Story
Hi Guys,
Our names are Caitlin McKay and Gabrielle Thomson and we are both 11 years old and live in Kirkmichael and Glenshee. We both attend Kirkmichael Primary School and are 2 of only 4 Primary 7’s in the whole school.
Our friends and we all realise how lucky we are to be healthy and happy. The children that the Make a Wish Foundation are not so lucky and we think that they deserve all the help and support that the charity can offer.
The Make-A-Wish Charity has granted more than 8,500 magical wishes over more than 26 years. We know that our wishes transform lives!
Over 20,000 children in the UK are living with a life-threatening condition, a figure validated by research commissioned by Make-A-Wish. At a human level, we believe few things can be more important, or more deserving, than giving a seriously ill child the chance to have their wish come true, with all the hope, expectation and happiness that brings.
For many families the Make-A-Wish memory can be the last happy memory they have of their child having fun in a magical world, surrounded by family and friends – rather than memories of days and weeks of painful treatments and hospitalisation. The memory of the wish may be of their child laughing and enjoying being a princess or zoo keeper for the day or meeting a favourite celebrity. In years to come, the family can look back and remember that special time. Make-A-Wish is expert in wish granting; it is all that we do, each and every day. You can find our web pages at: www.makeawish.org.uk/
I will be giving up my pocket money until June 1st in order to help support this charity.
We are organising a bake sale, tea, coffee and soft drinks for sale along with raffle prizes and perhaps an auction and sponsored events on the 1 June 2013 at the Kirkmichael Village Hall and with help from my gran, Gabrielle’s mum and our families and friends from school.
If you would like to see how far we have progressed please take a look at my Facebook page and even if you don’t want to donate to would you please ‘LIKE’ my page it’s called ‘Caitlin McKay Make a Wish Fundraiser’ or to see how much cash we have raised these pages can be found at:https://www.facebook.com/linda.s.millar1#!/CaitlinMckaysMakeAWishFundraiser/
www.justgiving.com/Caitlin-McKay/
In the meantime even if you just want to volunteer or donate even £1.00 or even a small company voucher I would be grateful for your help, and you can also donate by Texting the following number and code via Vodafone. You can text donations to 70070 and use code BMGL64 this is set to accept donations of £1.00 but we can take money in any form, every little helps.Please see my Youtube video and like and share even if you cannot donate this helps me get some publicity: http://youtu.be/JNZv6cnUyQ
We are so aware that people don't have a lot of money to spare so if you have even a spare bottle of wine or unwanted or unused gift that you would like to recycle she would be happy to accept this for her raffle.
So far we have managed to secure the following to auction / raffle off for her Make A wish Foundation fundraiser:
A family entry ticket for 4 to the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh - thanks to the management team there you can find their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/camobscura
An Archery Lesson from Aberdeen Archery - Thanks to Ben Johnson owner of Aberdeen Archery at https://www.facebook.com/Aberdeen-Archery
Sunday Lunch for 2 people (without drinks) at the award winning Strathardle Hotel in Kirkmichael you can read reviews about this hotel online and we’re sure you’ll be impressed by the fact that they were also Michelin recommended. Thanks to Katherine and Tim the owners find them on the web at: www.strathardleinn.co.uk
The... most beautiful Harris Tweed Shawl hand made on the loom by A.T Slater of Warpweft Weave in Blairgowrie
A £35 gift voucher from Flawless Beauty Salon in Blairgowrie
A Gift Voucher from Top Notch Hairdressing and Beauty Salon in Blairgowrie (Value unknown)
One signed and number Limited Edition Print by the Award winning Glasgow Artist Natalie Tweedie also known as Nebo Peklo www.nebopeklo.blogspot.co.uk
A £10.00 online voucher for Sloan Semple's Little Gem's Boutique which offers the most beautiful children's clothing and can be found on Facebook. Everyone with little girls should check out her page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/littlegemsboutique
We have also been offered a 'Slave for a Day' by Angela Tweedie, who can be found on Facebook. Angela has very kindly offered to 'slave' for 8 hours doing whatever tasks you may require and is happy to carry out as many of those as long as they are legitimate and of a non sexual nature! She knows her way around a hoover, but we're not sure about her cooking skills as she is on best friend terms with her local Glasgow Takeaway! Angela will travel 60 miles from Glasgow to come to your abode. In order to bid for Angela's services your staring bid must be £30.00 and go up in increments of £5.00 please state 'Slave for a Day' bid with your donations.
