Friday, July 15, 2011

Fundraising update...

You have now helped us raise an incredible £1247.67 for school supplies in Central America.

At nearly 25% more than our fundraising total for the year, we truly are speechless by your generosity and support.

You have made more of a difference than you'll ever know.

Gracias amigos de Selvin!

x

Don't stop running!

On an extremely sunny Sunday 10th July, Vicki took to the streets of London to run the British 10k for Selvin.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Update from selvin HQ

Hello Friends,
Following on from our successful launch back in March and a very busy few months here at Selvin HQ, we thought it was about time we gave you an update on all of the latest Selvin news.

Visit Selvin’s blog
New posts have recently been added to the blog including Vicki’s training updates and final thoughts before her Edinburgh marathon, Stu’s report on the schools in Guatemala that we will be supporting this year and also a shopping list to give you an idea of how your donations can help improve the education of children in Central America.
You can read all of these posts and more by visiting the blog at http://selvincharity.blogspot.com
Selvin Goes Social!
Following the great warmth and amazing feedback we have received for our website we are pleased to say we have now taken over Facebook and twitter as well!
We continue to grow our presence on social networks, which provide an excellent way for you to keep up to date with Selvin news as well as getting in touch with us.
You can find us on Twitter as @selvin_charity or on Facebook by searching for ‘Selvin & Friends Foundation’.
A Scottish affair
On 22nd May Vicki took on the challenge of running the Edinburgh marathon. She battled against high winds, sore legs and painful feet to run over 26 tough miles in an amazing 5 hours and 27 minutes! A huge well done after the many months of hard work put into training!
       
                         
On the same day our Friend James Dunham made his running debut and took on the Edinburgh half marathon. James completed the 13.1 mile course in an impressive 1 hour and 49 minutes, a great achievement, congratulations James!
James’s efforts have been rewarded as he went on to raise a total of £184.50, which is massively appreciated by the Selvin & Friends Foundation and a big thank you to everyone who supported him on his challenge. 

Thank you James for running for Selvin.
Keep on Running
It seems 2011 the year we run for Selvin!
We have two friends, Jane Mackey and Rachel MacGregor who are getting into the running spirit by taking part in the Grand Union Canal Half-Marathon on 13th November. Jane volunteered with the children in Guatemala so she has seen first hand the shortfalls in educational supplies in the local schools in the region. A huge thank you and good luck to you both!  In true Selvin style, Stu will also be taking part in the run to lend our support.
Vicki will be completing two final runs in 2011, the British 10k in July and the Adidas 5k Woman’s challenge in September, both a little friendlier on the legs than Edinburgh!
A special thanks
We would really like to express a huge thank you to all of our friends and family who have so generously supported us. Since we have officially launched we have raised a huge amount of money for the local schools we are supporting in Guatemala. 
We are well on our way to our fundraising target and following the Silverstone half marathon and Edinburgh events we have raised over 95% of our target!
We are well and truly speechless. Your kind generosity really is appreciated not only by us but also the schools that we are supporting.
News from the Schools
The schools in Guatemala that we are supporting this year are run by the Phoenix Project. We asked the project leader, Dom Williams, to share some of the positive achievements that have been seen in the past year to give you an idea of just why projects like these are vital for supporting local children’s education.
‘In 2010, the results from the children’s national school exams have seen a significant improvement for children in San Andrés Itzapa (pink pin), culminating with all the children, bar six, passing their grades in Primary school, the majority with very high scores. The advances seen in Maths and Sciences were especially noticeable. All bar one child in 6th grade Primary School passed their exams, and will start Secondary school in 2011.
Similar results were witnessed in Santa María de Jesús (green arrow) with many children scoring high with just a handful not passing the grade and having to repeat. Sciences and Maths again saw an upturn. Due to the work starting Santa María later than Itzapa, we have yet to have the children pass through to Secondary school, which will be starting the next two years.’

The Phoenix Project has enjoyed many successes during the past year, most notably:
  • Over 34,000 teaching hours have been completed by volunteers to almost 600 children in both San Andrés Itzapa and Santa María de Jesús, from kindergarten through to 3rd Level Secondary School and college.
  • 98% of the children passed the year in both Primary and Secondary levels.

Visit Us
Don’t forget you can find more information about the Selvin & Friends Foundation along with the latest blog updates on our website www.selvin.org.uk
Contact Us
If you have any questions, ideas or want to get involved, you can get in touch via the website, Twitter or Facebook accounts or emailing us info@selvin.org.uk
Gracias amigos de Selvin!

Monday, May 23, 2011

A special thank you...

... must go to James Dunham who ran the Edinburgh half marathon yesterday morning, raising funds on our behalf.

James finished the course in an amazing 1:49!

Congratulations James!x

So long Edinburgh...

When I signed on to run the Edinburgh marathon around six months ago, I knew it was going to be a daunting task. I trained for many months, come rain or shine in the hopes that I would make it around the 26.2 mile course in one piece.

Yesterday was the day I had spent so long preparing for, both physically and mentally.  There were around 10,000 runners taking part in the full marathon, some running for charity, some running for personal reasons and others simply for fun. I always find the line up to a race the worst part, mainly due to the anticipation of knowing what lies ahead!

The course itself mainly comprised of a coastal path meaning lots of amazing views. On the down side, the course goes quite a way out of Edinburgh meaning many mile markers had very few supporters, but when they were there, they cheered the runners on and provided much needed water and jelly babies!

I hit a little bit of a wall at 16 miles, mainly because my legs were pretty tired, but the last 8 miles were the hardest as each one was running into headwinds, making the effort needed to take each step that much harder.


Getting to mile 25 was a turning point, knowing the end was in sight gave me one last push, and with Tom cheering me on to the finish line, I completed my first ever marathon in 5hrs and 27minutes.

For now I will be hanging up my running shoes, well for a week or so before I start training for the British 10k in July!

Thank you to everyone who wished me good luck and sponsored me – it really did keep me going when I thought I couldn’t possibly take one more step!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Run Forest Run!


If you ask friends that I went to school with, they will most definitely agree that running is not my forte! The mere mention of cross-country around Tiddenfoot Pit would make my heart sink!

And yet, I now find myself training to run a mammoth 26.2 miles in approximately 4 weeks time at the Edinburgh marathon! This day has been a long time coming, over the past four years I have been building up my distances, from 5k to 10k and last year I ran the Silverstone half marathon. Each year I say I won’t be running a further distance, and I can safely say that after this year, this statement will be true.

I have now been in training for 6 long months and am up to the 20 mile marker so I am pretty sure I will make the full distance in one piece! You can help me on the 22nd May when I am slogging it around Edinburgh in the name of charity (and madness) by donating via the Paypal link on our home page (www.selvin.org.uk).  Any donation will be gratefully received and will make a huge difference to the schools we are supporting – it will also keep me going when my legs want to give up!

Much love,

V
X

How you can help!


The smallest donation can make a massive difference in these schools, your generosity through donations will allow us to buy locally sourced items to not only support the delivery of education but also the recreational time of these children.

Below is an example of how your donations could be used to benefit these schools:

£2.50 could buy pencils for an entire classroom
£3.00 could buy notebooks for a whole class
£4.00 could buy a pack of paper for a whole class
£4.00 could buy 45 footballs for recess
£16 could buy 16 chairs for a classroom
£20.00 could buy 5 tables for a classroom
£30.00 could buy pencils for an entire school
£36.00 could buy a white board for a classroom