There are those who say this site has nothing to do with doing good, nothing to do with helping people or moving the world to its future, that it has only to do with enhancing my own reputation, that it’s just a self-aggrandising, self-obsessed exercise in self-promotion. To them I say only this: if that were so, would I really give away some of my hard-earned savings every month? If I were so selfish, would I really take the time to research and vouch for a Charity of the Month each and every month? Would I try as hard as I do to enthuse and motivate the masses, persuading others to give if it was all about me? To these questions I say most strongly ‘nay’. All of which, appropriately enough, brings us to the announcement of August’s Charity of the Month: it’s me.
Let me explain.
You will recall I’m using my formerly rubbish legs to run two 10Ks, having sighed heavily as I updated you on my training far more often than was necessary or interesting. It started out as a small scale thing, a few of us looking to raise a few hundred quid for a charity we’re fond of, but we’ve ended up with a team of 17 and a target of £3,000. We look set to make that target our bitch, smashing through it like a frustrated estate agent with something to prove smashing through that wall of paper at the end of the assault course on Gladiators.
The money will go to Yaknak Projects, a tiny wee charity set up by four friends to run two children’s homes in Nepal. They support 16 boys in small, family-style homes and need £16,000 a year to cover food, clothes, healthcare, education, rent and salaries for their live-in carers. This is good people doing a good thing, regular people doing something. And I’ll admit to not being fully objective here; I’m friends (smirk) with the trustees and do a fair bit for them, but this is full on proper good. So I’m sponsoring myself – along with the rest of the team – knowing every penny I donate will go to Nepal; the trustees cover admin themselves. This is money well spent.
The whole thing points to the unavoidable conclusion that I am almost completely ace. You have aceness within you too. If you’ve ever found a single word on The Zero slightly interesting, if you’ve ever smiled weakly at a gag I thought was laugh-out-loud, if you’ve ever been inspired to Butterfly your way to a better life without actually getting around to doing it, now’s the time to pay it back and sponsor us here. Ta!
Photo credit: Yaknak Projects
