Jamie Archer took up cycling last year and is taking his passion to the MS Melbourne Run + Ride Festival. His inspiration for taking on the 50km ride is a close family friend that’s recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
“I want to make her and my family proud,” says Jamie.
“She was diagnosed with MS 18 months ago. I wanted to do something for her, without telling her I was doing it for her. When she saw my post on Facebook she was blown away by the support.”
Jamie and his business partner Jacob have formed the team Summit Distro – named after their record company – and plan to raise an incredible total of $10,000 to Fight MS.
Jamie thinks outside the box when it comes to fundraising.
“I asked some of our mates to donate prizes and got a raffle going. Next thing I knew, we’ve got 20 prizes donated.”
The raffle prize pack includes multiple records, signed merchandise, drumming equipment and store credits. Jamie is selling tickets at $5 each and has sold over 800 tickets so far… a number that just keeps growing.
“It’s still early days. I’m catching up with one of the bands soon and they’ll share it on their Instagram. With 120,000 followers they’ve got a big reach.”
Jamie encourages our epic fundraisers to reach out wide to your networks when it comes to fundraising.
“Reach out to the friends you have and see who will get on board. It will never hurt. If someone says no, it doesn’t mean 5 other people won’t say yes.
“That’s all we did – some people I didn’t hear back from but then I got 40 people who said yes.”
It goes to show how simply spreading the word about your participation in the MS Melbourne Run + Ride Festival can go a long way.
Jamie plans to draw the raffle on event day and in the lead up will continue to share his fundraising page.
“We’ve still got prizes to announce, and we’ll push it again on social media.”
Inspired by Jamie’s story? Discover more creative fundraising ideas.
