I thought my first post-Easter blog should be a quick evaluation of the Lent challenge to learn some of Psalm 22 every day. Did you manage to learn some? I found it very tricky, especially those middle sections. There were some lines which I knew very well, and they flowed easily, but remembering where they came was more of a problem.
As we were fundraising for Tearfund, me and Mum decided to make short videos each day. To be honest, this wasn’t my idea, but Son-who’s-in-marketing assured me that no one would sponsor an agency, they would be sponsoring us and therefore we had to ‘put ourselves out there.’ I posted the videos on my Facebook page, and if you have seen them, you will know that we were not very professional! Sometimes we dissolved into giggles, or were distracted by what was happening around us. Once we nearly got run over. We had people come and try to start a conversation mid-recitation (that started us giggling) and sometimes someone would walk right between us, while we were filming (more giggles) or one of us would completely forget what we were trying to say. Even though we stopped the camera and tried to compose ourselves before re-filming, sometimes the giggles bubbled back up to the surface. I don’t think the BBC are going to be phoning any time soon.
However, some media did show an interest. A press secretary from Tearfund contacted me, and interviewed me via zoom. She then wrote a press release, saying what we were doing. Following this, various journals and magazines asked for interviews or articles. It was all very exciting!
The press secretary offered to ghost write the articles for me, but as I am an author I preferred to write them myself (not the one above, that was formed from the press release). Tearfund then edited them and sent them out, which was rather nice. I decided I would quite enjoy having a press secretary. (You have to dream about being famous sometimes, it makes life more fun!) I don’t think we had any extra donations from the media coverage—I learnt that with my books: media attention doesn’t necessarily result in more sales. But hopefully it will have helped people to recognise Tearfund, and next time they see an appeal they will be more inclined to donate.
Making the videos was fun too. We went to a coffee shop, and people heard what we were doing and made donations. We also filmed in various shops (masks firmly in place in the Waitrose check-out queue!) and managed to find a field of lambs to be in the background for one film.
When we started, we weren’t sure how much money to have as our target. Most people seemed to aim for £500, but we weren’t actually sure if anyone would sponsor us. By the end, we had increased our target to £1,000, and managed to raise even more. People were very kind; both the encouraging comments on social media and the donations to our JustGiving page were hugely motivating. If you donated, thank you.
It’s not too late to donate, all you need is a credit card. The link is below.
https://www.justgiving.com/team/ThompsonTodd
Hope you had a lovely Easter. Have a good week.
Thanks for reading.
Love, Anne x
https://www.justgiving.com/team/ThompsonTodd
Anne E Thompson 