It’s just over a week since Byte Night and I wanted, before anything else, to say thank you to those who sponsored me. I should have written this post before now because I wanted to include a link to it in a few emails – which I’ve yet to send. Bad me.
There are a couple of things I wanted to say about the whole experience. Before now you’ll have heard me talk about the work Action for Children makes possible and good folks such as Eleanor, Paul and Fiona – to name but three – who run things. This year I’ve been closer than ever to their work and know more than ever that it’s efficient and effective – which is important if you’re donating money.
When I wrote my Sofa surfing – how a charity challenged a definition blog post almost six months ago I didn’t realise that a good friend of mine, from his work in the public sector, knows that expression in its most common interpretation, in the sense of people who don’t have somewhere permanent to sleep.
So just after Byte Night I heard more accounts about the type of young people Bye Night helps. That made it feel more worthwhile, if that’s the right expression.
Secondly, while it pissed down with rain on Friday 5 October, to use the technical expression, it wasn’t that bad. I don’t think you can recreate homelessness and have never considered that the point of the night.
And last, something happened that I experienced a few years back. Partly because of the weather I decided to get the first tube home. Standing around looking muddy, scruffy and sleep-deprived a few people moved away from me on the platform and then in the train carriage.
When it happened five years back I wasn’t sure what was going on. This time I knew – they didn’t want to be next to the homeless guy.
I put together a timeline (a storify) of Byte Night 2012 here.
Here’s my sponsorship page, with some more fundraising to come. Though this is pretty much it for my Byte Night …until next year.
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Posted on October 14, 2012
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