Cousin Roger comes up trumps!

I just have to mention my cousin Roger, currently living in Marseille, France. He has kindly started the ball rolling on our 'on-line ' donation site which is now looking a lot healthier.
Thanks Cous.

Pre launch jitters

So, after 6 weeks of planning, sending invites & talking to the press, we 'launch' our campaign this evening at Utopia, Broughton Hall.
The direction signs are up(in case people stray towards the Stately Home by mistake)& the yamahas are being delivered this afternoon.
All we have to do now is make sure everybody has a great evening. This, i feel, is the hardest part to ensure.
62 tickets have been sold & a few more are expected to just turn up.
So far we have received over £400 from people who can't make the evening, which means we've already cracked the magic total of £1000 for the night, before we've even run the raffle.
Let's hope the Craven Herald newspaper do turn up. We have the camera ready for the next press release

Sponsorship boost

As the launch gets ever closer the replies are beginning to dribble in.
However, this morning, to my surprise, i received a cheque for £200! I have writtten a lot of letters to companies, with very few even bothering to reply; but a local biscuit firm called 'Farmhouse biscuits' sent me a cheque with an apology for not being able to come to the wine & cheese evening.
I have also just been to my chocolate shop in skipton where i picked up another £50 from ticket sales. We have now sold 52 tickets but am hopeful of another 10 from people leaving it until the last minute!
We should meet our initial target of £1000 from our launch, at this rate.

Local businessman gets in touch

It's incredible, when you think that only 100 people are taking part in Enduro Africa from all over the world and one of them has just been in touch with me. He too, is from Skipton, hardly the biggest town in the country! He is the owner of a local car sales business, Midgely Motors.
What a lovely gentleman he was. He has agreed to provide us with a Yamaha bike for our launch on wednesday. This is something that we have been thinking about for ages but didn't know who to ask. He has even offered to give us some off road lessons!!!
It's been quite an eventful day as the press rang me today & said that they would like to do another article & perhaps an interview on the evening of the launch. I've also heard myself on Fresh Radio this morning. The news editor did a very good job & gave us some free advertising.

My 1st interview

Yesterday the press releases went out throughout Yorkshire & i have my 1st interview tonight at the 'local'.
James Wilson, the press editor from Fresh Radio, based in Skipton, has asked for an interview tonight before i start drinking at the quiz night!
I also received an acceptance, for 2 tickets, for the Mayor & his wife to attend our launch on the 20th so things are looking up.

The Launch Approaches

Our launch event on the 20 September is getting ever closer, we have around 50 people coming and would like to get to about 80. To that end Sallu put this advert in the local newspaper, the Craven Herald last Friday. Julia, our marketing expert, has written a press release which is going out today to newspapers, magazines, and local radio.

Something Learnt

One of the things we need to do is get some decent motorcycle wear for our trip, we have gear by BMW but it is not really suitable. Anyway, we wrote to yamaha who agreed to help in some way and I also thought I would write to Belstaff as being a 'good old traditional British company'. Well they're not, Belstaff was bought by an Italian company a while ago, I sent them an email anyway but not response. Still, worth it for the image.