In 2010 Leanne Grubb, a fundraiser from Step by Step, visited my referral group – BNI Guildford – to tell us about the Buy a Brick campaign they were running to fund a new building to house their clients.
Who are their clients? Homeless teens in Surrey (yes, Surrey…). Step by Step offers a place to re-start their lives with not only emergency accommodation, but offers counselling to address their situations and strategic planning to get them into work or further education. Learning to run a household, cook & clean, live with other people and compile a CV are just a few of the essential life skills that Step by Step share with these teens. I was impressed.
I had wanted to get involved in some sort of charity work, and these teens made me curious. I emailed Leanne and asked if a photography workshop was something Step by Step might be interested in. She excitedly explained that the clients had just designed a “Thank You” card and were in the process of seeing that design through to a finished product. I offered to run a photography workshop to illustrate the card and my relationship with the charity took off from there.
The clients brainstormed the images, organised the shoots and we all pieced together the final product which now gets sent to everyone who makes a contribution and it is literally from the clients themselves.
A few weeks after Leanne’s first visit to BNI, she came back.. This time she was asking if anyone would be willing to jump out of a perfectly good plane in exchange for people handing over their money to make it happen. I’m not sure where the daredevil in me came from, but 3 months later found me somewhere in Oxford throwing on a jumpsuit and a funny hat, getting into a plane with about 8 other jumpers and their tandem masters, and being the last one out the door at 13,000 feet.
IT WAS AWESOME – and I raised in excess of £800. Now when any kind of challenge stares me in the face these days I still think “…I jumped out of a XXXXing plane…”
Since then I’ve helped with photographs of the staff, Summer Sleepout fundraisers, and was pleased to see the new building in Crimea Road Aldershot come to life!
Step by Step is 20 years old now and this January they held a masked ball and auction to kick off the celebrations. I covered that event for them – it was a hoot! I am now embarking on another photographic project with the clients to create a library of images to keep their website and publicity refreshed. Then of course there is the small matter of a Royal visit…
On February 28th, 2013 the Countess of Wessex visited the new building for a tour, to chat to the clients and the staff and finally to unveil a memorial plaque. The excitement was tangible and I had the responsibility of capturing the event without tripping, sneezing on anyone, saying the wrong thing or getting forcibly removed by security through ignorance. Of course nothing like that happened! Everything went smoothly and more importantly the clients and staff were thrilled. The photos have been used extensively in the local press and the event – and Step by Step – got some great PR exposure. All good news for the clients and their futures. More to come as the next photographic project gets underway in April!
It’s a great charity – and effective. If you would like to make a donation, I guarantee the money will positively improve a young person’s life.
Ingrid Weel 