Day of Donation: Thursday 15th December

Well the sponsorship money is still coming in for the Beard Off we held in the summer, but I should have a total for you before the end of the fundraising year - though on the night we took around £1000, so it was a great event all in all. Here are a few photos from the night of the poor unfortunates...

In the meantime here's what we have planned for the end of the fundraising year. So it's December now, a time when most people will be getting ready to welcome a load of new stuff into their house. But what about the old stuff? Well, as it's probably a bit late for a Nice to be Nice fundraising event, I'm suggesting that Nice to be Nice members make a donation to one of the Simon Community Shops in Belfast, Newtownards, Ballynahinch or Bangor, on or around Donation Day: Thursday15th December. It's easy enough, gather up a few items that you no longer need or will be upgrading soon, and the Simon Community will pick them up from you. It really couldn't be simpler. If you'd like us to arrange a pick up for you, then simply get in touch in the comments section or via the Facebook event page here. Alternatively call 028 90 232 882 to arrange a pick up time that suits you.

This month will really started to see the cold weather hit, and thoughts start to go out to those who don't have the same comforts that the vast majority of us do. I know times are still hard for a few people, but even a donation of a few simple items can make a difference.

Or how about donating your time for a few hours in December? The Simon Community are always looking for volunteers and have a number of events lined up. Call the same number above or vistit the Simon Community website. http://www.simoncommunity.org/fundraising/volunteer/

Belfast Beard Off

Well the Book Swap was a great success and raised over £300 for the Simon Community. And next month, thanks to the kindness and enthusiasm of a few good hairy men, we have another shave event on the horizon.


On Friday the 22nd of July five friends with facial furniture shall be revealing their chins for all to see! Ninja Joe Maxwell, Connor 'Murzo' Murray, beardy Mark McQuillan, inappropriate Kris Telford and Tomas 'Pirate Tom' Bamford, are all shaving their beards for the very worthwhile cause.
There'll be live music from: 

Kris Telford 
Stormzone's Kev Harris
and the amazing Phoenix 23!

And not only that, but you will also have the chance to come on stage and shave one of the hapless beardy types yourself! On the night of the beard off you will be asked to take a blank envelope and a pen (provided for you), you will then be asked to place a donation to the Simon Community in the envelope. Then its a simple matter of writing your name, how much you have donated, and who you would like to shave on the front of the envelope. The highest bid for each person gets to shave them live on stage!!

This will be a sell out event, so be sure to get down to the middle bar of the Pavillion on the Ormeau Road nice and early! Entrance fee is £3 and all proceeds go to the Simon Community.

Beard shaving equipment kindly provided by Hedonist Hair, the rockingest hair dressers in Belfast!


You can check out the Facebook event page here

Children's Book Swap Event

We kick off our 2011 fundraising program on behalf of the Simon Community with a Children's Book Swap and Family Fun Day at The Black Box Belfast, Saturday 2nd April, 12-3pm.

The 2nd of April marks International Children's Book Day and to celebrate we're holding a Children's Book Swap and Family Fun Day at Belfast's Black Box. A great way encourage reusuability, children bring along a book or books, get a token and can redeem these against other books donated. In doing so they save paper, save trees and discover some amazing literary favourites and recommendations from other kids and parents.

The event will host a number of family orientated activities including craft stalls (ideal for that last minute Mother's Day present), a toy jumble sale, recycled crafts, face painting, a raffle, entertainment, refreshments and more.

Entry is £2 per adult and FREE for children (all children must be accompanied by an adult), and money raised will go to The Simon Community - The Northern Ireland Charity for the homeless.

To find out more about the Simon Community and the valuable work they do in N. Ireland, please check out their website. 
http://www.simoncommunity.org/

2011 Charity Poll

Merry Christmas to all members of Nice to Be Nice, hope you have an amazing Christmas and can take a few minutes to think about who we can support next year.

Many thanks to all those people who have nominated a 2011 charity for our group. Here's some information about the nominees, with links to their site so you can find out more. The poll on this blog will be open until the 24^th December, and open to all readers, though we do encourage you to become a follower of Nice to Be Nice on Facebook, so that you can be kept up to date with the results and all our events. 

