It’s been a busy few months here at Growing Well, so we’re well overdue bringing you our round-up of everything on the fundraising front.
This year mark’s 20 years since Growing Well was first established at our site at Low Sizergh and to celebrate this milestone we launched our “20 For 20” campaign which will see twenty individuals or organisations raising money and awareness for our charity during the year ahead.
We were delighted to announce one of our volunteers, Alice, as the first of our 20 For 20 participants. Alice is going to undertake an epic 1500m swim in Ullswater and at time of writing had already raised over £1,000 for Growing Well.
The Westmorland Family has been a long-standing supporter and last year we embarked on a major project with them to open the second Growing Well site at Tebay Services Northbound.
Westmorland have set themselves a target of raising a minimum of £20,000 through a combination of fundraising activities at Tebay Services, Rheged and Westmorland Hotel.
This included staff from Tebay Services donning Growing Well costumes and heading out to engage visitors and fundraise on Good Friday, one of their busiest days of the year.
Kath from the National Association of Retired Police Officers visited us in March with a cheque for £154 after their members chose Growing Well as the beneficiary for the proceeds from the raffle at their recent AGM.
Penningtons Tea & Coffee in Kendal who have chosen Growing Well as their chosen charity for 2024. Pennington’s have created a special fundraising coffee which is on sale in local shops and on their website, from which 10% of sales will be donated to Growing Well.
Gina Pennington is one half of the dynamic duo who own the business and in April ran the adidas Manchester Marathon – her 10th marathon in total – raising further funds for the 20 For 20 campaign. Both Gina and her husband Dave have had their mental health challenges over the years and the work of Growing Well really resonated with them.
The 3R Charity Shop in Carnforth recently funded T-shirts for volunteers at Low Sizergh and came for a visit to hand over the cheque for £500.
Ten employees from Anord Mardix in Kendal spent a day volunteering at Growing Well at Low Sizergh, helping with weeding and bed preparation and then planting out beds of seedlings. Following their day with us, they held a bake sale with all proceeds going to Growing Well.
And to wrap things up, we were recently visited by Camilla Revell and three other trustees from The Big Onion CIC, who had a site tour and learnt more about what we do.
The Big Onion CIC are a volunteer-led community stall selling local upcycled, recycled, hand made crafts, local fruit and veg and woodland products.
They presented us with a generous donation of £500 from their proceeds to support our work at Low Sizergh.
