*** SANTA STRIKE FORCE 2016! ***

miamee

Beasty wrote: »

In this thread, I would hazard a guess at €10,178, including €320 from my current €20 deal. Obviously that total doesn't include the 8 or so who did not specify amounts

(not that I'm counting:pac:)

You should be

I'm putting in another €50 today as the shopping is all done and I've been paid

Receipt ends in 229229

Beasty

Dammit!!

Better make that €10,248.....

Yellow pack crisps

I'm not trying to compete with Beasty as he is a Beast all to himself and i have great admiration for what he is doing and has done previous years. Apologies if I'm butting in but its a great cause and i try to give what i can to charities that have the ethos of 100% of the monies go to where they are meant to go. So if we raise 300 more euro between now and midnight ill match that.

Mycroft H

Just thrown 20 quid in. It's not much but back to being a student.

Reciept #869010540W5103825

DeVore

The paypal account alone stands at 7,831.30 ... while the bank account stands at 10,337 after some sizeable donations principally by Beasty (and a couple of others) ... this is after the Crumlin Heart Ward hit (which technically belonged to last years run, this thing pretty much trundles along all year now) so... this is a good year and many thanks to you all for all the donations, big and small.

If you are wondering "why aren't you out spending this money Santa!" its because over the years I've learned that
1. Charities are just as mad as everyone else at this time of year and having some looper turn up with a bunch of stuff on their doorstep xmas eve isn't always ideal

2. The money is more effectively spent in discussion with them. As romantic an idea as it might be for me to just turn up with stuff... there were too many times when it was clear a little communication could target the money much more effectively. So now I open a dialog with them and get a better idea what they *need*.

So now I do one symbolic hit at xmas and then start in Jan to locate, investigate and hit targets.

So, please keep the donations coming and I'll keep you informed as to where it goes!

V1llianous

€20 donated.

Receipt ending 494N

Merry Christmas all !

Notsomindful

Great job everyone - unable.to donate as I lost my sw payment 2 weeks before Xmas so very little cash at min. Once I am sorted, I will donate.

Btw, do ye take nominations for charities?
My son has autism and attends the Rainbow Club in Cork which provides subsidised therapies for asd children and groups to improve social skills etc.... They would really benefit from a tiny part of this fund

Beasty

Yellow pack crisps wrote: »

So if we raise 300 more euro between now and midnight ill match that.

Nice to be on the giving (or is it receiving) end - €50 (or is it €70) pledged.....

:pac:

uck51js9zml2yt

€30 to take advantage of Beastys generosity


Receipt 6V313484WV858443X

Chuchote

Poor Beasty will be turning his pockets inside out after Christmas!

Yellow pack crisps

Beasty wrote: »

Yellow pack crisps wrote: »

So if we raise 300 more euro between now and midnight ill match that.

Nice to be on the giving (or is it receiving) end - €50 (or is it €70) pledged.....

:pac:

Call it 70€ 😀

Beasty

Nolan Bitter Peg wrote: »

€30 to take advantage of Beastys generosity


Receipt 6V313484WV858443X

You can blame/thank Yellow pack crisps today! He's doing the match

skerry

€50 donated - sounds like a great charity and great to see 100% goes to the cause.

Receipt number - 7P887812R3891740F

January

Notsomindful wrote: »

Great job everyone - unable.to donate as I lost my sw payment 2 weeks before Xmas so very little cash at min. Once I am sorted, I will donate.

Btw, do ye take nominations for charities?
My son has autism and attends the Rainbow Club in Cork which provides subsidised therapies for asd children and groups to improve social skills etc.... They would really benefit from a tiny part of this fund

You can suggest charities but they'll contact the charity and see what they need rather than donate funds and it can't be medical equipment.

thesandeman

I don't do PayPal, nor intend to, but if if any established/trusted Boardsie in Galway (or preferably but not very likely Clifden) is willing to donate €50 on my behalf I will gladly pay them back as soon I can meet them.

January

You can do bank transfer.

donnacha

Donated €50. Merry Christmas all.

Receipt: 2UG37956SP773702J

heroics

Another 20€ Added

ID 4MT28649DA3683321

Well done to all and a happy Christmas

DeVore

In the new year I will write up how to nominate a charity (pretty much every qualifying charity gets something, usually a full project!)

