I've mentioned it in a couple of posts and gave a brief outline in my 2017 The Year Ahead post but I thought a dedicated post to my main goal of 2017, a real challenge and a fundraising effort would make a bit of sense, not least because it can be a feature post and I can easily refer people back to it so here is my official post on the why's and hows of my Walking 2500 Miles in 2017 for Birding For All.
I'm Walking 2500 Miles in 2017 for Birding For All
Right so after that long winded intro, this is my challenge in detail for 2017:
I plan to walk 2500 miles during 2017, with the aim in mind to raise £500 for the charity Birding For All.
So that is the basic gist of things, my plan is to walk 2500 miles, in total, through the course of the calendar year 2017. I hope to raise £500 for the access charity that I am a volunteer and trustee with Birding For All.
Why?
At the end of 2016 I found a great challenge being run by Country Walking magazine #walk100miles the idea of which is to walk 100 miles throughout the year, an admiral task when you consider UK citizens walk under 200 miles a year for transport on average. You can either use all miles or "boots on" miles (dedicated walks only in other words). So I signed up, I then checked my Fitbit stats and found in 2016 I had walked over 2000 miles (2340), clearly 1000 wasn't enough so I needed to beat that 2016 total.
And so 2500 miles through 2017 became my goal.
So Why Fundraise? And Why Birding For All?
Well when you set a challenge often things fall away after the first weeks and months, those early goals seem distant when an extra half an hour in bed can be had or a rainy day puts you off. I wanted a way to combat that so figured if I set my self up as a fundraiser I have extra motivation. I'm hoping that as the year progresses I will have more donations coming in and every new one will give me more drive to succeed.
As for the charity well it is two fold, firstly it is easy to raise funds for some charities, you throw the word cancer or kids in there and people will throw money your way, smaller charities like Birding For All whose aim is to improve access for EVERYONE at nature reserves struggle for funds, not that they need much to see them through the year (everyone who works for them is a volunteer, it is mainly printing costs for newsletters/leaflets and our regular stand at the British Birdwatching Fair that costs), so my raising £500 can make a real difference to them.
You can read more about Birding For All at Birdingforall.com
What are the Rules?
Well I will be using my Fitbit Stats to assess my mileage, I've calculated my stride length, to make it as accurate as possible, and I also use Map My Walk for dedicated walks, and compare the mileage there, which seems pretty similar.
I plan to count every mile I walk, not just "Boots On" as I don't do that much walking at work (I work in IT!) so the only real extra I will be adding is traipsing through the shops once in a while, and well let's be honest it is ALL walking.
I'm hoping to provide weekly updates on my progress on here, and on my My Donate page set up to collect funds (although that will just be a total distance walked so far number).
I also hope to "tick off" a few other challenges through the year involving walking (although have none set up yet), these include, assuming I can find time and someone willing to do them with me, the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge and walking up Mount Snowdon, but we will have to see how those go (any friends who fancy joining me or helping me get there, drop me a line).
How Can I help?
Hey I'd love a donation, every little helps no matter how small, if you can donate I would be really appreciative, you can donate at the following My Donate page (the charity gets more using them over just giving) - https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/walking2500milesin2017 -
I understand we don't all have money lying about, and if you would still like to help then spread the word for me, share this post or others talking about it, re-tweet my twitter posts on the challenge or share my Facebook posts. If you know of a corporation looking to sponsor someone let them know about me.
If all else fails just offer me a word of support, it is all appreciated, really.
If you want you can grab the badge below and pop it on your own blog or website (it will lead people back to this very post!)
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