96 HOURS OF SILENCE COMPLETE!

I DID IT! I was completely silent for a whole 96 hours (with very few minor slip ups), shocking, I know!

The first day and the last day were definitely the hardest, having to listen to my housemates talk about things and not being able to have an input killed me, I think it's safe to say that I went a bit crazy! Simple things like saying 'thank you' when shopping and 'excuse me' to people, were little things that bugged me the most!

A huge huge thank you to every single person who sponsored me, £577.74 was raised for East African Playgrounds, I am completely overwhelmed by the support and the efforts people will go to to make me be quiet!!

The moment that I could finally talk again!!

I know there is a few people who wanted to wait until I completed the challenge, so if you still want to donate my Just Giving page is: https://www.justgiving.com/Ellie-Waterer  

xxx

1 more day of Silence to go!!

Today has been the hardest day of silence, everyone has been sat in the kitchen chilling and there hasn't been much conversation, which makes me want to speak even more!!

Participating in this sponsored silence has made me realise how much I actually do speak and how much is just random rubbish! So, apologies to everyone for my excessive talking, but I guess if I wasn't like that I wouldn't have raised anywhere near as much money for East African Playgrounds!

Yesterday evening there was another slip up, my housemate knocked on my bedroom door and I said 'Come In!', so I will be donating another £5 to my Just Giving page!

Once again, thank you to everyone for your amazing donations and support, you have helped me raise an amazing £569.74!!!

xxx

Is Going Out Whilst Doing a Sponsored Silence a Good Idea?

The answer is no, it is not a good idea to go out when doing a sponsored silence....

I have very little will power and a fear of missing out, so once my house mates told me they were going out it took a 2 minute conversation and the phrase 'YOLO' to convince me to go out too!

My night consisted of not being able to order drinks, not being able to say hey to people I know and then people looking at my 'I'm Doing a Sponsored Silence' badge and high fiving me and laughing!

When we decided to leave, Burgers 'r' Us it was, I was asked 'Ellie you getting anything?' to which I replied....'Urm'!!!
This has gone under a house debate and has been decided that it is not a proper word but I still spoke so I will be donating £2.50 to my Just Giving page due to the slip up!


Today was going well, a solid 39 hours of silence and only a tiny slip up and then I coughed and was asked, 'Was that a fart?' to which of course I wanted to defend myself and said 'No it was a.....', ooops!!! So I will be donating a further £5.00 to my Just Giving page!


I wish to continue my silence with no more slip ups (hopefully)!
Thank you to everyone for your amazing donations and support! I have reached and gone over my £500 target (to be met by the end of December) set by East African Playgrounds, which is amazing!!

xxx

My 84 HOUR Sponsored Silence!

I want to start by saying a HUGE thank you to absolutely everyone who has sponsored me, I am overwhelmed by everyone's support and donations.

An special thank you to my dad and everyone at Howard Tenens who have donated me a magnificent amount of money!!

Due to raising an amazing £484.24 in 10 days (which is 30% of my overall target!), my silence is now 84 hours long!

I have been silent now for a whole 17 hours and 42 minutes (who knew this was possible?) and it's safe to say that it has been a lot harder than I anticipated...
I faced my first challenge when in the shower this morning, I couldn't sing (that word is used loosely) Adele - Hello at the top of lungs like I do most mornings, so I had to sing in my head, which is no where near as fun!

I then went downstairs and could not engage in normal morning report with my housemates e.g. 'Good Morning! What lectures have you got today?', so awkward silence it was.

My 2 hour lecture was the next hurdle, I could not turn to my friend Matt and express how bored I was learning about Piaget for the hundredth time or ask him if he wanted to go to Spar afterwards, which of course Matt found hilarious so proceeded to laugh at me for the whole 2 hours!!!

Spar was the next challenge, having to nod over enthusiastically to show the poor cashier, that had no clue what was going on, that I did in fact need a bag for my milk, of course Matt was still laughing at me...

The rest of my day has been spent with my house mates loving the silence and me trying to distract myself in every way possible.

Once again a massive thank you to everyone who has donated, I am extremely grateful!


If you haven't donated but wish to you can through my Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/Ellie-Waterer

This lovely photo was taken just 17 minutes in to the silence!

xxx

Sponsored Silence!

There are many things people would do to shut me up, so why not ask people to donate to charity to shut me up!

I have decided bravely to organised a 36 HOUR sponsored silence to raise money for East African Playgrounds, I have 2 main rules:

• If I slip up in any way I personally have to donate £5 to my Just Giving page (everytime)
• I will also be silent on social media (I can only use social media to promote/blog about the sponsored silence)
• **For every £100 donated an extra 12 HOURS will be added to the silence**

If you want help boost my silence any donations are welcome and will be very much appreciated!!

Donate through my Just Giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/Ellie-Waterer

Donate through text: 'EAPU80 £5' to 70070 (you can donate £1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 via text)

xxx

Pub Quiz!

Due to being social secretary of People & Planet, I used to my connections with them to hold a Pub Quiz!

With the help of Ellie & Paisley (the other social sec and president of People & Planet, as well as my house mates) we managed to put together some (mildly) intelligent questions for the quiz, we decided to have a People & Planet/Uganda round, a Disney round, a Plymouth round, a Celebrity round and a General Knowledge round!

A big thank you to Kieren Perry who made an amazing advertising poster for us and a thank you to UPSU for letting us hold the quiz in the SU and the advertising they helped us with!

The quiz went very successfully and we raised £62.72!

Thank you to everyone who came and supported us and a big congratulations to the winning teams!!

 

xxx

Krispy Kreme Sale!!

This week as a team we all came together and sold boxes and boxes of Krispy Kremes!

A big thanks to Krispy Kreme who allowed all of the fundraisers to buy a box of 12 for £5 and then allowing us to keep the profits to go towards our fundraising targets!

Doughnuts are a lot harder to sell then you may think (even to hungry students), so a massive thank you to everyone that bought a doughnuts from either the stall or from me running around the library bugging you!

xxx

Signing up to Volunteering with East African Playgrounds!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my page.

In June 2016 I will be flying to Uganda with other students, to assist in the building of playgrounds for the school children in a community near the city of Jinja.

Students are responsible for raising funds to purchase the equipment and playground parts that will be used in the build process. (Please understand that I am funding my own travel costs, as I wish that all the funds raised go to the community projects directly).

I will be trekking and canoeing through Uganda to visit the last remaining Silverback Moutain Gorillas, before going to the town of Jinja to build the playgrounds.

East African Playgrounds is a registered charity that aims to enhance the lives of children across Uganda by developing children’s learning opportunities, creativity and environments through building playgrounds and running arts and play sessions. Play is a human right and an activity we tend to take for granted in Western Society, however in less developed countries such as Uganda it’s something that children don’t necessarily have the opportunity to do whilst growing up. Playing is essential for cognitive development and it aids children in learning social, emotional and team building skills. These are things they may not learn in school and so may be otherwise deprived.

I have decided to start writing this blog to keep you up to date on my fundraising and also to show you the difference your donations made in Uganda when I travel there in June!

For anymore informationvisit: http://eastafricanplaygrounds.org/aboutus/

Any donations are welcome and will be very much appreciated by both myself, the chairty and the Ugandan community. My Just Giving page is: https://www.justgiving.com/Ellie-Waterer or you can text donate by texting 'EAPU80 £5' to 70070' (you can donate £1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 via text)

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind donations and support xxx

xxx