We have also been given a Family ticket for four from Active Kids Adventure Play Park. This is a Scottish 4 star rated Activity Centre here in Perthshire, please have a look at their website to see what you could be bidding on at: www.activekidadventurepark.co.uk
On Wednesday last week we had a great meeting with Sarah Johnson of Lemon Pressedhttps://www.facebook.com/lemon.pressed/ who has very kindly helping me get the publicity train started for my Fundraiser. Sarah is also donating a one off piece of her beautiful handcrafted jewellery.
We have also given a £15.00 voucher from the Sampan Indian Restaurant in Blairgowrie see their website at: www.The-Sampan.com
We are also pleased to announce that the Kirkmichael Hotel have offered us a meal for 4 people with details to follow. See their website details for information on them at: www.kirkmichaelhotel.co.uk
A special thank you is going out to our good friend Soul Silver - Lampwork Beads and Jewellery on Facebook for her lovely and very unique donation of a the little angel named Heart Keeper on a stand, thank you so very much, I hope everyone seeing this takes a look at your page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Soul-Silver-Lampwork-Beads-and-Jewellery
Today, Thursday we've had an offer of a Hand Crocheted Baby Blanket/Shawl all the way from the USA made by Dragonfly Creations, the blanket will be made and shipped to the winning bidder after the prize draw and can be made in whichever colour you prefer. You can see Pam’s creations at https://www.facebook.com/DRAGONFLYCREATIONSBYPAM
Yippee another donation of unique and beautifully crafted jewellery, see message below: Magenta Crafts
Hi Caitlin, Thank you for your very informative email, and well done on the good work you've done so far! I see that you have had quite a few businesses donate items, and as I am all for fund raising (I open my garden for charity in the summer), would you like a hand crafted necklace and earring set from Magenta Crafts? As you can see from the pic, my jewellery is colourful and I use a selection of different bead materials. Let me know if this would be ok. Blessings, Magenta Please take a look at this lady’s jewellery at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Magenta- Crafts/489642231075310
On Thursday I received an email as follows and I would like to say Thank you to this company who can be found at www.bettysandtaylors.co.uk/
Hello Caitlin
Thank you for your recent email regarding your forthcoming fundraising event.
As I am sure you can appreciate, we receive a lot of correspondence each week from organisations and individuals requesting sponsorship and support. Sadly it’s impossible to help everyone. Instead our staff vote on eight branch charities working in Yorkshire to support each year and as a business we match staff fundraising and use this to help other good causes close to our staffs hearts.
This commitment means that we’re able to offer support to other good causes only in exceptional cases. It’s not as much as I’d like to do, but I will pop a small Yorkshire Tea raffle pack in the post for you which I hope you will be able to put to good use. Please may I have a suitable postal address?
Best wishes for your event
Vix
Victoria Turner
Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate
I received another donation to my www.justgivingaccount/Caitlin-McKay/ from Chris Mairs of SSE which took me to my first 10% of my target.
Then I reached £117 on my just giving page thanks to Margaret McKenzie and Nikki Robertson. Other donations from Anna Mainland, Nikki Robertson and Andrea McMurtie took our donations to £127.00
On Friday we also received some beautiful costume jewellery which can be seen on my Facebook page.
On Saturday we received an anonymous donation of the most gorgeous purple Italian Leather and Suede boots with zipper details at the back, the leather tops can be opened up or left down as can be in the pictures on the Facebook page. The boots are currently up for auction until Saturday 27 April.
Thanks to Rod at www.tankdrivingscotland.com for his offer of a Segway voucher for 6 people, conditions apply please see the website for these details. Click on this link for an idea of what exciting activity is on offer. http://tankdrivingscotland.com/driving-experiences this donation is worth a value of almost £300.00 so please dig deep when deciding to bid on this.
Today, Saturday and it was time for Gabriella and I to hit the Pitlochry shops in the hope that we could get one or two items but here’s what actually happened
The Co-Op in Pitlochry were just absolutely amazing, they told Gabriella and I to get a trolley and fill it with whatever we needed for our cake stall....wrong thing to tell two young girls, but in all honesty the 2 managers were worse, they were chucking stuff in like there was no tomorrow and as a result of their generosity we have promised to 'save' them a cake or two!
The management staff at Heathergems in Pitlochry really excelled themselves with this donation. It is a silver coloured bracelet with the Heathergem in the centre as you will see from the picture. The stones are made from natural heather stems and you can find out more about this beautiful jewellery at their website www.heathergems.com this bracelet is going to be a winner at our event and will be a beautiful item of jewellery for any woman who has great taste.
Now for all you mums and dads who have children who are fans, like us of the Gruffalo, then this little money bank will help and encourage your children to save their pennies for a rainy day. This was donated by the lovely gentleman at Just the Ticket, 89 Atholl Street, Pitlochry. Gruffalo fans everywhere are going to love this little money box.
