My Honkopoly Day

It’s always frustrating when you put so long into the planning of a fundraising event, promoting, recruiting and raising money for a cause, and then as the date approaches you find that you have unpredicted hurdles to jump.

Team Victoria: Scooters, tutus and a collection of hatted professionals! Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

Sightseeing: as Red Ted Art said, a Charity Fundraiser is actually a very typical British site for Tourists. We even photobombed several tourists taking photos whilst on our walk! Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

Honk, honk The Queen! Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

Team Honk and Mounted Police. WIth Scooter whizz and behatted gent 🙂 Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

Where’s Wally gets says hello to a very well-behaved Police horse. Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

The birthday girls and Team Leader Vanessa. Image courtesy of Julia Boggio at www.boggiostudios.com

Like a Tube Strike. Vanessa, Sarah and Sophie spend hundreds of woman-hours planning the Honkopoly route, Vanessa’s Husband produced staggering graphics work- flyers, the graphics we all used, and the most amazing over-sized Monopoly Cards for the staggering number of photo-ops we had across London. And the combination of a 48 hour Tube Strike which paralysed London, together with yet another winter storm, threatened the event.

Yet a staggering 20+bloggers still made it into London, carrying the baton through the heart of the biggest tourist attraction in the UK dressed in all manner of costumes- shop bought, homemade and Sport-Relief-related. We walked, scooted, skipped, pushchaired, Tube-d, train-ed across the 15 mile course before stalwart Swazi finally handed the baton to the Fleet crew.

In all, we have raised over £2500 to date- their target was £500- and TeamHonk London gained the top spot on the Sport-Relief Leaderboard. #teamhonk has been trending on social media for several days. They have raised more than £14000- 75% of their target- and still have several more weeks of relay events to run. It is a phenomenal achievement and is testimony to the determination of bloggers to support each other, to support a cause, and to make the most of the chances that blogging brings them to make a real difference.

With thanks to Joke.co.uk, who generously provided my Where’s Wally costume– barely seen beneath the layers I needed to stay warm in the winter wind and rain, but much loved and commented on when seen!