October 2009

On the day I raised £87.92 – I thought I would be able to raise more money than that! I learned early on in my day that I need to raise people awareness of the charity before I could raise any money.

People don’t like be hassled by charities, usually what attracted people to my stand was the balloons ’cause their child wanted one.

People would then ask me what this stand is about, before asking for a balloon.

Some people had heard of CRY but many hadn’t, so I gave them information leaflets and directed them to the website.

I talked to them about my own experience – I found the day to be very beneficial.

Like it says on the tin, Awareness Week is just about raising awareness, so next year I will return again, hopefully sell some merchandise but the day is mainly giving information and talking to people and raising their awareness.

Joseph Tanner