Our requirements:

1. Primarily for kids. I'll stretch that occasionally to include things like a sofa for a carers room but predominantly its for children. The remit of the charity can be quite wide, everything from homelessness to acute cancer care has been covered. Pieta house has been hit a couple of times for children/young adults with mental health needs. The reason for this is not "awww the childwwenn"... its because this is where our meagre funds will make the most impact. Its a simple numbers game.

2. No medical equipment. This is really hard, but if we started looking at dialysis machines, well... our fund isn't going to go very far. Or anywhere. Add to this the meta-game that if we (the people) start taking over that role, the state will simply let us. Plus we are small. This cannot be our fight, we simply cant move the needle. The closest we have come to this is the 3d printed hands cos its hard to play without hands

3. Must have a permanent location. We need the equipment to go somewhere where it can be used by as many kids as possible.

4. No individual gifts for individual kids. We have on very rare occasions bought a toy or something for every kid in a place, but usually we don't. This is to maximise the impact of the money. An item in a common room is going to get used a lot more than one kid's toy in a box.
The hardest part of this job is getting letters from individual parents telling me about their kid's desperately needed operation. We just cant do that sort of thing.

5. Quality of life improving. We target the rest of the kid's life after they are stabilised from medical care. Life isn't enough, living is the goal. If you've ever been in a kids hospital or a childrens charity, they're pretty boring places as the staff don't have the time or resources to entertain the kids. This is where we have the funds to move the needle. And its where we can (because of our approach to red tape or the lack thereof!) actually target a front line need that isn't going to get fulfilled up the chain of command.

Basically everything is an attempt to maximise the impact of the money while minimising the overheads (mostly I now buy things from Amazon and have them shipped straight to the charities to avoid any delivery expenses etc)


Anyway, ping me a PM if you have a charity that fulfils these requirements and we'll put them on the list!

Hellrazer

Threw in 20 just there.
Transaction number ending 6234

Chuchote

Examples?

DeVore

You mean examples of charities we've hit?

Pieta House,
Barretstown,
Laura Lynn,
Jack and Jill,
Maria Goretti foundation,
Don Bosco Houses
all the major hospitals with childrens wards
Bumbleance... technically they don't have a residence, kinda mobile "houses"
Blossom Ireland
Enable Ireland
Debra Ireland

that's just the ones I can remember off the top of my head ... its been 14 years
Some of those are perennials (like Barretstown) simply because they are really responsive and just damned focused on the same goals as us.

Notsomindful

January wrote: »

You can suggest charities but they'll contact the charity and see what they need rather

That would be fab...as equipment is always needed.

Beasty

Chuchote wrote: »

Examples?

Have a look at this thread from 2013 which covers some work done with Bumbleance

IIRC that was all initiated by someone linked to the charity mentioning something about what they were doing in an earlier SSF fundraising thread

thesandeman

January wrote: »

You can do bank transfer.

I don't deal with banks (un)fortunately.

brianomc

I'm sure we've hit the €300 for the day but just incase, here's €50 to go with it
71222855JM1492819

Thanks all

kirb42

here's €50 to go with it
71222855JM1492819

I can match that...

9TF58616JK172****

Ken.

Ending 1311K.

€20 donated.

uck51js9zml2yt

DeVore wrote: »

The paypal account alone stands at 7,831.30 ... while the bank account stands at 10,337 after some sizeable donations principally by Beasty (and a couple of others) ... this is after the Crumlin Heart Ward hit (which technically belonged to last years run, this thing pretty much trundles along all year now) so... this is a good year and many thanks to you all for all the donations, big and small.

If you are wondering "why aren't you out spending this money Santa!" its because over the years I've learned that
1. Charities are just as mad as everyone else at this time of year and having some looper turn up with a bunch of stuff on their doorstep xmas eve isn't always ideal

2. The money is more effectively spent in discussion with them. As romantic an idea as it might be for me to just turn up with stuff... there were too many times when it was clear a little communication could target the money much more effectively. So now I open a dialog with them and get a better idea what they *need*.

So now I do one symbolic hit at xmas and then start in Jan to locate, investigate and hit targets.

So, please keep the donations coming and I'll keep you informed as to where it goes!

Have you been in touch with Temple Street.
I've had friends who have had their kids (and as a result siblings) in there long term. 12 months plus so know first hand the effects it has on families. I'm sure they'd appreciate a call in the New Year:D

Slutmonkey57b

I think temple street were one of the first SSF beneficiaries when the lads went in dressed in matrix gear, but I could be mistaken.