Go Jamboree!

Being selected to go to the Jamboree as a Guide from Essex South East, meant I was faced with the daunting task of raising £1000. Little did I know the amount would soon increase to £1300. My first thought was to treat it like a homework assignment; panic, then leave it until the last moment. However, unlike me, my leaders have some sense and helped me get it done.

I started off with the first thing I could think of: going to my school. Unfortunately, we’d just been given a new Head teacher, who wasn’t as nice as the old one, making me do a presentation to the whole school about what the money was for before relenting and giving me £100 from an own clothes day. It was a start. I paid it into the bank, all excited at making a first payment. When the first statement came through, I saw that I’d been allocated a grant, arranged by the Guide Leader taking us. Although this meant I didn’t have to raise as much, it also meant I got careless and momentarily put my fundraising on hold. I told myself I had exams to pass and that was the most important thing in the immediate future, but after they were done, I kept trying to find other things to do and started to panic that I’d never get any more done.

However, other people had faith in me! I was given a notebook, pen and instructions to list as many fundraising ideas as possible. We must have written everything on the first couple of pages. From car boot sales to bag-packing (bane of my life), you name it, it was in that book. Then we went through and sorted out which ones we could get to work on immediately. The first thing we got sorted was the begging letters to shops. After the first few, I felt like a robot, with a pre-programmed message to give to the person at the counter and I even got quite confident! Over the next few weeks, I got letters and parcels containing vouchers, prizes and requests to pick up potential prizes (I never thought I’d get that basket home on my pushbike). It was quite exciting really, I never get mail!

The next task was sorting out prizes from selling material. We now had a load of stuff waiting to be sold and won. All we needed now was somewhere to sell it. The answer came with a garage-sale. Luckily, we had a garage we could use. So after getting up early, I trundled down to Sam’s house and we sat waiting for customers. And then they came…

After a tiring, but successful, day of sitting around, we planned a quiz night, a disco, and got our name on the charity car park list. With tickets selling at a painfully slow rate, it looked as though the desired amount would never be raised. So we added the traditional way to get money in fast – added a raffle! It also solved the predicament of what to do with the prizes waiting to be won.

The hall was booked. The questions were found. The teams were organised. And we came fourth by two points. Two points away from getting a prize! After all the trouble we took getting them, I didn’t even win one! But it was a great night and I got to use a microphone, not that I need help with volume. It was in the middle of all of this that my District Commissioner, who I get on fabulously with, came up to me and told me that if I put a request in writing for a grant from the Division people, it was likely I’d get something as some other girls who are going to New Zealand had done a similar thing.

With preparations for the disco commencing, I received a cheque for £130 from the Division people, so there were smiles all round! It was when I’d just had a happy moment that I decided to check my diary to see what date we were doing the car park and that wiped the smile off my face I can tell you. It was the day after the disco. So it was going to be a late night followed by an early start, made even worse by the fact that I’d be getting myself there on my bike. I sighed, resigned to the fact I’d just have to get some extra sleep in afterwards.

The disco approached and we found the cause of the tickets selling so slowly – it was Red Nose Day! Having got the hall for free and having sold a significant enough amount of tickets to make it worth while, we kept the date and still had a great time. The best part for me was seeing some of my favourite people who none of us get to see very often and showing my mum who they were so she could finally put names to faces. I was also given a donation collected by some members of gojamboree and I was really happy!

When it was all over and I was back at home, I decided to count up all the money I had collected personally so I could get a cheque off of the Rangers for the amount I needed to make up still. The first thing I checked was the most recent e-mail from the person in charge of the financial side of things for our unit. After opening a new one that I must have received very recently, I saw that I’d been allocated more of the original grant so instead of the £600 I thought I was going to have to find it was more like £300. I couldn’t believe it. My work load had just been halved. I quickly counted up the money I had in my room. £285. All the disco and quiz money was being kept in the Ranger’s bank account, so none of it was from that. All I had to do was ask them for £15. And I still had to get up early to help at the car park. I couldn’t complain, not really, after all, the money that had been raised would go to the Rangers and I had the satisfaction of knowing I had helped. So in the morning, after being awoken, rather rudely I thought, by my alarm clock at a time of day I didn’t know existed at the weekend, I dragged myself to the town centre. After having woken up a bit more and being briefed on what we had to do, we were joined by more people and we decided to re-enact all we could remember from Gang Show to keep us amused. We all had to remember to tell the drivers that they had to come up the ramp of the car-park instead of the stairs and one guy was adamant that he shouldn’t have to pay as it was him who’d given the car-park to be used for charities. By the end of the day, I was feeling quite tired: running around car parks counting all the spaces takes it out of you! So despite having a fun day, I was glad to be riding back through my estate and getting home where I had a nice cup of hot chocolate.

And that was it. The money is raised, waiting to be put in the bank. And I can relax wishing the days would go by faster! Well, maybe not too fast, there’s a still lot needing to be sorted out before the Jamboree!