Charity Walks

Hello,

Michelle and I both work at a secondary school and are involved in the Ten Tors teams. One of my responsibilities in the team is fundraising so I'm looking at putting out a letterbox walk. I'm going to make the stamps myself and use the walk as a navigation activity for the hopefuls. As I've never done this before, any answers to the following questions would be gratefully received:

1. Roughly how much money do walks generally make? (I'm budgeting £25.00 - £30.00 for making the boxes - how much profit will I get?);

2. Do I need to apply to DNPA or someone to be allowed to site a walk?

3. Are there any other things that I need to be aware of?

Sorry for being slightly vague - any advice people can offer would be very helpful.

Thank you,

Hello,

To deal with these one at a time....

1. Roughly how much money do walks generally make? (I'm budgeting £25.00 - £30.00 for making the boxes - how much profit will I get?);

You could look at around £100 - £200 - your best bet is to sell the walk at the next letterbox meet

2. Do I need to apply to DNPA or someone to be allowed to site a walk?
In a word - Yes

3. Are there any other things that I need to be aware of?

Yes lots...
You will need to site the route and ask DNPA roughly where you can site the walk they change the areas frequently and do try to keep the walk off the tourist tracks... if this is a one day walk only then you can pretty much site it anywhere.
You will need to then site the boxes, and get someone else to do the walk at a later date to see if your clues are correct.
You will also need to take copies of the stamps to give to those who have done the walk and found that they are missing boxes due to the DLT

One further piece of advice, when you site the walk make a 10 figure GPS record of the walk for yourself, use plenty of bearing for the compass and publish the clues with 6 figure references only, this deters the DLT and the use of GPS to find the boxes, as I think GPS sitings are far too easy to do, and allows the DLT to go straight to a box to pinch it.
Compass bearing should be long distance and short distance for those who like the inclement weather
While the walk is out you will need to visit the sites on a reasonably regular basis to check on it. However, if you leave an email address in the visitors book then you can get everyone to report on the walk itself.
Finally set a ternimation date as to when the boxes will be taken in.

Above all - good luck!

In addition to the above, try not to site it in a 'firing range' as a lot of people can only do the walks week-ends and if you site it a range, especially in the Willsowrthy range, they won't be able to do it. My friend sold a charity walk at the meet and made £350 on the day, so if you do it that way you will need to get a move on for the october meet. You also when selling it there, need to print off lots of copies of the clues and also print up a set of the stamps for people to see what they are getting. You also need to be available for the day to sell it. This is probably the best way to get as many people as possible to buy it unless you have a huge email address book of friends. Good luck.

Awesome. Thanks very much for all your advice; I'll get onto it straight away. Hopefully, I'll have evrything sorted for the meet in October.

Thank you,

Had another thought, find an experienced boxer who is willing to help you.

Will I do!!!!! Once you have put the walk out - I would be quite willing to go and check it for you to make sure bearings are all O.K.

PS Nice to meet you out on the moors today - just got back home - Phew what a beautiful hot sunny day.

I am not sure how many walks you would sell if you don't have 5 grid GPS on them. Most people do these walks because they are fairly straight forward to do, I honestly believe that just using bearings will be a huge turnoff. Take us for example we always buy every charity walk at the meet, but wouldn't buy one without the grids, sorry but that's what I think. Many people would disagree with me, but I am willing to bet you won't make as much. Ok there is always the LBT who can go straight to them with full grids, but thats a risk you have to take, it would be worth it.Whatever happens, I hope you do well.

A very interesting point. We don't use GPS so we only go on 6 figure grids and compass bearings. However, every walk we've bought seems to have 10 - 12 figure grids so it will have to be something that we consider having as well. Once again - the advice that I've received so far has been extremely helpful. Thank you very much.

Perhaps to satisfy all parties you could have the walk without grids and also have grids for those that want them or vice versa, I would be happy with that, it will hopefully please all of the people all of the time.

If it would help,I live in Kenton which is not that far from Teignmouth. If need be I could lend you my GPS for the day (very easy to use) so that you could obtain the exact grid ref for each box you put out. You will find my email address on the Memberlist.

teignmouth trampers wrote:Perhaps to satisfy all parties you could have the walk without grids and also have grids for those that want them or vice versa, .

Sorry definately a no no without grids. I helped on a stall selling the mercy Ships walk and believe me you will not sell many with even 6 fig. grids let alone with no grids at all. Most people if they have given money for a walk want 100% success. Not very nice when you have asked people to pay you money then they go out and can't even find the first box. Quite a few also who buy the walks are novices and do the walks to help get those 100 boxes.

Kenton Kestrel wrote:If it would help,I live in Kenton which is not that far from Teignmouth. If need be I could lend you my GPS for the day (very easy to use) so that you could obtain the exact grid ref for each box you put out. You will find my email address on the Memberlist.

That's a very kind offer, but I've already secured the use of a GPS for siting the walk, thank you. I think that I'll have to put full grids on the clues to keep everyone happy. I'm making all the stamps myself (13 of 18 done so far) and, although I've become very attached to them (some of them are like children to me), we'll just have to accept that some of them may be stolen. I'll take copies of all the stamps so that we can provide paper copies for any that go missing.