PhotoPLOD 2011

This post is from Timothy St Ather, founder of PhotoPLOD.



I am proud to be involved with this event and encourage you to support it, whether by entering a team or donating to AMR Action Medical Research, a worthy charity funding research into childhood illness.


Photoplod 2011
25 June

Although we are still coming to the end of winter, Plod fever will be on top of us in no time, so you will need to start finalising your teams.

For those of you unfamiliar with Photoplod, it is an annual challenge to complete the gruelling 40-mile route we have designed for you on the beautiful South Downs Way starting off at midnight.  The 40 mile route follows the ancient South Downs Way and heads east.  Your final exhausting push will be over the Seven Sisters to the finish line at Birling Gap, near Eastbourne.



This is a fantastic and challenging team event for friends, clubs and social groups. Also for corporate organisations looking to create some real team bonding or just some light hearted internal rivalry!  As indicated below, funds raised go to the leading children’s charity Action Medical Research www.action.org.uk

Your team must consist of 1 team ‘Captain’ (scoring walker) and 5 additional scoring walkers. You will also need at least 1 support team member – with at least one vehicle.



Some will know, but some of you won’t, that the full cost of the weekend for participants is £80 inclusive of everything; hotel, banquet, breakfast, St Bernard dogs, air ambulance, the lot. For anyone not staying in the hotel or attending the banquet the cost is £15 and for anyone attending the banquet but not staying at the hotel it will be £30. Any deposit already paid can be deducted from these amounts. You should send these payments with cheques payable to Photoplod to our Hon. Treasurer, Timothy St.Ather at:-

FOXX Associates Limited
14 Rocks Lane
Barnes
London SW13 0DB

Please indicate whether you are entering as an individual or as part of a team. Individual walkers will be allocated to one of the Walker’s Walkers teams which are teams of our sponsor, Mary Walker of Focus on Imaging. Teams need to appoint a captain and submit a registration form which can be obtained on request and will shortly be available on the website.

You may all know individuals who would never dream of walking but who would enjoy coming along as a supporter, spending a summer weekend on the glorious South Downs and being able to gloat at the pain and suffering of the heroic plodders.



Whilst on the subject of supporters, it is a good idea for you to identify them as early as possible. Most new teams make the mistake of thinking that as long as they have the requisite number of walkers, supporters can easily be added at the last minute and that it not always the case. If you think about the psychology of it, if you ask a supporter about now, they are likely to view it as an attractive prospect, if you ask them at the last minute when you are desperate, they will probably expect you to pay for them!

We will be asking for firm sleeping requirements at a later date but provisionally, at this stage, individual walkers and supporters will be automatically allocated a bed at the Eastbourne Centre and teams allocated eight beds.

Sponsorship
The Plod this year is again being done to support the wonderful work of Action Medical Research (AMR) and sponsorship forms will be sent out early next month. We have set you a target of raising £1,000 per team or £150 as an individual walker but of course these are targets which some will exceed with others managing less.

You are strongly advised to go onto the AMR website www.action.org.uk to set up a page for online giving. There are a number of substantial advantages for doing so. Firstly and most importantly, it makes the money so much easier to collect. You are likely to find lots of people, in your local pub this weekend, who will be happy to sponsor you for a fiver but if you go to them for the cash at the end of June many will have forgotten and will treat you as if you were a footpad or highwayman. Secondly, you have the money up front. Thirdly, AMR can use the money straight away and fourthly they can claim back the tax from UK taxpayers which makes the money you raise considerably more valuable.

Thank you for in anticipation of your support for our fund raising efforts.  Looking forward to seeing you in June

Timothy St. Ather

Photoplod Treasurer

www.photoplod.com

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