all the stuff cos I've only got a little Fiat Punto! So we took all the stuff down to the AT7 centre for a  5.30am start. We unpacked all the goods, and it started off very quiet, with only other ppl from the other car boot stalls coming to see what their competition was. But then sales picked up, and I had my little sign on the front of the table saying how I'm raising money to go to Chile etc, and due to my sign, the Car Boot Man decided to give me the pitch for free! Saving me £12, which was very generous of him. We eventually got around to pricing some of the items, Luke and myself. And we argued about some prices, but in the end we managed to not only raise £56, but we talked to a family selling opposite us who at the end of the sale gave us a load of family games and kids books to sell at my next car boot.

Meaning even though we sold a fair amount, we came back with more stuff. It was again a lovely sunny day and I came home with a nice little tan. I'd like to say a MASSIVE thankyou to Luke Monaghan, who's baby nephew had only just been born at like 5am that morning, who still came to help me out despite having no sleep! I treated him to a well-deserved large Big Mac afterwards =)

So my next fundraising events/ventures will be another couple of car boot sales, probably after exams. Also I am doing a last push on collecting unwanted CDs and DVDs for my MusicMagpie collection, as the courier is coming to collect the box on Saturday!

Also, I'm ordering some face paints and Becky Brookes has offered to paint children's faces at my next car boot, and if we have paint left over I'm sure we'll have some type of face paint party.

After that, I'm also selling glowsticks again at Funky Night on 26th June, which will hopefully get me another £60, if not more.

UPDATE [01/06/2010]

I have been busy promoting my Glowing Away Party this week, and selling tickets with my ticket sellers Luke, Katie, Bethany and Hardeep. The party is This Thursday [3rd June 2010] at The Golden Cross in Coventry city centre. Tickets cost £3.50 and I have hired the function room upstairs. The 'Glowing' will be coming from my friends, family and other people buying the Glowsticks which I have been selling at other venues around the city.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Pipe Down, Crystals, Gamma Funkulah, PLUR, Funky Night and the Kasbah for all allowing me to sell my glowsticks at their venues. I have enjoyed selling glowsticks, and it ahs raised me over £400 so far over the past 5 months.

If you would like to attend my Glowing Away Party please do not hesitate to contact me [coolleona2004@hotmail.com] to reserve a ticket, or you can simply pay on the door, from 8pm onwards. It looks to be a good night, and I'm very excited.

 

UPDATE [23/04/2010]

Fundraising is going pretty slowly at the moment, due to my exams coming up and I'm spending my time revising. However, I still have my GLOWING AWAY PARTY, on Thursday 3rd June which will raise me hopefully £400+.

I also have a garage full of items, toys, games, jigsaws, books etc which I will be taking to car boot sales over the next few weeks, as of today I have finished swimming teachingon a Sunday, so I plan to try a different car boot sale each week and raise some money this way.

Thanks again to everybody who's donated items for the car boot sales, and the ticket sellers.

UPDATE [23/04/2010]

As of Easter, my project has been changed from teaching swimming in Swaziland to teaching English in Chile. Chile is located in South America, and stretches along most of the west coast of Latin America. The country is spanish speaking, so my A-level Spanish will definitely come in handy whilst I'm teaching English.

In my new project, I'll be a language assistant in a rural school nearby the town of Lautaro in the south of Chile. I'll be teaching English to children of all ages, and I'll be both helping weaker and stronger students get a better grasp of the English language.

You might wonder why I'm able to have this role? Do I have any teaching qualifications? No I don't [at least not for teaching English] But I am a native speaker of English, and I have just come out of fourteen years of education. I know the qualities of a good, and a bad teacher. Also having worked with children in my job as a Swimming Teacher I have picked up a creative flair, and I am now able to make up fun games and activities for the children to do in order to learn.

I'll leave for Chile at the end of August, and will return at a similar time next year. I'm very excited about going to Chile, because 'll be able to use my spanish effectively, and I won't have to worry about forgetting how to speak Spanish. I will without a doubt miss all my family and friends, but I've already got a long list of people who I will be sending postcards and letters to.

I'd like to take this opportunity to update you on my latest fundraising event, which was an Easter raffle, which raised me £87. I also recieved two grants from charitable trusts over Easter, bringing my total to over £3200. I'm close to reaching my target, and again a massive thankyou to everyone who's sponsored me, donated money, brought glowsticks etc etc.

My next fundraising event is very exciting, and I can't tell too many details at present, because it hasn't been confirmed, but watch this space!

¡¡Muchísimas gracias, y hasta luego!!

A little about me

I live in Coventry and I'm currently finishing my A-levels in Spanish, Chemistry and Maths. For the past two years I have worked part-time as both a Lifeguard and a Swimming Teacher at my local swimming pool which I have thoroughly enjoyed. I used to swim for City of Coventry Swimming Club for four years which I also enjoyed, however due to an injury and other commitments i had to give up swimming in 2009. When I return from Chile in 2011 I hope to go to The University of Nottingham to study Spanish and Chinese. After I graduate I hope to get a job working in Customs/Immigration in an airport, where I'd like to protect the country from outside threats such as illegal immigrants, drugs and dangerous weapons.

Project Trust is a well established gap year charity (registered charity no SCO 25668) and each year it sends around 200 young volunteers overseas to countries in South America, Africa and parts of Asia. It checks each project thoroughly before sending volunteers to check that the working conditions are suitable, and also that no work is being taken from the local community.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and 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 direct to Project Trust (the educational charity who is sending me to Chile) 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 money, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.