It’s the final day of our ‘Row like the CLAPAs’ charity challenge!
If you’ve been keeping up to date with our socials, you may have already been following our progress with our 21-day row-a-thon throughout May, in which we’ve been raising money and awareness for CLAPA, the Cleft Lip and Palate Association.
Today is the final day of our challenge, in which we’ll celebrate finally crossing the finish line. We’ve been rowing the equivalent of the Leeds-Liverpool canal – the longest canal in Britain! From the whole team and I, we wanted to say thanks to everyone who’s been supporting us so far – and there’s still time to donate!
CLAPA is a cause close to our hearts
CLAPA – it’s a 20,000 strong community of parents, patients, healthcare professionals and others, all of whom are dedicated to raising awareness of the condition, while providing knowledge, practical support, and a community and a voice to people affected by cleft. Around one in 700 babies are born with a cleft around the world. That means there’s about 1,200 babies born with a cleft each year in the UK, and for many of them it can be a lifelong condition.
CLAPA does fantastic work, and their cause is one that’s personally close to my heart. My beautiful daughter, Summer Betsy, was born with a wide unilateral cleft lip and palate in 2018. So, to help raise awareness and money for CLAPA, we’ve been rowing the length of the Leeds-Liverpool canal, which is 127 miles, over 21 working days on a rowing machine at our Blackburn studio.
Our aim was to complete six miles each day (which I’m proud to say we achieved) and we invited our clients and local businesses to join us along the way. Friday 31st May has been scheduled as our grand finale event, and today we’re throwing a party to celebrate with our sponsors and colleagues.
Now, we’re not exactly seasoned rowers here at 21Digital – but that’s been all part of the challenge! We’ve got a Just Giving page all set up – you can still donate to it here. We’d be honoured if you could give us a hand – it all goes to a truly amazing cause.
Sam Fletcher is 21Digital’s Managing Director, responsible for overseeing all strategic digital marketing, with a personal specialism in PPC (Google AdWords). A keen mountain biker and motoring enthusiast, he has a lifelong dual passion for both business and design, which he now uses to come up with bespoke, creative marketing campaigns.
