Sarah Nolan, one of this year’s youngest volunteers pulled out all the stops to fundraise this year for her trip to Cape Town in November. Working with four of her friends, they titled themselves ‘Teen Africa’ during their fundraising efforts. Sarah and her friends, Emma, Niamh, Aine, and Kerrie, held multiple fundraisers of all types over the past year in hopes to take part in the 2011 Building Blitz. Although events such as coffee mornings, a Halloween zombie walk, and  raffles of all kinds were held throughout the year, the three best fundraisers were the dinner parties, making Christmas decorations, and the Run-a-Muck day. The dinner parties always included delicious food and music provided by Sarah and her friends. During the dinners the girls held raffles for the guests which helped raise more than €2000. And, although at times the girls nearly lost sight of their end goal, making Christmas decorations turned out to be a merry and unique experience. The girls spent countless hours working together and got into a steady routine of burning themselves with the glue gun, accidentally sitting on holly and taking breaks to go outside in the snow and look for leaves they could use. “We got very close over the two months we spent making them, and despite the odd emotional breakdown or two along the way we definitely enjoyed learning how to make new things and the experience made us even more enthusiastic ”, says Sarah. And finally, the Run-a-Muck day was the girls’ favourite fundraiser of them all. The day had a brilliant turn out and their friends and family joined in efforts to help them exceed their original monetary goal. Sarah and her friends have truly proven that anything is possible when you set your mind to it! Congratulations Sarah and we look forward to seeing you in Cape Town!

Read other 'Volunteer Fundraising Stories' from 2011. >>