Barefeet: A creative arts and performance project staged, rehearsed and presented mainly, though not exclusively, by children on, or formerly on, the streets of Zambia. The project uses theatre, art, dance, music and creative writing as a tool to engage with and support the development of children most at risk of disengaging from their communities.

http://www.barefeettheatre.org/background

Action Cancer: Action Cancer is a Northern Ireland cancer charity, established in 1973 by cancer specialist Dr George Edelstyn. Action Cancer's mission is to save lives and support people and to maintain a pioneering role in the development of cancer services.

http://www.actioncancer.org/ 

Praxis Care – Rainbow Lodge: Based in Ballymena this was the first facility of its kind in Ireland upon opening in 2005. It provides both permanent accommodation and short-stay facilities for eight children at a time. It offers a range of respite, shared care, longer term care and assessment services for children and young people with learning disabilities - such as autism - and/or physical disability who have challenging behaviour and complex health needs.

http://www.praxisprovides.com/ 

Simon Community in Northern Ireland: The Simon Community in Northern Ireland strengthes communities by leading the way in addressing homelessness. They actively respond to the needs of homeless people through initiatives aimed at prevention, provision and progression to independent living.http://www.simoncommunity.org/


Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

April Review

Well we're one month into our year long fundraising campaign for EBM, and so far we've raised £600 from Sponsored Walks and Coffee Mornings. This is a great start and bodes really well for the future as we are in many ways still finding our feet as a fundraising group. 

The 10 Mile Sponsored Walks down the Lagan Towpath where particularly successful, despite the sore limbs and hooves experienced by some of those taking part (myself included). We've still a bit to go if we're to reach the £1500 target we've set for ourselves by June as part of the Trek Kilimanjaro campaign, but hopefully the up-coming Shave Event will go a long way towards making this happen.

We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us so far, either by becoming a group member via Facebook, through sponsorship of simply by offering help and participation for future events. We'd just like to say a particular thanks in advance to Roysta who has agreed to play at the Shave event and to Auntie Annie's Porterhouse, Dublin Rd, Belfast ,for the kind use of their facilities for the night.

Shave-o-Rama

Our next fundraising event will be held on Sunday 16th May at Auntie Annie's Bar, Dublin Rd, Belfast, and is entitled 'Shave-o-Rama'. We've a bunch of people all getting sponsored to shave or wax various parts of their body, and the night itself will feature live entertainment from Belfast based Roysta and DJ support.

It's £5 in, though if you have sponsored a participant before hand you'll be on the guest list. Things kick off at 8pm.

Its great to see so many people getting involved so far and in the next few days you'll be getting a summary of the money we raised in April. Hard to believe we've only been doing this for a month, the response have been brilliant, thanks to everyone who has helped out in one way or another.

Sinead's Kilimanjaro Diary

Sinead Tighe will be part of the EBM team trekking Kilimanjaro in June this year, here she writes about how her preparation is going so far...

It’s about 5 weeks since I took the plunge to scale the highest free standing mountain in the world (thank you wiki). So far the training has been mental, (literally) To be honest getting my head around the fact that this is going to become a reality has been a real challenge. For anyone who knows me I’m not exactly what you would call an outdoorsy type! If there’s a bus passing I’m on it, a car...I’m shotgun, not really the words of someone embarking on a 6 day ascent!!

I remember hearing about my cousin, who would spend his evening cycling 30 miles.. and this would be for pleasure! My reaction used to be general dis –belief, tainted with a (he’s the mad one, not me, much more rewarding sitting on the couch with a movie on the download!) But I’ve had to change my attitudes and to be honest it’s been really rewarding. I suppose it’s like any new challenge...giving up smoking.... or starting a new job, it’s all about getting a fresh outlook and finding the hidden pleasures in your new found lifestyle. For me, completing a 22 mile walk was a real confidence booster...suddenly 10 mile walks seemed doable and the feeling of completing them would linger enough to give you drive for the next walk. Now no rose tinted glasses here, my legs were feckin aching, stiff as a board the next day, walking sticks never looked so cool! But where there’s pain, there’s gain and I knew it was doing my body good too which gave me a sense of security.

I’m still a long way off being fit enough, and the other climbers are training flat out, but I guess when something is good, it’s worth doing.


Sinead