< #birthday30 Archives – Mamie Martin Fund

#Birthday30 news

As this is our 30th birthday year, we are running a #Birthday30 challenge. Supporters and friends are invited to challenge themselves to 30 activities. We are delighted to have 23 participants based in four countries (Scotland, England, Portugal and Canada). The range of activities is exciting. People are cooking, walking/hiking, cycling. They are taking photos of reservoirs, lighthouses, trees, churches. They are playing tunes, creating pieces of art and reading books. Phew!

This project will run all year and you can join at any time. Many participants have set up a fund-raising page but you could just use the overall #Birthday30 one. We find that just popping the link into your email signature or in your social media posts is quite enough to solicit kind donations.

A team of volunteers is managing this project and all roles are important. Handy Kamanga, our Instagram Manager, keeps the project alive on there from her base in Lilongwe, Malawi. We really appreciate her skill and enthusiasm. Hannah Wright, in Kendal/Manchester (depending on term time), creates little videos for each 10 activities submitted.

One of our participants, Karin Kastern, has completed her project of photographing 30 Norfolk Churches. We understand that she continued to do this long after she has finished her #Birthday30 lot. The word is that she has well over 100 now.

Projects like this serve to engage people in learning and talking about the Mamie Martin Fund and our work. Widening our circle of supporters and friends is as important as raising money and we are grateful to all who are engaging in #Birthday30 with such enthusiasm.

Lighthouses – #Birthday30

It’s lovely to see what activities our supporters are doing as their #Birthday30 challenges. We love the photos sent in by loyal supporter, Jean Gordon. Jean is spotting 30 lighthouses this year. In an effort to scoop several in one trip, she recently went on a bus tour of East Lothian, Berwickshire and Northumberland with reservoir-visiting Sue Dumbleton.

They visited some fascinating places and we put together this short video of Jean’s lighthouses to date.

Some of the facts we’ve learnt from Jean are:

A light on the spire of Berwick-upon-Tweed’s Town Hall acted as a landing light for shipping before the current lighthouse was built.

Brownsman Island has not one but two lighthouse ruins (1800 and 1811), later replaced by the Longstone Lighthouse – look closely and see the seals!

That Longstone Lighthouse was the home of Grace Darling, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter, famous for rescuing survivors from the 1838 wreck of the Forfarshire.

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Birthday30