Interested in helping The RSPB with their Together for Trees collection? Gabrielle Layzell let us know what its like holding a collection bucket...
The first time we collected for the RSPB, we thought it would be a good idea to dust off the fancy dress, we hoped this would attract attention and help bring in more donations. I dressed up as a bat and my friend Kat went for the lady bird look.
We’d already received our fundraising kits in the post. This provided us with everything we needed and gave us all the information we required to get started.
Armed with our collection buckets, we hit the streets of Hitchin in Hertfordshire. The weather was very kind to us as it was a lovely warm, sunny day. Our costumes raised eyebrows from some and smiles from others. It wasn’t long before the donations came rolling in.
We had a few interesting encounters with members of the public. We attracted the attention of a friendly dog. As the owners kindly threw some change into our buckets, they told us all about their dog called Blue, a renowned attention grabber whose tail never stopped wagging! You can see him posing here with Kat. He was adorable.
Children were also bemused by our lady bird and bat alter egos. They were all very keen to have their pictures taken with us and in return, we gave them some stickers which they were very happy with and displayed proudly around Hitchin town.
After our fun filled afternoon, we felt quite tired, but happy in the knowledge that we had Stepped Up for Nature. We counted up the contents of our buckets and took them to the nearby Post Office. We handed over our paying in cards and donations, which were banked directly to the RSPB. The last thing to do now was to go to the pub for a celebratory drink... still dressed as a bug and a bat of course! ;-)
Want to Volunteer? Ask me!