Now this cute little monkey guy was donated by the lovely Alistair and Jean McFarlane of the 'For the Present' shop in Pitlochry, they have so many nice things we could have stayed in the shop all day. You can find their website at: www.forthepresentonline.co.uk you REALLY do need to take a look inside their shop it's wonderful.
There is a £10.00 Gift Voucher for Puddles and Sun in Pitlochry, this shop stocks all sorts of beautiful baby and children’s clothing many of which you won't see anywhere on the high street. Thank you Jan for this donation we're sure it will be snapped up by one of the mums looking for something a little bit different for their children. You can find Jan's website at www.puddlesandsun.co.uk
Now here we have another fantastic gift voucher worth £50.00 given by the lovely manager at the Prince of India Tandoori Restaurant at 5-7 Station Road, Pitlochry PH16 5AN we’re sure that this voucher will be a bit of a winner for all you guys who love great Indian food. Thank you to the management team at the Prince of India for their generosity.
We received a lovely soft creamy ladies fleece was given to us by the manager at the Hawkhead Shop in Pitlochry, they have a great range of outdoor clothing for all types of weather and walkers and you should take a look next time you are in Pitlochry, so thank you to Steven for this donation.
Now we know it's not 63 days left till Christmas so we're sorry if we've given you a bit of a shock but this little Santa Countdown is just the ticket if you can't wait to be reminded of hoe many shopping days are actually left till the 25th. This little donation was picked especially by Frederick who attends Kirkmichael Nursery. You can find the Christmas shop at www.thechristmasemporium.co.uk This shop almost made us wish it was Christmas again they have so many nice things to look at.
Thank you to the lovely ladies at Edradour Highland Distillery which is the smallest and most beautiful of distilleries in Scotland. In all honesty we wanted to eat the fudge as soon as we got it but my gran had to remove it from me quickly! Just in case I was tempted. You can find their website at www.edradour.co.uk its well worth a visit.
We received a big bag of Fat Balls and Feeder was donated by the lovely Sheenah Brennan at the Hardware Centre in Pitlochry. Sheenah did offer us her hunky assistant and my mum was a bit disappointed when we had to refuse, she said she could just see him hoovering in his kilt and sporran....bit like the man from the Scots Porridge Oats box she said...instead we took the Fat Balls and Feeder and thanked Sheenah. She's got a great little shop there filled with all the things you never knew you needed or needed but never knew where to find them. See her shop at 36 Atholl Road Pitlochry PH16 5BX or email her at: pitlochryhardware@msn.com
Now Hamish the Scottish Meerkat was donated by The Scottish Shop in Pitlochry, they have some really cool Scottish stuff in both their shops and you can find their website at:
www.thescottishshopdirect.co.uk thanks to the guys we don’t think Hamish will be hanging around with us long when we raffle him off!
Well the guys at the Escape Route Cycle and Outdoor centre in Pitlochry really went the whole road and excelled with their very generous offer of an £80.00 Gift Voucher which gives 4 adults free bike hire, please check with them how long the hire lasts. The water bottle comes with it as you're going to need it if you’re cycling around our beautiful Scottish countryside on a warm summer’s day! Please see their website for other great items and offers and for terms and conditions of use, they can be found at www.escape-route.co.uk thanks guys you did us proud.
We received a fantastic Tartan mug was given to us by the Pitlochry Knitwear Company you can find them at: www.ewm.co.uk/ they have a fantastic range of goods and gifts to suit all budgets, thank you to the lovely ladies in the shop.
Thank you to the ladies of Cob Leather who make handcrafted and personalised Leather products, this little shop is amazing and well worth paying a visit to if you are in Pitlochry looking for something that is just a little bit more Scottish and a little bit more different. You can find them at: 87 Atholl Road Pitlochry PH16 5AB
Another £10.00 gift card for WH Smith was very kindly donated by the manager Gordon who paid for it from his own pocket, WH Smith do you know you have an exceptional employee there? Thank you Gordon it was so generous of you to do that.
Thank you to the lovely lady in Davidson’s Chemists in Pitlochry for this lovely Bayliss and Harding gift set, she was so sweet to us and we are very grateful for the donation.
Thanks to another Mr. Millar (not a relation) at the Golf Company for this set of 15 lovely PINK Bay Hill Plasma II golf balls. He was a character and we had a great time with him in his shop. Please see his website for other great gold ideas and gifts at: 85 Atholl Road Pitlochry PH16 5AB or email him with your questions at tkm690@btinternet.com
We also received the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire 10th Anniversary Special Edition given by Robertson’s of Pitlochry see their website for other ideas and goods at www.robertsonofpitlochry.co.uk thank you to the manager there for his great donation.
