Katie and Laura Jump!

The Salvation Army in the UK holds an annual appeal, well, annually.  For more info on that, click here.

The thing is, bless them, they go about it in such a daft way, that no one really knows the appeal is actually on - so I don't know how it is a viable source of fund raising for them.  I mean, in Australia, the Red Shield appeal is an annual event, held at roughly the same time each year.  There's advertising online, on the radio, on billboards, TV, posters etc, and if you were to ask the average person in the street, they'd know about it.  The appeal takes place on one day, a Sunday, when you're likely to have people at home, and each church organises a team of collectors - not just collectors from within the church, but school groups, youth clubs and so on.  Everyone gets involved - even McDonalds, who give free burger vouchers to those involved in collecting.  The appeal raises a lot of money and everyone knows about it.

Now to the UK.  I have been a regular church attender at the Salvation Army here for many years, and I still can't tell you when the annual appeal should be.  I only hear about it when the officer mentions it from the pulpit.  I never see any advertising for it on TV, or the radio, or posters, or anything.  It takes place over 2 weeks, and the idea is that members of the church sign up voluntarily to help the officer go collect at people's houses.  You're supposed to drop off the envelopes one day, and collect them (preferably filled with money) on another day.  Oh, and all this takes place in the evening, after work - when its dark, cold, and most people are unlikely to answer their door.  And can I also point out - not once have I ever had an envelope delivered to my address - so I have to assume that a large portion of the population just don't get collected.  Doesn't seem very effective to me.

Anyway, my mates Katie and Laura don't seem to think this is very effective either - or at least, don't want to have to give up their evenings to go out collecting in the dark and cold.  So this year, they decided that they would rather... jump out of a plane!

So they asked a load of us to sponsor them (and get others to do so) and then last Wednesday, they did it!  They jumped - and lived to tell the tale!  For evidence of this event, click here.

Now why am I posting about this - I mean, its not like I jumped or anything.  No, I'm doing this as a way of maybe raising extra funds for them by giving it a little advertisement.  So, if you would like to support the work of the Salvation Army, leave me a comment with your email address (I moderate all comments before publishing them, so I won't publish your email address, you don't have to worry about that) and I can tell you how you too can support the Salvation Army through sponsoring Katie and Laura.

In the meantime, girls, well done - you are fab!