#VolunteersWeek does #FundraisingFriday
It’s #FundraisingFriday, and today for Volunteers Week we’re looking at the North East and Cumbria Branch which is the newest addition to our Branch Network. The Branch is chaired by Lucy Stothard who first organised a Sponsored Walk in Newcastle in 2014.
Like many of our volunteers, Lucy’s involvement with CLAPA started with fundraising. After the success of her first event, and after seeing how many people were in the area in need of support, Lucy took things a step further and set up a Branch with the help of her mother-in-law Caroline.
Here, Lucy tells her story.
“I am the Chairperson in the North East and Cumbria. I have been in this role since September 2015. I chair our quarterly meetings, help organise our events and also run our North East and Cumbria Branch Facebook page. I try to encourage more people in joining our branch as well as spreading awareness across our region about clefts.
After having my son William in December 2013 we decided we wanted to give something back to CLAPA to thank them for all of their support. In May 2014 I approached CLAPA and was put in contact with their fundraising team. We organised a 1 mile walk in August 2014 which raised over £1600. It was then that I knew I wanted to help out more, spread more awareness and get more of a CLAPA presence in the North East.
In 2015 I saw a Facebook post asking for Volunteers to set up a branch in the North East and Cumbria. I rang CLAPA’s Volunteer Development Officer and had a long chat with him about where I thought I could help out and what kind of things it would entail.
I started to volunteer a few hours of my time each week, organising events, running through agendas for forthcoming meetings and liaising with the cleft community to see what they wanted from their local branch. The best thing about being a Volunteer is you can really concentrate on your strengths, being part of a team everyone comes together to bring different aspects and opinions to the branch and each person is particularly good at one aspect of the branch, whether it be with the figures, writing minutes or organising events.
By September 2015 we had enough committee members to form a branch and since then our branch has grown from strength to strength. We have had a successful 2015 Christmas launch party and we have now organised our 2nd sponsored walk with over 60 people in attendance. Spiderman and Cinderella even came along to show their support. We are very happy to have a CLAPA presence here now in the North East as we felt there was nothing local for us and our children in the area
Becoming a Volunteer for CLAPA has helped me to develop new skills, build stronger local cleft community links and also it has allowed me to gain new friends and have lots of fun with a great group of like-minded people.”
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