We received the most beautiful Little White Clock with Timer and Pink Faces, ideal for any girl’s kitchen. With thanks to Jim and Grace Raeside of Keepsakes in Pitlochry see their website at www.giftspitlochry.co.uk thank you ladies you helped make our day.
Today, Monday 22nd we received a large parcel from the postman. Inside was a Kenneth Cole Military Style Coat with a high value of over £100 and a Black River Ladies quilted Jacket valued at £95.00 from a famous online and High Street retailer who have asked to remain anonymous due to the large number of requests they get, we are not sure why they said yes but it was very generous of them, the Jacket and Coat are currently up for auction until Saturday 27 April on the Facebook page as listed at the top of this blog.
Tuesday 23rd Last night we managed to secure the services of the well known Scottish Psychic and Spiritualist Ricky Martin for an evening of general Psychic readings at the Bellahouston Bowling Club, 2 Dumbreck Road, Glasgow G41 5BW it starts at 7.30pm sharp and tickets are £10.00. Tickets can be purchased by going to www.justgiving.com/Caitlin-McKay remember to pay postage and leave your name and address for the ticket to be posted to you, or you can pay at the door on the night. You can find out more about Ricky at www.rickymartinmedium.co.uk or at his Facebook page on https://www.facebook.com/rickymartinmedium
If you would like to see the pictures of the above donations please go to my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CaitlinMckaysMakeAWishFundraiser
Tuesday 23rd we have just received another donation of some coffee from specialist coffee company https://www.facebook.com/HomeGroundCoffee please take a look at their Facebook pages and hit LIKE as a way of thanking them for me if you think they have a great page and product.
Tuesday 23rd Today we were given a Russell Hobbs Bradwell Kettle and a Russell Hobbs Switched On Style 2400 watts Steam Iron by W.M.Coupar of Blairgowrie see their website at http://www.wmcoupar.co.uk Thank you to them for their generosity.
My gran was also given a half bottle of Gin and a bottle of whisky by her friends, so thank you to them also.
I'd like to thank Cut Above Unisex Salon of 1 Wellmeadow Blairgowrie for their generous £10.00 donation which has been added to our www justgiving.com/Caitlin-McKay which took us up to £137.00
Today Wednesday 24th April we have received another donation, these tickets are worth £37.00 please see the email below:
Dear Caitlin, Thanks for your email, we are delighted to offer a family ticket for entry to Blair Castle and Gardens, which will entitle up to 2 adults and 3 school aged children to entry to the castle and gardens. If you let me have your postal address, I will get this in the post to you tomorrow. I hope your fundraising goes well.
Best wishes
Deborah
Blair Castle, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, Perthshire PH18 5TL
Tel: 01796 481 207 Website: www.blair-castle.co.uk
Wednesday 24 another donation from Shoomazing see their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/shoomazing/
Hiya Linda,
I think what Catlin is doing is fantastic what a very special girl, you must be so proud
I have charities close to my heart also and I wish I could support more of them.
If you have an e mail address I could e mail you a gift voucher, I’m really sorry I can’t do more.
Good luck with this brilliant cause
Sally
Thursday 24 April…..Just announced. Mains Of Taymouth Country Estate have offered 2 Rounds of Golf for 2 People, thanks you so much to them for this fantastic donation. Please see their Facebook page and hit LIKE if you think what they’ve done for this charity is amazing.https://www.facebook.com/mainsoftaymouth/
Thursday 24 April One 18 hole round of golf for 2 people plus a 2 course lunch in the clubhouse has been offered by Pitlochry Golf Course. Please take a look at their web page and hit LIKE if you think that their donation has been very generous as we do, wow what an offer at a beautiful golf course and fantastic clubhouse. Thank You so much
https://www.facebook.com/pitlochrygolf
Other local businesses in Blairgowrie, Perth, Glasgow and Ayr have promised to support us and we will announce these donations as they come in.We have my official letter from the Make A Wish foundation and will be happy to share this with you along with our reference number, please email my gran Lmillar2@googlemail.com for this information or if you would like to see a copy of this letter.
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. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please if you can donate just even £1.00 dig deep and donate. Every penny counts.
I also have a Facebook page which if you don’t want to donate to would you please ‘LIKE’ my page it’s called ‘Caitlin McKay Make a Wish Fundraiser’
https://www.facebook.com/linda.s.millar1#!/CaitlinMckaysMakeAWishFundraiser
www.justgiving.com/Caitlin-McKay
Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any donation you feel you can offer.
Caitlin McKay