Tag: charity

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It’s that time of year again ..

I am Running for Feel the Force Day …. My partner in crime Sam will be joining me again this year, along with Jonathan and Mandy will make up the #TeamRun4FTFD to raise funds.

Jonathan has cerebal palsy and he doesn’t let that slow him down. Mad on trucks, cars and any kind of awesome vehicle (just see Shaw on Tour for details), he has recently done a bunch of exciting stuff including running (in a race chair), ice skating and trampolining.
Mandy is the biscuit queen 🙂 Famous for her cakes and biscuits at Feel the Force Day – last year she raised over £250! As well as baking she is Jonathan’s carer and they are a formidable team .. We are really looking forward to having them on the journey this year.

For those of you who do not know what Feel the Force Day is ..  Feel the Force Day events are film and TV conventions with a difference. The events are designed around disabled people and make them as accessible as possible. Access does not just mean a disabled loo and a ramp, it’s about attitude, contact and all the subtle things that make things easier. Most conventions have signs to do not touch – FTFD events are all about touch and smell in every sense. Costumers make themselves available to visually impared guests to touch, quiet rooms are available for guests who can not cope with the hussle and bussle of a busy event and there are one on one sessions with costumes and props for guests too.

 

So I am asking kindly for any donations to our team and for you to spread the word ..

 

Any sharing or *pimping* of the cause would be amazing .. and thank you to those who donated last year and have this year too .. I feel so pasionate about this cause and it is entirely run and funded by volunteers.

 

PDF version of the poster can be found here

WebSite: http://run4ftfd.co.uk

Facebook: Run4FTFD

Twitter: Run4FTFD

Instagram: Run4FTFD

Sponsor page: http://bit.ly/run4ftfd17

 

THANK YOU so much

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Who knew my love for StarWars would win me a prize

On May the 4th (also known as StarWars day – you work it out) one of my good friends and former co worker (not sure how he put up sitting opposite me for 2 and a half years 🙂 ) Mr Dave Sheryn pinged me with an interesting link to a starwars costume competition ..

“That’ll be fun”, I thought, “will give it ago .. have a snowballs chance in hell of winning” – so I posted this pic of me

With the message

O well if we are showing off star wars costumes .. this is my mandalorian - made, painted & worn by me :D

Didn’t expect to hear a thing back ..

For those of you that know about my StarWars obsession – I spent about 2 years inbetween life, work, illness, getting married etc. to make my mando costume – it was a labour of love which I made and painted myself and its always in upgrade mode 🙂

Imagine my surprise when I recieved this tweet on Revenge of the 5th (that’s the 5th of may incase you were wondering) …

O M G was one of the nicer expletives that may have left my lips …. I NEVER win anything …

The prize is a Nerf Millenium Falcon and I can’t thank The Freaky Clown enough for this .. thanks again for picking me

It’s bloody amazing … I haven’t unboxed it yet as I am worried I will spend hours playing with it and not want to stop 🙂

I do have plans for it though .. I am going to lend it to Feel the Force Day for their touch table – and i really need to find it somewhere to live at home ..

 

 

 

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Been kinda busy .. BUT

Had a bit of a beast of a project which is almost done ..  Connections on IBM i (iSeries, AS400), with Docs on Windows, Kudos analytics and a bunch of other stuff .. I have loads to blog about that .. that is for another day as I am currently writing all the documentation up ….

 

In other news .. it may be a bit of a secret but I am a tiny bit of a Star Wars and Disney fan and I do like to throw a Costume on to raise money for a good cause or two. I have also been inspired by my good friend Mr Tim Clark who has recently blogged about making a change to lose weight and get fit. I have decided to follow his lead.

So two weeks ago I started the same Cambridge Weight Plan as Tim and I also have the support of the amazing Marissa – It hasn’t been easy as it is a massive shock to your body to basically stop eating *crap* and just give it what it needs, but I feel amazing ..

So on the back of this ..  my Best Pal, fellow Disney and costuming nut, the lovely Samantha Cunningham talked me into running a 5k at the inaugural Disneyland Paris Marathon Weekend .. initially I was terrified of the thought as I haven’t done any kind of real running since I was in High School (I used to be a 100 and 200m sprinter). The more I thought about it, I realised that I can use this as a goal and to keep me motivated to keep on with the weight loss and exercise.

I am not known for my will power I must admit, I was worried I may cave or give up !! To stop this from happening I am running for a charity. Specifically the 1st Sensory Legion who are the driving force behind Feel the Force Day.

 

Feel the Force Day events are film and TV conventions with a difference. They are the only conventions that are designed around disabled people and make them as accessible as possible. Access does not just mean a disabled loo and a ramp, it’s about attitude, contact and all the subtle things that make things easier. They are an amazing bunch of people .. so Sam and I are running for FTFD … we want to raise as much for them as possible as everything is funded by donations and the whole team are volunteers with day jobs …

If you can spare a £, $, € or any other currency please head over to my just giving page or the team page.

