Yes #8: Boat Show 2014

After having such a success in getting so many donations at the Ski and Snowboard Show, me and Shannon were invited back to help out at the Boat Show in January. This was at ExCel London.

Boats didn't really interest me, but I was more than happy to go and help out to raise awareness of our charity and get donations.

 

At the Ski and Snowboard Show back in October, we met Barbara and Stewart Lees who own a company called Fosy Originals where they create Faux Fur Accessories. They also own some apartments in a place called Zell Am See in Austria. At the show they offered us these apartments to take some children to Zell Am See for a week to learn how to sail on the beautiful lake, therefore, this is what we were promoting and raising money for at the Boat Show. Despite this, our stand was very well presented.

 

 

 

Our stand at this show was right to the side of the hall, in a corner and very out of the way which means not many people were walking past us. Also, people at this show were very different to people at the Ski and Snowboard show and getting donations proved extremely difficult.

 

The show mainly consisted of big pretty boats that were being sold for thousands or even millions. Some of the boats you were also able to go on and walk around so it was fun sitting in the drivers seats pretending they were yours (no matter how sad that is..).

 

 

During the week, on one of the days, James Corden visited to buy a boat. He started off by doing a talk to a crowd of a few hundred visitors before announcing the boat he had bought. Now I love James Corden, a lot! There were several opportunities I could have walked up to him to meet him and get a picture but me being me, I chickened out and I will never forgive myself for that.

 

 

He wasn't the only celebrity we saw in the week. On our way out of the venue during the week, we bumped into Lil Chris from The Only Way Is Essex! He was so so lovely and was really interested in what we were there for. He also said that he would tweet about our charity when he got home and charged his phone, but he never did, though he did retweet my tweet later on.

 

 

In one of the evenings, we took a trip to Canary Wharf for dinner. We walked around the shops for a while before sitting in a small chicken place to have dinner. When we were done, we went back outside and found an ice rink which we had a go on. It was quite big and had a little road track you could follow round a little Christmas and winter scene before joining back onto the main rink, it was actually a lot of fun!

 

                               Shannon, me and Calum, another mentor.

We stayed in the hotel which we stayed in for the Ski and Snowboard Show, which meant we were right next to the Italian restaurant again. My 17th birthday was two days after I had got home from the show, so for our last dinner, Shannon and Ian had organised with the restaurant for a little birthday surprise for me. Once we had finished our dinner, we sat and waited. I was a little bit confused because most nights we went on to have pudding, but this night no one mentioned pudding. After a little while, all the waiters come to our table with a giant tiramisu with candles in and everyone started singing happy birthday. I didn't expect this at all and I almost started crying I was in so much shock. I wasn't too pleased with the tiramisu because I didn't think I liked it, but I tried it and it has become my favourite ever desert, apart from cheesecake..

 

After this, the waiters bought some little lemon shots out to us which I tried. It burnt my throat more than anything and Shannon managed to get quite and amusing picture of me drinking it but unfortunately that picture has gone missing. 

 

As much as the boat show wasn't of much interest to us, we still had a good week and the things we did were really fun!

 

Don't be afraid,

Say Yes!

Yes #7: Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Show 2013

After 3 amazing trips with the Caring Cancer Trust, I was asked by the chairman and hon secretary, Ian, if I would be interested in going to help out at The Telegraph Ski and Snowboard Show in October. Funded by The Telegraph, the Ski and Snowboard Show is held every year in October in Manchester and London and is a big exhibition which promotes top ski brands, resorts, tour operators and more as well as holding talks and shows where visitors can learn more about their hobby.

 

I was honoured to be asked and agreed to go. Shannon was also asked, and also agreed to go. At the show, we stood by the Caring Cancer Trust stall promoting the charity, getting people to fill in a leaflet to win a free ski holiday in Pila, Italy, our next holiday destination and sold raffle tickets where visitors could win a signed painting of Olympic skier Graham Bell painted by Johnny Midnight.

 

The first show was in Manchester held at Event City where we were joined by Alex, the director of the ski school in Pila.

Me, Alex and Shannon on our stand.

 

Our stand was in a really good place. The venue had an ice rink, with real ice, which visitors could skate on for free! All they needed to do was book a place in a time slot, turn up at that time, put some boots on and have fun. This meant we were in one of the main places of show and thousands of people were seeing our stand as they walked by or as they skated and it bought us a lot of donations.

 

As we were right next to the rink, every afternoon when the show started to get quiet, me and Shannon would have half an hour on the ice and by the end of the 4 days, we were pretty good skaters.

 

The show in Manchester lasted 4 days, Thursday through to Sunday. After this, we packed everything up and took a 4 hour drive down to London.

 

When we got to London we met up with Carole, the owner and director of ski company PilaSki. She was staying in a hotel room with Ian and Alex whilst me and Shannon were booked in to stay in a hostel across the road. After me and Shannon were told we were staying in a hostel, we weren't too sure about it after reading reviews but went ahead with it anyway. When we went in there, firstly there were men walking around drunk with their private parts hanging out, secondly the receptionist was the rudest person I have ever met, and thirdly, when we got up to our room, there was a pile of rubbish in the middle of the floor, crumpled up dirty bed sheets and a shower which was green and black and disgusting. Within two minutes of being in the room, we walked out again and were booked into a room in the hotel everyone else was staying in. This hotel was luxury and was just a 5 minute walk from the venue. 

 

After that cofuffle, we dropped off our suitcases and headed for the venue where we picked up our exhibitor passes and headed to set up our stand. We weren't in the best of places this time, but still a place where we could grab lots of visitors. Our stand was also next to Johnny Midnights stand so it was great to meet him and see all of his paintings.

 

At the end of the hall, there was a fake ski slope where people could have beginner lessons and nearby this was the ice rink, but this one was slightly bigger than the one in Manchester.

 

The London show lasted a hole week and during this show, we didn't use the ice rink every day but we did have a few goes on it and we were able to look around the rest of the stalls at the show and see what was on offer.

 

 

The hotel we stayed in was right next to an Italian Restaurant which we ate at every night. They served massive portions, but it was the nicest restaurant I've been to and the staff were so lovely!

 

On the Thursday in London, we had a big reunion where all the children from the previous ski trip and their families came to the show to meet up again. They were able to look around the show and have a go on the ice rink and the ski slope. This was quite fun because my mum and sister were quite jealous that I had been skiing and they hadn't, so it was good to see them have a go on the fake slope.

 

Fake ski slope (left)    My mum ice skating (right)

During the reunion, we all went into a presentation room where each of the children who came on the ski trip were presented with their ski awards. Other awards were also given out such as awards to our camera guys, to our ski instructors and even to me, Shannon and another of our friends Jimmy for being mentors.

 

 

The reunion was really good and it was lovely to see everyone again.

 

The ski show was a really good experience and I loved every minute of helping out! If I got the opportunity again, I would definitely say yes, and also take money with me to actually buy some ski stuff!

 

Don't be afraid,

Say Yes!