Six Reasons Why We Love Giving Tuesday

Lockdown life has got us all peering at our calendars, never quite certain what day it is. This week it’s Giving Tuesday – but don’t worry, we haven’t all sleepwalked into winter…

Usually December’s antidote to Black Friday’s spendy excess, Giving Tuesday is making a special guest appearance on 5 May.

It’s a day to recognise and celebrate the generosity and compassion growing through the coronavirus crisis – and you can get involved too. Read on to get inspired:

1. The humanitarians

First a reminder of why we all do it: right now, humanitarians are delivering ShelterBox aid around the world. This includes our partners from IEDA Relief (Cameroon), the International Organisation for Migration (Ethiopia), ACTED (Nigeria), ActionAid (Somaliland), HELP (Burkina Faso), ReliefAid and Bahar Organisation (Syria).

They’re working on the frontline in places where coronavirus could be more devastating than anything we have seen so far. They’re dedicated, selfless, and endlessly adaptable, finding the best ways to keep themselves and the communities they serve safe.

Get the latest on how we’re responding to coronavirus here.

ReliefAid workers take care to protect themselves and the communities they’re supporting with shelter

2. Veg box… or ShelterBox?

A big shout-out to one new supporter, who mis-dialled us while trying to reach her veg box company.

Instead of checking the status of her lettuces, she heard all about ShelterBox and decided to donate anyway. A wonderful gesture, which we’re sure made that salad taste all the sweeter.

One kind caller’s misdial almost converted a veg box into a ShelterBox

3. LEJOG-on

Meg and Alice are walking from Lands End to John O’Groats. The route may be virtual, but the exercise is very real. Using a challenge app to record their daily wanders near home, they’ve already covered 280 miles of their 1084-mile hike.

‘We both love walking, but in lockdown we can’t visit the mountains in nearby Snowdonia,’ they say. ‘Our challenge will help us keep fit locally and support families who lack even basic facilities to help them through the coronavirus outbreak.’

Meg and Alice have been sending virtual postcards from their virtual hike

4. Box-packing for the NHS

There’s been a surge in volunteering during this crisis, especially as we try to stay busy and help communities during furlough. And when it comes to putting great stuff in boxes, we’ve got it covered.

At our former warehouse, ShelterBox volunteers helped Volunteer Cornwall and the NHS on a box-packing mission with a difference.

Martin explains: ‘We packed special boxes with care and hygiene items to help keep people comfortable at the end of their lives. They’ll be delivered to hospitals and doctors’ surgeries across Cornwall, and will help many who may be spending their last days at home.’

Martin works with other volunteers to pack end of life care boxes

5. An un-London Marathon

On 26 April, Alex should have been pounding the pavements of the Big Smoke, running the 26.2 with a ShelterBox on his back. Alex has been training through an outrageously rainy winter – even by Cornwall’s standards – including a flooded Eden Project Marathon, where he had to stop to empty the pile of gravel washed into his trainers.

With the London Marathon postponed, Alex took to his local beach to run instead (more grit in the shoes, we imagine), and his children Barnaby and Harriet made some spectacular London landmarks for a heroic finish line. He’s raised over £1,800 so far.

6. Birthday gifts

We don’t know about you, birthdays seem to fall a little flat in lockdown. But what if you could convert yours into an entire shelter? Lydia created a ShelterBox fundraiser for her special day, to bring friends and family together.

She says: ‘I hoped we could share some love and support across the world in this trying time. We raised £64 through various small donations. That’s enough for a shelter kit, and I couldn’t be happier.’