This May, heaps of excellent people upped their game with a goal of raising funds to reduce youth suicide as part of our campaign, Up Your Game. They stepped up to some challenging goals, learnt a fair bit about themselves along the way and raised an incredible amount of funds to support our work.
Erin, a ReachOut Youth Ambassador, gave up her laptop for a month – no Netflix, Facebook or procrastinating – to show her support for ReachOut. Erin says the toughest thing about her challenge was finding other ways to relax, but it gave her time to detox and spend time on other passions.
‘I am kinda addicted to Netflix and streaming TV shows, so I ended up reading a lot more books than usual. I also finally got round to writing an extremely long blog post about my anxiety that I had been wanting to do but always made excuses for.’
Erin found support beyond her friends when her local radio station called her up to hear about her challenge.
‘They were doing a segment about what would make you give up wifi for a month, and I texted in that I was currently on a laptop ban to raise funds for ReachOut. I got to tell them what made me give up my laptop and why.’
Erin’s blog and regular Facebook posts about giving up her laptop also drove her friends and community to support her campaign.
‘I worked it into blog posts and would post the link on Facebook (along with why I was doing it, and some facts about mental health) every few days. I had a few people tell me that they were encouraged to donate after they realised how much ReachOut meant to me.’
Kim, ReachOut’s Major Donor Manager, upped her walking game with a commitment to walk to work every single day for a month – and to top it off, she gave up coffee too. While smelling the aroma of coffee and not being able to drink it was her biggest challenge, she says the fabulous walk home across Sydney’s Pyrmont Bridge in the evening twilight was a plus.
Kim's challenge involved heavy Facebook promotion – even a Facebook Live broadcast – and netted her the most funds raised of all Up Your Game participants: $2547.
‘I always posted a thank you on Facebook each time someone sponsored me. This acted as a prompt for others to remember to sponsor me!’
Chris heard about Up Your Game through his partner, and thought it was a good opportunity to focus on his physical health for a month. He committed to going to the gym ten times more than his monthly average and not drinking for the entire month of May.
‘Changing habits is always tough, but the toughest thing about giving up drinking is realising how many social events revolve around drinking.’
Chris says he enjoyed getting on top of exercising and trying new ways of socialising without drinking, and he was delighted by the support he received from his community. ‘It was also great to see a high level of support for organisations working to address youth suicide.
‘Up Your Game is a great excuse to develop habits in areas that you've been wanting to get on top of, and making the goals public is a great motivator – plus you get to raise money for a great cause!’
Thanks to our excellent fundraisers for spreading the word and raising funds for ReachOut. Props to you all for upping your game and beating your goals. Keep an ear out for Up Your Game in May 2017.
Erin, a ReachOut Youth Ambassador, gave up her laptop for a month – no Netflix, Facebook or procrastinating – to show her support for ReachOut. Erin says the toughest thing about her challenge was finding other ways to relax, but it gave her time to detox and spend time on other passions.
‘I am kinda addicted to Netflix and streaming TV shows, so I ended up reading a lot more books than usual. I also finally got round to writing an extremely long blog post about my anxiety that I had been wanting to do but always made excuses for.’
Erin found support beyond her friends when her local radio station called her up to hear about her challenge.
‘They were doing a segment about what would make you give up wifi for a month, and I texted in that I was currently on a laptop ban to raise funds for ReachOut. I got to tell them what made me give up my laptop and why.’
Erin’s blog and regular Facebook posts about giving up her laptop also drove her friends and community to support her campaign.
‘I worked it into blog posts and would post the link on Facebook (along with why I was doing it, and some facts about mental health) every few days. I had a few people tell me that they were encouraged to donate after they realised how much ReachOut meant to me.’
Kim, ReachOut’s Major Donor Manager, upped her walking game with a commitment to walk to work every single day for a month – and to top it off, she gave up coffee too. While smelling the aroma of coffee and not being able to drink it was her biggest challenge, she says the fabulous walk home across Sydney’s Pyrmont Bridge in the evening twilight was a plus.
Kim's challenge involved heavy Facebook promotion – even a Facebook Live broadcast – and netted her the most funds raised of all Up Your Game participants: $2547.
‘I always posted a thank you on Facebook each time someone sponsored me. This acted as a prompt for others to remember to sponsor me!’
Chris heard about Up Your Game through his partner, and thought it was a good opportunity to focus on his physical health for a month. He committed to going to the gym ten times more than his monthly average and not drinking for the entire month of May.
‘Changing habits is always tough, but the toughest thing about giving up drinking is realising how many social events revolve around drinking.’
Chris says he enjoyed getting on top of exercising and trying new ways of socialising without drinking, and he was delighted by the support he received from his community. ‘It was also great to see a high level of support for organisations working to address youth suicide.
‘Up Your Game is a great excuse to develop habits in areas that you've been wanting to get on top of, and making the goals public is a great motivator – plus you get to raise money for a great cause!’
Thanks to our excellent fundraisers for spreading the word and raising funds for ReachOut. Props to you all for upping your game and beating your goals. Keep an ear out for Up Your Game in May 2017.
