Naomi House, The Hunger Project and other charitable stuff

In my earlier blogs, you will see that Relish People has already supported a couple of charities during 2007.

As you know, I have chosen to work on one of the fund raising committees for Naomi House (the children's hospice based in Sutton Scotney, just outside of Winchester).

We generally meet every month to discuss what activities we want to do throughout the year to raise funds, and we have 2 key events planned.

They include a Murder Mystery evening to be held at the The Manor House in Aldermaston on Saturday 8th March and a junior golf day at the Basingstoke golf club sometime in August.

The aim is to organise something people will enjoy, whilst donating money to the charity, and we are lucky to have a reasonable sized committee that makes organising these events worthwhile.

I volunteered for 2 reasons, one is that the Chairman, Debs Loveridge, lost her sister to cancer. I remember Kim (my namesake) as someone who lauged at the world, even though she knew she was dying of cancer, demonstrating incredible strength for a woman of such young age. I have lost a number of family to cancer in the past, and it seemed a great way to give something back, whilst supporting a good friend in something that she passionately believes in.

Secondly, when we set up Relish People originally, our plan was always to build charitable work somewhere into what we do, and we proposed that anyone who worked for us, would get 1 week's paid leave to get out in the local community to 'give something back' by giving up their time to help others.

Wendy has chosen The Hunger Project, and is off to India this week to find out more. When she gets back and explains it to me, perhaps I will be able to elaborate more!

Why am I telling you this?

During the past week, I have been looking at a number of business websites, (research for approaching companies wanting to work with them) and I have been surprised at how many have a section dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility.

As a smaller organisation that is still in its infancy, it is easy to start to decide what you will and won't do, and we have the flexibility of being able to change and adapt quickly. Here at Relish People we think we have started to adopt some simple ways where we can make a contribution and fits nicely into what we believe!

Watch our website over the next couple of months, and you will see some changes that begin to relect these!

Touching Tiny Lives Charity Ball

I went along to a charity ball in aid of the Touching Tiny Lives last Saturday night at Heythrop Park.

It was the first event of many planned that will be dedicated to a charity the first on being the Touching tiny Lives, part of Action International.

It was very well organised, and the food was great. Along with the usual raffles and dancing, there was a charity auction and I am getting a taste for them! If you read my blog about about the Sparks charity event earlier this year, you will know that I got a little carried away last time.

However, this time I had gone with a budget in mind and when the 2 tickets to Goodwood Festival of Speed next year came up (an event I have been meaning to go to for sometime), I decided to bid for them! As I got to my limit, I hesitated a moment too long and they went for £50 more than my budget! Clearly the best thing for my pocket!

What was the lesson in this for me?

That being aware of and setting boundaries for yourself is good way to manage yourself. Knowing what you will and won't put up with; how far you will or won't go; what you will or won't tolerate.

For me, boundaries around money is something I need to work on. I tend to spend it whilst I have it, and then 'reign in' when I notice it disappearing rather rapidly! I have a faily easy relationship with money, sharing it easily with those closest to me, or to those causes that I have decided to support - what I need to learn, is that I have a limited amount of resources and I need to be sensible about how I use them!

Besides that? I am already looking forward to it already!