Bolton Bulls Easter Fundraiser

Cake donated by Occasion Cakes, Bolton

The power of social media strikes. I started chatting to the Bolton Bulls a while ago now on Twitter through Michael, one of their players (@RatedR1882). I noticed that they were doing an awful lot of fundraising to keep afloat, so I was keen to get involved when they asked for my help.

The Bulls are a wheelchair basketball team whose members can be either physically disabled or able bodied, and range from aged 14 to 60!

So, I recruited fundraising soldiers! My colleagues were more than happy to help out, especially as many of them follow the Bulls on Twitter too.

Today we ran four different events:

1. A sat down basketball 'shoot-off'
2. An egg painting competition
3. An Easter bonnet parade
4. A raffle with some spectacular prizes donated by local businesses

Our guests for the morning were the Bulls' chairman Steve and his family, Michael, and some of my colleagues' children. They were our judging panel!

Before I go into the detail of the day's events, I must warn you... my colleagues are fiercely competitive! So much so I felt it only fair to warn our visitors their may be accusations of cheating, offers of bribes, sabotage and heckling. I wasn't far off... One thing they all have in common though, is they all rally for a good cause - and they did.

Basketball 'Shoot-Off'
The rules were simple. Get as many balls through the hoop in 60 seconds whilst sat down. Sounds easy? Yeah... not with a pants hoop and a foam ball!

Martin and his ball boy. Bending the rules...

The winner, with 9 hoops was Ashley, pictured below.

Michael, Ashley, Callum and Steve

Egg Painting Competition

This was very much played down by the staff right up to Wednesday evening. Then they came in all their splendour!

Shregg - created by Robbie, Eddie and Libby

And the winner... Barry's Star Wars eggs! I am reliably informed from an exhausted looking Barry that he was up until 2.30am creating these bad boys...

An Easter Bonnet Parade

Now then. This is where it got messy. My own team had one objective, and for the first time ever it was not to win. Although that pained us, we were going for the embarrassment factor. A sneaky member of our team signed a colleague and I up for a three legged egg and spoon race for Sport Relief recently. Parade you say...? Easter bonnet karma got his ass. Next thing he knows, he's prancing round looking like this...

Dave and his amazing techni-coloured bonnet

Unlucky. We really went to town on the 'embellishment' (I heard the gasps of horror from crafters everywhere...)

However, we weren't the only team to put in a bit of effort...

I can only apologise for a fully grown man dressed as a chicken. I can't offer you an explanation as to why, only promise that it won't happen again. Think yourselves lucky that the the chap in the checked shirt 'bottled it' and didn't bother with his wife's 'frock'. That is not a lie. Our team did actually win the competition, so two birds, one stone as they say!

Sam also came with his hat and the best smile this side of the Pennines...

The Raffle

The raffle prizes were donated by local businesses and my Twitter friends. Prizes included:

• A cake from Occasion Cakes - above
• A £100 voucher for JJ Catering
• Lunch for two at Cherry's Coffee
• Show tickets from the Albert Halls Bolton 
• A massage from Heaven Scent Holistics
• A bottle of wine
• Free milkshakes from M1lkshake
• A bouquet of flowers from Octagon Flowers
• A Paperchase recipe folder
• An assortment of books and beauty products
• A nail salon voucher
• Vouchers for the Chinese Buffet, Bolton

The raffle raised over £190, which we were all thrilled with. Thank you to my colleagues and everyone who donated prizes. We were utterly overwhelmed with the response.

Next Events

• Keep your eyes peeled on the Bolton Bulls website, their Facebook page and their Twitter feed.
• Next Thursday (12th April) some friends and I will be joining the Bulls at their quiz night at G Casino, Bolton. Join us!
• We will be holding another event at work, this time a bake sale on 23rd April. Please contact me at dollybakes@gmail.com if you would like to contribute baked goods in return for a bit of promotion!
• They are holding a Body Shop pamper night on 8th May, also at G Casino.
• If you would like to donate, please visit their Just Giving page.