 

Thanks in advance for all your support .. 😀

runForFTFD

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Can you spare an item to help raise money for two amazing causes?

Friends, Geeks, Costumers, fellow Disney fans, lovers of star wars, friends of friends, basically everyone ….

As some of you know I am part of a team behind a charity convention later this year (August 7th).
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Our aim is to raise much needed funds for two amazing causes

Demelza Hospice Care for Children – a charity supporting children and young people (0-19) who are not expected to reach adulthood, and offer support to their families across Kent, South East London and East Sussex

Feel the Force Day (registed charity – 1st sensory legion) – Feel the Force Day is an accessible film and TV event designed for visually impaired and disabled people. Days include tactile costumes, props, vehicles, TV and film related smell jars… plus a few new and original ideas at each event.

All proceeds from Invictacon will be split between the two charities above – as you will agree both great causes.

 

So how can you help us?

The Invictacon team are looking for donations from you .. not in the monitory sense (although cash donations are lovely) – we are looking for items that we can use in our raffle and blind auction.

It can be anything related to film, tv, sci-fi, comic books, gaming, sport, any fandoms etc… that will help us raise some funds for Demelza and FTFD

 

How can you get it to us?

  • IBM/LOTUS/Conference people – we are at Connect 2016 in Orlando and Engage 2016 in Einhoven – bring it along (as long as i can fit it in a case)
  • Costuming friends – we will be at a few sci-fi / comic cons this year – let us know where you will be and we will come and collect or arrange for a friend to accept it on our behalf
  • Anyone else -You can contact us to arrange pick up (if you are local to the southeast of the UK) or postal / courier

 

Any donations will be gratefully received – and we would love to tell the world that you have donated a prize (if you don’t want us to do that, that is also ok)

We are also looking for category sponsors for the costume / cosplay competition (or for the whole comp) – a small prize, trophy and certificate will be presented in each category

  • Kids under 10
    Kids 10 – 16
    Adults 16 and over
    Best Group

The competition is being judged by the lovely Alan Flyng – Star wars (ESB / ROTJ – storm-trooper and imperial officer) who is an amazing costume maker / wardrobe master who has worked on thousands of TV, film and theatrical productions.

 

Thank you

So my plee for help ends .. if there is anyway you could part with something no matter how small to help us raise funds for both causes the whole team would be so so grateful.

The team and I can not thank you enough – we are all volunteers and get nothing but a warm and fuzzy feeling for raising some well needed funds for two amazing causes.

 

So thank you

Sharon, Sam, Nathan, David and Nicky

 

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Calling my developer friends

Hello developer types .. as most of you know I do a lot of work with the iCosplay anti-bullying charity and we need some help (please).

We are looking to reward costumers for doing charity work, community work, visiting sick kids in hosplital, etc . Their progress will be voted on via FB which is straight forward enough – but at the end of the year the top community costumers will be invited to the Wyntercon event in Eastbourne (in Oct 2015)  for the *end of season* pageant where ultimately they will be recognized for everything they have done throughout the year.

We are after a mobile app that we can use for the team to mark each of the entrants – on their costume, community assistance and charity work and anyother details that they can provide about what they have done through-out the year. It needs to be able to run on ‘droid and ios, the backend / server can be anything really as long as I can put up a server for it ..

If any one can help out .. we will be eternally grateful, will happily promote your awesome skills via the iCosplay site and FB page and you will get tickets for the Wyntercon event.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give us on this .. please ping me via twitter / FB or Skype if you think you can help us ..

 

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Please sponsor us Dandering for Dosh

The Cube Soft team (Nathan and I) have joined with some other fantastic members of the ICS (Lotus) Community and are joining this years Dander for Dosh.

10 Geeks, 100 Miles, 5 days – what could possibly go wrong :)

In previous years a group of community members have raised money for worthy causes with a sponsored walk across some of the British Isles most beautiful country side.

D4DThis years walk is the Lleyn Peninsula Coastal Path (Edge of Wales Walk) 85 miles in five days, and as our coordinator the  lovely Eileen Fitzgerald says “.. there will be blisters , there will be tears .. but most definitely there will be laughter and wine :-) .. ”

This is a truly global community effort with community members from Ireland, NI, the Netherlands, UK and the USA who have signed up so far. This is the route we are taking Lleyn Peninsula Coastal Path (Edge of Wales Walk)

 

 

 

msfThis year the charity that we are supporting is MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders) a fantastic organization that does some amazing work in developing countries.  Steve himself has worked with them in the past. So go on and give generously !!

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If you would like to sponsor me/us checkout our just giving page or for any of the team please head over to the team just giving page and hand over your hard earned euro, pounds and dollars.

You can also text a donation

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it is for a fantastic cause – thank you SO much in advance from this years team.