Fundraising Heroes

We would like to thank each and every person that supports Essex Wildlife Trust, including all the amazing people that have taken on a fundraising challenge on our behalf. The funds you have raised play such an important role in protecting the future of our Essex Wildlife. This page is to recognise the wonderful achievements of some of our ‘Fundraising Heroes’.

Our heroes: Josie, Cooper and Quinn Hill

The challenge: Josie, Cooper and Quinn are very mindful and passionate about our environment and wildlife, and have taken part in our 30 Days Wild Challenge for the last few years.

This year, they once again committed to carry out a ‘random act of wildness’ every day during the month of June. The children took part in lots of challenges including; camping outdoors, nature rubbings, natural raft building, making bird feeders, planting various seeds and plants, star gazing, watching the sunrise, butterfly and bird spotting, visiting local nature reserves and gardens, monster muddy footprints, funny leaf faces, rock painting, hapa zome, tidied and scattered wild flower seeds in an unloved area, and litter picking at the beach for World Ocean Day – to name but a few!

Josie, Cooper & Quinn collected sponsorship for all their random acts of wildness and raised a fantastic £195!

Our heroes: Hettie Knight and Harry Slade

The challenge: 7-year-old Hettie is passionate about seagrass, and the vital role it plays in reducing climate change. She wanted to raise awareness of the damage to UK seagrass, so arranged a presentation in her school assembly and organised a 2-mile sponsored walk around Two Tree Island. 

Hettie inspired many of her school friends to take part in the walk, and together with her friend Harry collected a phenomenal amount of sponsorship.

Hettie and Harry raised an astounding £800 between them, which will be used to help our work with seagrass in Essex.

Our hero: Clementine Hibbert

The challenge: Inspired by a school assembly about sea life, animal lover Clementine decided she wanted to do something to help her local wildlife. Although relatively new to swimming, she decided to take on a 250m swimming challenge to raise funds.

Feeling excited but understandably a little nervous, Clementine headed to her local pool. Not only did she complete the challenge, she smashed it in a little over 30 minutes! In doing so, she managed to raise a fantastic £120 for Essex Wildlife Trust.

Thank you so much Clementine, you were fab!       

Our heroes: Emily, Emily, Ellie and Connor

What they did: “As a group, we formed Climate Club after we’d had a lesson at school focusing on climate change. We knew we should act on this, so started Climate Club to keep our school informed on how to help protect the planet and nature.

As part of the Queen’s jubilee celebrations, our school had a party and we set up a Climate Club stall to raise money for the Essex Wildlife Trust. We wanted to support their Big Wild Seed Sow to encourage people to plant wildflower seeds to help insects, such as butterflies and bees, to thrive. We created posters to teach people about the importance of insects and sold seed packets and seed bombs, as well as lots of sweet treats, to raise money.

We were very happy to raise £172.20 for the Essex Wildlife Trust”

A huge thank you to the Climate Club for their fundraising, and passion to inspire others

Our hero: Autumn Botha

The challenge: “During our Outdoor Wellbeing Learning and Eco week at school, we had a visit from some beautiful owls. They flew around our school hall and we were able to have them sit on our shoulder for a photo. Afterwards, in our art lesson, we drew the owls using pastels. I asked my mummy if I could sell prints of my picture to raise money for Essex Wildlife Trust. I was very excited that I sold 25 prints! I packaged and posted them all by myself.

I chose Essex Wildlife Trust as I wanted to help wildlife where I live and I have enjoyed some of the charity’s activities before, including a nature event at Walton on the Naze and have followed lots of the trust's advice on how to help wildlife in our garden. I also love watching your live nature cams!”

Autumn raised an outstanding £100 through the sale of her beautiful owl prints. What a star!

Our hero: Chris Davison

The challenge: “I’ve spent a great deal of time cycling, walking and birdwatching at the many Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserves near me. During lockdown, these were of great help to me; giving me somewhere I could go on my own after work when there wasn’t very much to do, and I couldn’t see friends and family.

I decided to take on the Essex Coastal Challenge and cycle 350 miles in August - the length of the Essex coastline - to raise some money so I could give something back to the Trust.”

Chris raised an amazing £383.50, so we want to say a huge well done and thank you!

Our hero: Rosie Steward

The challenge: “Rosie took on the 2.6 Challenge for her Brownies ‘charities’ badge for Essex Wildlife Trust as she has a keen interest in all wildlife and loves spending time at both Abberton Reservoir and Fingringhoe Wick nature reserves.

She had to make a campaign video explaining why wildlife needed help. Rosie then had to choose her challenge and start fundraising. She set her target of cycling 26Km as a family (she actually managed 28Km!) with a short stop at Abberton Reservoir to feed the ducks and geese their porridge oats! We were so proud of her as she’s very shy normally so telling people about this and making little videos along the way was a great way to boost her confidence.”

Rosie smashed her target of £75.00, and raised a fantastic £121.00!

Our hero: Rayne Orton

The challenge: “I took a challenge for my Cub Scout personal fitness challenge to ride 50 miles in a month and to raise money for charity. I chose Essex Wildlife Trust because I care for and love animals.”

Rayne raised a wonderful £214.70 for his Cub Scout challenge. Thanks Rayne, you’re a star!