Scarlett and her virtual cycling buddies definitely earned their stripes in December 2020, smashing their 250km target by collectively cycling 283km over 4 days. They raised a jaw-dropping £660 for Stripey Stork plus match funding (and the equivalent amount for Renewed Hope). We are so proud of them wanting to make a difference in this way, whilst keeping active at the same time, especially when restrictions wouldn’t allow them to be together like they usually would. A positive experience to come out of lockdown and hopefully one they’ll remember forever.

Kelly from Boogie Monsters – the local rock band for children – took on the challenge of her life in December 2020. She pledged to go live on Facebook for 24 hours, singing and playing requested songs non-stop. It was amazing! She was never alone, even in the middle of the night she had friends and supporters join her, from as far as Australia. Her talents raised an amazing £1,670 which was split between two local charities close to her ever so big heart: Stripey Stork and George and the Giant Pledge. Boogying the night away – she is one special rock chic.

Brothers Taran and Hrithik were due a sort out of their unwanted clothes and toys, but it was the motivation of doing this to raise funds for Stripey Stork which was what they needed. At the time Stripey Stork had put a pause on accepting donations due to COVID-19, so they did the next best thing. They organised a charity auction amongst friends and family via Zoom and raised an impressive £64, whilst also giving their good condition possessions a second life. Sound familiar? We love how they used our ethos to benefit Stripey Stork. Well done boys!

The cancellation of the London Marathon 2020 didn’t stop our marathon runner Richard Feist from going the full distance. He ran the many, many laps around Merstham Cricket Club ground in the virtual London Marathon’s #The40thRace instead. Team Stork turned up to show our support, as well as his local entourage of followers, to keep this local legend going throughout the day. He persevered through the non-stop rain and we are so proud that he finished. What an achievement and what a guy for raising £5,846 for Stripey Stork.

The summer of 2020 was a hot one and with COVID-19 restrictions still in place, opportunities for the kids to entertain themselves were limited. We loved hearing how young supporters Sophie and Imogen turned their crafting skills into a money-spinner for Stripey Stork. After making some highly effective fans for themselves, they decided to create a variety of different designs and sell them, contact-free, to their neighbours for £1 each. They made £28 in total and managed to keeping their neighbourhood cool. Everyone was a winner!

We’ve had some weird and wonderful fundraising activities done in the name of Stripey Stork, but Paul’s wing walk has to be top of the list. In July 2020 he challenged himself to a formation wing walk; two aircrafts in a mini airshow with him strapped to the wing. He only went and did it, raising over £1,000 in the process! This wasn’t the first time he’d taken to the skies for us, in 2019 he also strapped himself to a plane’s wing whilst it looped the loop. Crazy but he’s our kind of crazy!

One of our young supporters with a heart of gold. He saved his pocket money during lockdown (twice) to donate to Stripey Stork. He’d heard about us as his Mum Laura was a volunteer (and is now one of our Volunteer Coordinators) and wanted to be in on the action. So he took action and raised £73 and £77 on two separate occasions. We love Oscar, a star who’s going to grow to be a fine young man.

Ava-May age 8 had been asking to raise money for charity for quite some time. Instead of picking one fundraiser and one charity, she went the full monty. From a cake sale and bike ride, to a Tik Tok dance challenge and quiz. We are so thankful that she chose us, as well as NHS Charities Together, to support, raising an amazing £2,000 in total. This was at a time when the first wave of COVID-19 crisis was at it’s worst, so by supporting two frontline charities she was able to make a big impact.