New stretch target
This money will ensure that our beneficiaries continue to have a regular music group, and more importantly, a listening ear, a friend, and a family that they can rely on.
+ est. £150.00
Taking inspiration from The Proclaimers, we have challenged the MC family to walk 500 miles, then 500 more to raise funds for the charity.
Project by Musical Connections
This money will ensure that our beneficiaries continue to have a regular music group, and more importantly, a listening ear, a friend, and a family that they can rely on.
Over the last 13 years, our team has been working tirelessly to connect older, socially isolated, and vulnerable people with each other and the wider community through the power of shared music-making. Having supported our members through the Covid-19 pandemic, we are delighted to have been able to resume 10 weekly music groups and choirs in care and community settings, and have already worked with over 200 beneficiaries since September. Our aim is to soon be back to pre-Covid numbers of 300+ participants over the age of 65 per year. We are also rebuilding our intergenerational work, and, over the coming year, anticipate delivering around 50 events involving many of our group members and hundreds of local schoolchildren and students.
Recently, we've been singing The Proclaimers' song 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)' during our weekly sessions, and thought it might be fun to see if we could reach the target. Walking is something that a lot of our members enjoy - whether that be a weekend hike or a pop to the shops - and given the focus of the charity on living happier and healthier lives, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for our groups to join together in song, step count and fundraising.
Over the next month, our members and musicians, alongside local schools, university students, and project supporters, will be practising the song together, recording their daily walks and submitting video evidence of their hard-earned steps. Our Musical Connections' musicians will then be totaling each group's mileage at the end of every weekly session and submitting the data into our mileage tracker, with the aim of reaching the 500 mile - and £500 - target. We're aware that many of our members don't have step trackers, so we'll be using Google Maps to work out the mileage of their daily walking routes, and then approximating the total based on that.
To a small charity such as ours, community fundraising makes a real difference to the future sustainability of our work particularly given the income that was lost during the pandemic. Please consider supporting us, so that our musical family are able to continue enjoying their weekly musical activities, and so that together, we can smash our big 500 targets - both miles and pounds!