Dear Friends and Supporters,

 

Welcome to the October / November newsletter - with two months rolled into one to get everything in! Show season has been hard work but a lot of fun, and we have been present at all the major London snow shows, raising awareness about Snow-Camp's work and bringing the charity some fantastic new supporters. It has been a very positive time - read more below!

 

Plus this month, Snow-Camp was featured in The Times for the first time, raising our profile significantly! It was a big day for the charity after 8 years of work - you can read the article here! 

 

New donors the Salters Charitable Foundation and The Starr Trust made generous donations to support bursaries for young people, and upcoming events The Everest Challenge and Brighton Marathon are almost full!

 

Plus we are recruiting for 2012! Could you be our new Events Manager...?

 

Enjoy this month's update.

 

The Snow-Camp Team

The Graduate Programme is coming up to the half way point and everyone is making great progress. The groups - made of young people from St Andrews, Castlehaven Youth Project, Virtual Venturers, Hyde-Housing, Mentivation Services, Roupell Park, Alford House, Triangle Adventure Playground, Woodpecker, Hounslow and Centrepoint - have all been working well with the instructors at Hemel SnowCentre and have all moved from the beginner slope over to the main slope, which is a great achievement in such a short space of time! The sessions really demonstrate the determination and passion that everyone has developed for snowsports! Well done guys, keep up the hard work!

 

This week we had Jim Duncombe the Recruitment and Operations Manager from Natives come and talk to the groups about how he got started in the industry and to chat about working a season in the mountains. The groups loved it and were really interested in the opportunities that were on offer. Thanks Jim!  To watch a 10 minute movie of the full Snow-Camp Journey from the perspective of 5 young people who completed the full programme last year please see:

 

Back in 2003, when we were trying to launch Snow-Camp, I remember being politely asked to leave the Ski Show for giving out Snow-Camp leaflets without having a stand! The embarrassment was worth it though, as while we were inside we at least managed to convince Martin Bell to get onboard, and he has been a supporter ever since!

 

These days the Ski Show is always a fantastic event for Snow-Camp to be part of, and the support we get form the Show and VOS Media invaluable. Our stand was well located and busy all week, patrons Chemmy Alcott and Graham Bell dropped by to say hello and for the 3rd year running the final big air session became a Snow-Camp charity event! It was awesome to see some of the best riders in the UK all wearing Snow-Camp T-shirts and putting on an amazing show. Massive thanks to all the riders, everyone at VOS media, Stu and Spence from Soul Sports, our volunteers, patrons and all the staff who worked so hard to make the week a success!

Having barely recovered from the Ski Show, it was time to head to the fantastic Relentless Freeze Festival at Battersea power station where we were the official charity partner! We had been at Freeze before, but never in this capacity and we were delighted to be involved. Read the Freeze Press Release about the partnership here! 

 

Our stand attracted a lot of interest and it was particularly encouraging to get such positive feedback from the younger crowd at Freeze - the supporters of tomorrow!  James Rodd, Events Marketing Manager at Freeze, said, "Snow-Camp have opened up snow sports for so many inner city young people who would otherwise never have this opportunity - we are right behind the charity and hope to be able to raise awareness of their work throughout the festival."

 

The massive kicker dominated the festival skyline, and some awesome riding, great weather and a party atmosphere meant Freeze 2011 was a huge success. Thank you again to everyone at Freeze for giving us this opportunity - we hope we can be back next year!

 

Read More About The Freeze Festival

Snow-Camp patron, BBC Ski Sunday presenter and all round snowboard guru Ed Leigh dropped into the office recently to say hello. We shot a quick interview with him and he gave us a signed snowboard to use for this competition! To watch the interview please click here! To read the article in Ski and Snowboard Magazine click here! And to enter the competition to win Ed's signed board just text SNOW and your email to 70099. Each text makes a £2 donation to Snow-Camp - and the draw is on December 7th! Good luck!

Friday 11th November is the last possible day to sign up for the Everest Challenge in 2012. We are now pushing 40 participants for the forthcoming event - making 2012 already bigger than last years Challenge - so if you want to be involved get in touch soon! 

