Raising money for good causes is a wonderful thing. But sometimes we wonder why so many people choose to pointlessly roll around on their skateboard as a way to do it.
The latest example: for the next two months Laura Hatwell will be skateboarding 700 miles through Scotland to raise money for a charity called Help For Heroes.
After seeing what help for heroes does and the difference they make in people’s lives it’s a no brainer for me. I have to help them.
She hopes to raise £500 for the organization that helps Great Britain’s war wounded. Couldn’t she raise more money if she just got at job?
[Link: BBC]
Hi there,
Glad to see you found my journey interesting enough to put on your site! Perhaps you’d like to read about me and my journey at http://www.northseaskate.co.uk, and see how I’ve passed my fundraising target two times now! Help for Heroes is a very worthy cause, chosen for a very emotional reason – good to see you’re focussing on that.
Given that this site seems to remark on people pushing their limits, I’d like to just remind you that no girl seems to have embarked on anything like this before, that I’m only one person (I raised £25,000 for charity as part of a team of ten out in Australia on another skateboard journey) on an adventure, and that…well, although sometimes I do wonder why I do what I do – I get the answer to this question every time I come down the other side of a hill that no one ever pushed up before. Read the blog if you are in any doubts.
I wish you all the best with your site, and hope that your reportage goes from strength to strength.
Laura
Go Laura, dont let this put you down! Have Fun on your skate!! 😀
Just out of interest how much do the editors here get paid? Id love to be able to simply donate £500 on a whim to some charity but even though I work I simply cant afford it.
If everyone had the same attitude of ‘what’s the point’ then we may as well just forget fundraising altogether, say a big sorry to all those troops, needy children, needy adults, suffering animals or anyone else that needs money (but unlike some cant simply magic it out of a paycheck) and go on with our merry little lives.
But thats just me being pedantic, you do indeed say that fundraising is a good thing but why do so many people pick up a board to do it? Well one because they love riding and two, more importantly, they have raised a lot of money, Laura has gone over her £500 target and is now realistically aiming for £1500 – not bad for pushing a longboard up some hills and to me certainly doesn’t seem that pointless!
What I simply don’t understand is why are people so quick to dismiss anything that brings good to other people’s lives?
Right rant over I’m off pogoing round the Arctic for the next few months…
Ola,
Interesting article indeed! First of all….have you been to Scotland? Have you seen the size of the hills there! If not might I suggest you read Laura’s blog or have a look at her website…they are HUGE and this is defninatly not a challenge for the faint hearted!
As Laura says she is the first girl to try any thing like this, and not only that she was the first woman to skate 100miles in one day! This girl likes to push her self to the limit and what’s the problem with trying to do some good while doing something you love?
Breaking her target amount not once but heading towards twice is testement enough to show the kind of support this lady has! This girl doesn’t just push, she knows her stuff when it comes to boards!
She is indeed a legned! Keep pushing!
This is the most outlandish article i’ve ever seen! The editor must be an uninspired overlycritical nomad searching for things to put down for absolutely no reason.
Please do your research before you publish anything next time.
Thanks “The Editors”!
No doubt, Help The Heroes are now looking forward to receiving your £500 donation from your good employed selves! No?
Few people are lucky enough to have such an amount of disposable income to make large charitable donations out of their own pocket. A sporting event like this not only raises money, but awareness too, creating a much greater rift than “just a single donation”.
I’m a little baffled that this website is seemingly belittling one of the very activities it’s supposedly set out to promote.
But that’s OK, I’ll be more than willing to eat my words upon presentation of evidence that each of “The Editors” personally donates £500 to Help The Heroes (or ANY legitimate cause). It’s OK, I wouldn’t expect you to match the final amount raised by Laura, after all, you’re not made of money, eh?
Laura, you are doing a great a job and raising money for a great charity. I suspect this so called ‘journalist’ has biased views about the so called war on terror like so many in this country. However how wrong we think these wars are and however much cash is being wasted, there are still people out there through no choice of there own doing there jobs and anything and myself I’m proud as hell that we have people that committed to the UK. Go Laura!
PS. If this is a surf, sea and skate site might be nice to see an article or two with some actual content, details and factual data rather than the dribble bias views of the so called editor!
