Frank’s Epic Bike Ride
One of Intercountry Adoption Centre’s fundraisers rode his bike from John O’Groats to Land’s End last August to raise money for IAC. Frank Tripp is a 51-year-old plumber, part-time maths tutor and father-of-three from Muswell Hill, London. He cycled a whopping 1000 miles over the course of 20 days and raised £2,000. That’s £2 per mile.
To see him off in style, IAC threw Frank a party on Saturday 2nd July at The John Baird Pub in Muswell Hill. Among those supporting Frank were The Daddios, a live band fronted by Scottish actor George Rossi, best known for his role as detective constable Duncan Lennox on TV’s The Bill. There was a charity raffle, with top prizes kindly donated from the Natural Body Company, Oxygene Beauty and tea and coffee specialists W Martyn.
Thanks to all those who turned up on the night and made it such a success.
Frank’s Epic Bike Ride recently starred in the Hamstead and Highgate Express, and you can see the full article here.
China Town Fundraiser
One of IAC’s very young fundraisers tells her story of raising money in China Town for Intercountry Adoption Centre’s Stepping Stones to China Special Needs Adoption Appeal…
“My dad is a trustee of IAC and I was adopted from China. So on Sunday 6th February we (me, my mum and my younger sister, also adopted from China) set off early in the morning in a car packed full of donated books and specially created children’s cookbooks. We were going to China Town in London to try and raise money for the Stepping Stones Appeal. The Appeal is all about raising money so that IAC can work with China to allow UK families to adopt special needs children from China. We had high hopes of raising money – it was Chinese New Year and everyone would have hopes for the future!
In China Town, we quickly found our stall and started to set up the books. Not long after that, Jan (one of the senior IAC staff) and Tim Way arrived with more posters and helped us to set up the stall. More and more people started to come through the marvellous dragon gates. It sounds exciting, but after a while we realised that not many people seemed that interested. And so, we had to change our plan. No more hoping people would simply come to us! So we subtly made a channel which people had to walk down to get past our stall. I stood in the middle of the passage with a ‘Help a Chinese special needs child be adopted’ leaflet. This was successful and caught the attention of many people, who we then pounced on and presented with a leaflet.
We sold some books, gave away lots of leaflets, and exchanged plenty of business cards with Chinese people. We also talked to a lot of people interested in adoption. Several trips were made to Costa coffee to keep us all going, as it was slightly cold and certainly very windy. The noisiest and best bit of the day was when the Lion Dance came right past our stall. Our street was MOBBED and lots of people stopped by us then.
We raised £410.
I really enjoyed visiting China Town and the fantastic experience we had. I hope that others are enjoying raising money as much as I am!”
Virgin London Marathon
The largest fundraising event for IAC is undoubtedly the Virgin London Marathon. IAC is fortunate to have a number of runners who gallantly volunteer each year.
This year our marathon runners are:
- Simon Addyman
- Carl Devlin
- Yongsuk Moon
- Jim O'Reilly
- Martin Venables
Please give them your encouragement and support by donating through our Just Giving Page.
IAC Fundraiser, Ann Morgan, gears up to start the race
For a story of a previous runner go to the Real Lives page
Songs in the City - a night at St Mary Le Bow, Cheapside, London
IAC was fortunate to benefit from a concert given at St Mary Le Bow in London. This unique church provided an atmospheric setting for the concert, with the underground vaults hosting the interval reception.
The singers are acknowledged by the audience
Garden Opera, Suffolk,
IAC were delighted to be beneficaries of one of the popular Garden Operas. Rosie and Adrian Kean hosted the opera in the grounds of their home in Suffolk. Although not a balmy evening the weather remained dry and the lawns around the house were packed with picnics prior to the event. Katherine Samwell Smith, Rosie's daughter and herself an adoptee from Chile opened the evening by giving a short talk on the work of the Agency. For those of the Agency who attended it proved to be a relaxed and very English evening - lovely food, wonderful entertainment and not quite warm enough to do without a blanket to wrap up in!