Yes, it has begun!
My drawing marathon challenge for the Captain Tom 100 Challenge. Over the course of this weekend (Friday 30th April to Monday 3rd May) I plan to complete 100 portraits in 50 hours. That means drawing for 12 to 13 hours a day. I love drawing but that’s still a lot of work for brain and hand. I’ve bought a splint for my right hand – unfortunately brain splints are not available!
Subjects will be coming to sit in person (socially distanced) in my driveway, in person online (via zoom etc) and I will also be doing some portraits from photographs submitted by email. I’ve got more than 100 subjects lined up – just in case someone drops out at the last minute or calls off due to rain.
I’ll be posting the results on my twitter and instagram feeds @DebDaveMason (don’t worry I’ll be taking a break for the Line of Duty finale!)
Why am I doing this crazy thing (ask my dog, my mother and my sister)? It’s for a very worthwhile charity. I work for Magic Me two days a week and it’s more than a job, it’s a brilliant charity doing work that is so vital right now.
What actually is that work you ask? Magic Me specialises in intergenerational arts activity bringing younger and older people together for mutual benefit, learning and enjoyment. Based in Bethnal Green they work with people in Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Essex.
Through 2020/21 all through the various lockdowns, their At Home Together programme reached 350+ people and worked with 19 partners organisations. Magic Me has continued to serve vulnerable isolated individuals, and people living in sheltered housing and care homes, they have managed to keep school pupils and older people connected, through remote activities.
The pandemic has exacerbated issues which already impacted older east Londoners: social isolation, overstretched care system, racial injustice, digital poverty. The latter two of these also affect many of the school children the charity works with and they have also been impacted by isolation and loneliness when school lockdowns mean they can’t meet up with their friends.
Magic Me receives no core funding from central Government. Every penny of staff salaries, overheads like rent and utilities, online services such as zoom etc, have to be fundraised from scratch year on year. Each project is funded separately and can only go ahead when budgets are met. The pandemic has brought additional challenges not just to delivering the kind of work Magic Me does, but also to raising the funds to do it.
Please do make a donation to my fundraising page here and help Magic Me do more of its wonderful work.
If you would like to find out more about Magic Me you can:
Visit the website www.magiceme.co.uk
Sign up for the monthly newsletter
Follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
If you have other ideas about how you can support the charity contact me there at deborahmason@magicme.co.uk
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