Screw you, you bunch of knob jockeys! What Laura is doing is amazing, she gets to do something she enjoys which is also a challenge physically and mentally, whilst raising money for a charity… even if she only raised 20p thats better than nothing at least she isn’t sitting around on her ass doing bugger all but making a crappy website that criticises people like you losers are! I’d like to see you skate 700 miles on your own in a very cold, very hilly Scotland! Anyway Boardistan is a stupid name and by the looks of it a rather pointless website that is frankly rather boring so who cares what you muppets think anyway!
Also another point which proves you lot have the brain capacity of an armadillo, Heroes is how you spell the plural of Hero… not Heros which is a Greek Hero, A Genus which includes several fish species or a play by Menander… Oh the joy of dictionaries!
She probably could raise more money if she got a job but how many people do you know who donate at least £250 a month of money they earn to charity? If all the people in the world had your attitude then it would be a even shittier place than it is now. People like Laura are spreading hope, happiness and the faith that not everyone is completely selfish, some people like to help others for no reason other than because they can and because they care! I know a lot of people whose lives would be a whole lot worse now if it wasn’t for all the people (like Laura) who are out there raising money in ANY way for the charities that support and guide them through the problems they have.
Go Hatty! Go Hatty! Go Hatty!
That is all!
Laura (not skater face Laura but a different Laura, of the Weeks Variety!)
What is an appropriate way to raise funds? Surely the fact that someone, in this case Laura, one of life’s good souls, has got off her back side to raise funds for a worthy cause should be commended? What do you expect to achieve by knocking what she is doing? Laura is a bigger and better person than ‘the editors’ of this site will ever be.
Go Laura, your are an inspiration to us all!!!
You knobheads should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. Apart from the fact Laura’s raised a shitload of money for a worthwhile charity, this gutsy woman has spread an enormous amount of stoke around and raised the profile of skateboarding in the process. But having disappeared up your own cynical arseholes, you won’t appreciate any of that.
And it would be good if you could actually spell “skateboarding” too…
Don’t really know what to write about the post. Do a little bit of research, spend some time skating, maybe spread some stoke rather than being haters and then do someting useful with your day.
idiots.
disgraceful, this is utter bollocks, how can you say “But sometimes we wonder why so many people choose to pointlessly roll around on their skateboard as a way to do it” when your a skating website.
Skateing is a way of life for some people, something people love to do, i personaly cant go anywhere with out my longboard, it gives me a freedom that walking and cycleing dosent give me!
“She hopes to raise £500 for the organization that helps Great Britain’s war wounded. Couldn’t she raise more money if she just got at job?”
she is raising money for charity and advertising the fact that this charity is out there and that she feels she should support it, she is doing something amazing, and doing AMASING as well!! if you think its the same by putting £500 into the charity out of YOUR own pocket.
you have just dissed ALL skaters, and ALL fundraisers, well done dude that takes skill!
Ha I bet if she was raising money by doing an Olie marathon that would be cool right?
You just don’t like longboards because you yourselves are sub-par skaters who think its about an image more than about having fun skating.
Skating is skating. Talking crap over the internet… bah why bother.
I won’t be coming back.
Thanks
well said paul!
To “The editors” Call yourselves freedom fighters, you wouldnt know FREEDOM if it broke your nose.
Boardistan should die. I’d love to see them get off their obese backsides and try raise half as much money, the only way they’d get close would be “sponsor us to be pricks”. Blimey. Keep skating Laura 🙂
Just read this article and have to say am absolutely digusted! People choose a medium to explore and discover the world, some travel the world surfing, some skating etc…. No doubt she’s seen beutiful things on her journey and made life long friends… oh and made a remarkable amount of money for a well worth cause.
Unfortunately there are people in life who seek out the bitter and negative in things. Its sad to see there are atctually people like this in the world and in this case I’m not quite clear on their reasons… I would however editors like to hear your side of the story… perhaps you can explain why you are so against someone doing something they love and raising money for charity doing it.
As many have also said I wish I could afford to pay £500 to charity from my wages, obviously you guys are on cracking wages.
That said, keep doing what you love, afraid to say though this will be my last visit to this site.
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