 

The Challenge is a unique 2 day charity snowsports event run in the French Alps designed to give you a skiing and boarding experience you will never forget! If you fancy the challenge of skiing or snowboarding a total of 150km across 15 resorts over 2 days, including a night ski session and a night mountain hike, the Everest Challenge is for you!

 

The 2012 Challenge is now confirmed for the 26th - 29th January 2012 in Portes du Soleil, France. Why not get involved as a team or individual! Find out more below.

 

http://snow-camp.org.uk/everestchallenge/

The wonderful people at Starr Trust have supported 21 childrens charities this year through their Swim for Smiles campaign. Snow-Camp was the lucky recipient of a £4,000 donation to support 4 young people through the full range of programmes - and received a cheque from CEO Rob Starr at the Trusts recent celebration evening. Huge thanks to everyone at the Trust for their support and enthusiasm for Snow-Camp's work and for their hard work raising such a fantastic total! 

 

The Starr Trust Website

 

We are now up to 12 runners signed up to our Brighton Marathon Team - and we have had to buy more places as we are now aiming for a team of 15!  There are even rumours of a sponsorship deal - watch this space! If you want to get involved, get in touch soon - local comedian Steve Coogan has even signed up to run this year, so you could find yourself jogging alongside Alan Partridge! Aha indeed!!

 

Find out more about the Brighton Marathon here!

Do you know a company or group that runs a ski trip? The Good City Ski Company can now book any resort, hotel, flight and package...if your group books a ski trip through us, not only will Snow-Camp get half of the profit, but you will receive a £50 Ellis Brigham voucher to say thanks!

 

For more info on this opportunity please contact Dan on 07930 69538 or see www.goodcityskicompany.com

Many thanks in advance to Dez Mighty and Gary Lawson for putting on this fantastic event at the XOYO gallery in Islington to raise funds for Snow-Camp. It is going to be an excellent show and definitely worth visiting if you are in London. To find out more about the Conquering Mountains Photographic Exhibition, check out their Facebook page below.

 

Conquering Mountains Exhibition Facebook Page

It's tough for charities out there at the moment. We are lucky at Snow-Camp to have built up a range of fantastic supporters who are willing to do what they can to help the charity through to the better times that are no doubt ahead. Fundraising events involving these supporters have become essential in helping fill the funding gap created as traditional funding sources have declined, and we are seeking to expand this area next year by recruiting an exceptional Events Manager.

 

The post will be responsible for running and developing all the events Snow-Camp currently operates - The Everest Challenge, Jump for Snow-Camp, Run for Snow-Camp, City Drinks, Ski Show, Freeze, Heli Show and more - and also for developing new events and initiatives to enable more supporters to get involved. The full Job Description will be ready by the end of November, for interviews early in the New Year. Please get in touch if you are interested in finding out more and have proven experience in this area! 

 

This month we would really like to thank:

• Ed Leigh for a fantastic interview and competition
• Matt Barr for getting us in The Times!
• Hayley at the Total Heli Ski Show for the support and raffle donation!
• Stu, Spence and all the riders at the Ski Show
• Tim, Rachael, Cat, Abi and all VOS Media.
• All at Freeze, especially Ryan and James at Sportsvision. Thanks guys!
• Chemmy Alcott and Graham Bell for support at the Ski Show and Total Heli Ski Show
• Rebecca D for her help with the Good City Ski stand at the Ski Show
• Dez and Gary for all ongoing work with the Conquering Mountains event coming up this month!
• Jim at Natives for 2 fantastic talks to the young people on the Graduate Programme
• Paul, Roger, Rema, Chauntelle and Yvonne - for all the support from Nubian Ski!
• Salomon, Hemel Snowcentre, VOS media, Gone Boarding, Freeze and Natives for supporting young people with Peak Potential work placements.  
• John at Gtrek - for all the gadget know how and support!
• Dan at Snowchateaux - for another month of good ideas and enthusiasm!
• Maritza for being an events superstar! And all our volunteers and young people who helped out this month. Thank You!
  

If you would like to get involved with our work we would love to hear from you! Please contact Dan at dan@snow-camp.org.uk or 07930 695384 / 01273 241 383.

That's all for now, thanks as ever for your support and interest.

 

The Snow-Camp Team

T: 01273 241383
E: info@snow-camp.org.uk
Web: www.snow-camp.org.uk
Registered Charity Number: 1101030

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